Homily

Doesn’t it seem strange that Jesus asks the woman, almost out of the blue—no, completely out of the blue—to go and call her husband? It doesn’t really seem connected to anything. What difference would it make if her husband was there? And to tell you the truth maybe the husband would come and beat Jesus up for talking to his wife in the first place, because in that culture it was absolutely not allowed. So why would Jesus want her to get her husband? Have you ever thought about that?

I think there are two reasons that Jesus asked this. First, when He told her, in response to her statement, that He knew she had no husband and that she had already been married five times and was currently shacking up with some guy. I believe this was done to surprise her and show her that He had supernatural knowledge about her. I think Jesus used this to open her up to what He was saying to her.

But secondly, and more importantly, I think Jesus wanted to identify her biggest problem. Her biggest problem was the God-shaped hole in her heart, and in her soul. It is the space that can only be filled with the love and knowledge and grace of God. Nothing else will fit in that hole but the presence of the Lord of Life. Now the God-shaped hole in her heart was not completely empty; she believed in God as a Samaritan woman. But it was far from being completely full. The remaining empty space creates problems for people because they are thirsty for something to fill it, as Jesus knew very well. This woman was trying to fill that hole with her husbands. But it didn’t work. Not even five times—it didn’t work. She didn’t even bother to marry number six, because she knew it wouldn’t work. But she kept to her pattern anyways, because that was all she knew how to do. And certainly her neighbors would have considered her to be an immoral woman, because, unlike today, living with a man you were not married to was scandalous. But she did it anyway. Because that was all she knew how to do to fix the problem of the empty space in her heart, to fix her thirsty need for the grace of God. The source of living water came to her at the well and she drank of it. That water pulled her out of her sad condition and turned her into an evangelist for the people of her village. Just as she left her water jar at the well, so too she left her old life behind because Jesus had fulfilled, Jesus had filled, the empty spot she had carried in her life for so many years. And she wants to share this gift with all her neighbors! “Come and see the man who told me all I have done.” She is no longer a slut but an evangelist. So it seems Jesus revealed that He knew more about her than just the number of men she had been with. St John limits those details.

The God-shaped hole in her heart had been greatly filled with living water in the presence of Jesus, and she wanted more. And not only her, but her neighbors as well. They begged Him to stay and Jesus stayed for two days, and they also became believers.

We all have the same problem as the Samaritan woman. We all have that God-shaped hole, the empty space in our lives that only He can fill. For each one of us the size of that empty space is different—it may be larger or smaller, but it is surely there. That empty space is what can make us nervous, hopeless, frustrated, tense, restless, unhappy, dissatisfied, weary and tired, afraid and fearful, sad and depressed, lonely and feeling unloved. Those are just some of the negative results we might experience because we are thirsty for God, because we are not full with the divine life. We may try to fill it with food or with drinking. We may try to fill it with pornography or sex. We may try to fill it with drugs, or with shopping, or with entertainment, or sports, or by our own work, or through hobbies. We may try to fill that empty space using our spouses, or our children, or other people. Any or all of the above, and in many other ways as well, we are likely using people and things to try and fill the void, the empty spot, to quench our thirst. Even though it’s not working, even though we see it doesn’t help, and in fact makes our lives even worse, we may still keep at it anyhow, because we seem set on the idea that we can fix what cannot be fixed by us. Maybe we haven’t been married five times, like the Samaritan, but if we thought it would work, we would give it a shot, I believe. It is easy to see what others do, but not ourselves, and even blame God.

There are troubles, hardships and difficulties in our lives just because we are human beings living in this world. Jesus experienced those troubles, hardships and problems, even though He was completely united with His Father. But for the rest, for the rest, for the rest—it is so very important that we see and understand that our anger, frustration, unhappiness, temptations to despair, our restlessness is not just due to earthly cares, but because we are not willing to keep coming back to the source of Living Water and drinking. We are set in our ways, we are afraid to surrender, we are doubtful it will help, we think we can fix ourselves, and to be honest I think sometimes we are just lazy and we may be ungrateful to Christ because all we see is what we want and we do not have, instead of realizing that He is all we could ever want to have and living in that truth. We are weak. We are sinners. I am weak. I am a sinner. Let’s come to Him today and allow Him to quench our thirsty souls, as the tropar says, so that we may be glad.