[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during January 2021]
In a recent reflection we looked at the report of the conversation that Jesus had at a well outside the Samaritan village of Sychar. The account focuses on the change in the woman as she talks with Jesus, and the reaction of her fellow villagers. However, there is a footnote to that story that is liable to be overlooked. John 4 v40 tells us that the villagers urged him to stay with them for a further two days.
Were the disciples happy with this breach of protocol, consorting with the despised foreigners? We are not told but we can be sure that if the Jewish leaders had known they would have had apoplexy. They were offended when they saw Jesus dining with tax-collectors and sinners; to stay in a Samaritan village would render them speechless!
Do we harbour any secret thoughts about who Jesus should be seen with? Are there situations into which we are content to let Jesus go, just so long as he doesn’t expect us to accompany him?
The outcome of this sojourn in Sychar is that “many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony”. Did they all live happily ever-after? As a community of new believers they would have a lot to learn; new ways of interacting with each other, new ways of worship. Like new believers today, they would not have become mature disciples immediately but we can be confident that the Holy Spirit would have started to work amongst them.
The change in the village would not have gone unnoticed in the surrounding area so did Sychar become the hub of a new evangelistic outreach? Certain Eastern Orthodox traditions maintain that the woman herself was baptised and took the name Photini, meaning ‘enlightened’. It is suggested that she became a successful gospel preacher and was later martyred for her faith.
In the Biblical book of Acts the narrative returns to Samaria:
Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said … they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women.
[Acts 8 v5-6, 12]
Later we see that Peter and John went to Samaria, to teach the new believers and to preach in many Samaritan villages. Is it too far-fetched to suggest that the positive reception that Philip, Peter and John received was, at least in part, due to the previous witness of a woman from Sychar?
It all began with a simple request for a drink of water. Do you know someone who is thirsty?
‘Woman at the Well’, Carl Heinrich Bloch c1872, Public Domain.
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Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © the Author
