Trysting Place

John will be the dominant evangelist for Lent from hereon in.

Today the Woman at the Well, then the Healing of the Blind Man, followed by the Raising of Lazarus. The Holy Thursday Gospel features John. Good Friday always rolls out John.

On route from Judea to Galilee Jesus ‘had to pass’ through Samaria – a common phrase in John, indicating Jesus’ faithfulness to the Father and the Father’s will.

We should not underestimate, for a minute, John’s alertness to Jesus’ humanity:

Jesus, tired by the journey, sat down there at Jacob’s well. It was about noon (John 4:6).

What a wonderful thing it is to feel tiredness, don’t you think, especially if you have been doing God’s work?

Take notice of the well.

It’s a trysting place – a rendezvous for lovers:

Isaac’s servant met Rebecca at a well.

Jacob met Rachael at a well.

Moses met Zipporah at a well.

The unnamed woman meets Jesus at a well.

Take notice of her journey of faith.

She calls Jesus sir, then prophet, then messiah.

Yes, with our chequered backgrounds, our reluctance, our dullness of spirit, it takes time to fall in love with Jesus.

But it does happen.

Amen.