Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” 17 The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ 18 For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”
Jesus’ unusual one-on-one interaction with the Samaritan woman turned personal when he asked her to call her husband. Her response, while literally true, masked her current sinful relationship. From the Jewish perspective, she was religiously impure, she was a Samaritan, and she was in a sinful relationship. She was an outsider from their perspective, the kind of person Jesus was often willing to engage with and who readily believed in him (Lk. 19:1-10; Mk. 1:40-45). The woman implicitly acknowledged the truth of what Jesus told her about her life by declaring him to be a prophet.
The woman then made a dismissive statement about where her ancestors worshipped as opposed to where “you people” worshipped. The Samaritans erected a temple on Mount Gerizim in the 4th century BC to rival Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Jesus told the woman that the Samaritans would soon not worship the Father on ethnically defined holy places like Mt. Gerizim or Mt. Zion. The Samaritans worship what they do not understand (because they misinterpret the Pentateuch), but God’s plan of salvation was revealed to the Jews through the Law and Prophets.
Although the Jews are the ones through whom God revealed himself, they do not have priority. The time has come for true worshippers to worship the Father, who is Spirit, in an interior manner, in the Spirit given by God that reveals the truth. The Father searches for true worshippers to give them the fullness of revelation in the light of Christ. Jesus, the revelation of God, is the Truth. The Samaritans were aware from the Pentateuch that the Messiah was to come, and Jesus revealed that he was the anointed one of God when he said “I am he.” When Moses asked God his name God replied, “I am who I am (Ex. 3:14).” Jesus could reveal to the Samaritan woman that he was the Messiah because there was little threat of opposition and she believed him to be a prophet.
Lord Jesus, you are near to all who call upon you in Spirit and truth. Give us your living water, so that we may never thirst. Listen to our prayers and grant us the grace to always love and praise your holy name. Amen!
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
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