Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, March 23, 2014
Jesus and the woman at the well. Ancient mosaic at Ravenna, Italy.
This week’s readings focus our thoughts on water and food … and a bit of gratitude. We hunger and thirst for sustenance, and we hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice. When we face basic needs of hunger and thirst, though, it’s all too easy to forget to be grateful for past blessings. In the previous chapter of Exodus, God provided manna for the hungry people. Now they are angry because they have no water, complaining that they were better off in slavery in Egypt than dying in the desert. Moses is about out of patience with them, but God provides.
Psalm: Psalm 95
Today’s Psalm begins with a surprisingly joyous tone for the penitential weeks of Lent, but the joyful noise of praise for God changes key abruptly in Verse 8 when the Psalmist reminds us of the story we heard in today’s Exodus reading. The thirsty, angry people turned their hearts from God and put God to the test; the Psalmist imagines that these actions drove God to “loathe” these ungrateful people and leave them lost 40 years in the desert. We might prefer to envision a more loving and forgiving God, but the Psalmist’s opinion is clear.
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-11
Even though we are sinners, we are justified through faith and saved through Jesus’s death on the cross, Paul writes to the people of Rome. But, in language that hints at the modern notion, “no pain, no gain,” he suggests that just as Jesus suffered and died, we mustn’t expect an easy road as we hunger and thirst for God’s grace.
Gospel: John 4:5-42
Jesus, like the people in the desert, was tired and thirsty after a long journey. He struck up a conversation with a Samaritan woman, asking her for a drink. These actions surprised her, as Jewish men of the era weren’t likely to engage with women or Samaritans. Then his conversation surprised her even more, as he promised her the unending “living water” of God’s spirit, foretold an end to the differences between their people, and declared himself the Messiah.