Scripture Study for
Third Sunday of Lent
Exodus 17:3–7 / Psalm 95:8 / Romans 5:1–2, 5–8 / John 4:5–42 or 4:5–15, 19b–26, 39a, 40–42
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Understanding the Word
By Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.
The murmuring of the people in the wilderness lays bare their resistance to the leadership of Moses, and the shallowness of their trust in God. Still, just as God delivered the people from the bondage of Egypt through the leadership of Moses, so now, again through the actions of Moses, God gives them the water they demand. One wonders how a people who were the beneficiaries of God’s abiding concern and miraculous protection could be so faithless and lacking in trust. After all that God has done, they still put God to the test. This is but another example of God’s boundless and compassionate love for sinners.
Paul’s teaching on justification is quite clear. It is based on the righteousness that originates in God, a righteousness that gives and sustains life, security, and well being. Human beings are righteous when they respect and enhance that life, security, and well being. They can only do this if they are in right relationship with God and, through this relationship, share in God’s righteousness. According to Paul, we have no right to this relationship with God. It has been given to us, won for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, we have never deserved it. Yet, out of love, God gives it to us.
Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for water when in fact he is the one who will give her “living water.” His knowledge of her marital situation prompts her to call him a prophet and to engage him in a discussion about the proper place to worship God. Jesus moves this conversation from a discussion of the place of worship to one that characterizes the manner of worship. Jesus’ discussion with the woman is curious. She is a questionable member (a sinner) of a subordinate group (a woman) of a despised people (a Samaritan). Yet she is the one whom Jesus approaches; she is the one to whom he reveals himself as Messiah; and she is the one who heralds this good news to the people in the town.