If Jesus were a salesperson...

3RD SUNDAY OF LENT

[ John 4: 5-42 ]

   Our encounter and experience with salespersons.

All of us have had a common encounter and similar experience: salespersons. Not to belittle them: salespersons have a job to do, a target to hit, a living to earn… but when they go too far and too extreme, it can be incredibly frustrating and annoying.

Salespersons are physically everywhere: they confront us in the streets, marketplaces, malls, public areas… They are also virtually everywhere: they appear on television, radios, billboards, outdoor digital screens, cyberspaces and all forms of social media… They pop up in our text messages and emails… They call us or even turn up unexpectedly at our doorsteps…

Salespersons are importune and importunate: they will always find ways and means to get to us and to convince us of their products and services.

No offence but sometimes – or most of the time – salespersons can be a nuisance, inconvenience and annoyance.

   The Samaritan woman’s encounter and experience of Jesus.

On the 3rd Sunday of Lent, we hear of the beautiful and profound Gospel narration of our Lord Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

The Samaritan woman went to draw water from the well at the sixth hour (12 noon), the hottest part of the day. Samaria was an ancient desert town in the modern-day central Palestine (Middle East). No one in the right mind would go to draw water at 12 noon. But for this Samaritan woman, a public sinner, she chose to go at such odd hours, to avoid the gossiping crowds.

That afternoon, the Samaritan woman went to the well as usual, but there was already someone there, a Jewish man. Jews and Samaritans were fierce and long-standing enemies: the Jews hated the Samaritans so much that they regarded the Samaritans as ‘dogs’ and ‘half-breeds’.

When we see a salesperson, we will try to avoid eye-contact, and hope the salesperson will leave us alone; that must be how the Samaritan woman would have felt. She must have been hoping that the Jewish man would just sit there not noticing her, and she would just draw water from the well without drawing attention to herself and then she would slip away quietly.

Yet to the Samaritan woman’s dismay, Jesus opened His mouth and asked her for a drink [Cf. Jn 4: 7]. It was bizarre and unimaginable because Jews did not associate with Samaritans. And furthermore, during the time of Jesus, women were conveniently ignored, largely excluded and culturally discriminated.

   Feeling doubtful, suspicious and alarmed, she asked [Jn 4: 9], “What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan for a drink?”

   Like a good salesperson, Jesus replied [Jn 4: 10], “If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you: give Me a drink, you would have been the one to ask, and He would have given you the living water.”

   Still feeling doubtful and suspicious, the Samaritan woman asked [Jn 4: 11-12], “You have no bucket, sir, and the well is deep: how could you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well…?”

   Jesus replied [Jn 4: 14], “… anyone who drinks the water that I give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.”

   A stranger – a strange Jewish salesman from another town – offering ‘living water’ sounded more like a hoax or a scam. Undecided, unsure and uncertain, the Samaritan woman said [Jn 4: 15], “Sir, give me some of that (living) water…” Perhaps, she was challenging Jesus to ‘show her what he got’.

   Jesus knew her thoughts and her heart, and therefore to convince her of His power and His promise, He ‘exposed’ her life [cf. Jn 4: 16-18]: she had five husbands, and she was living with another man. At the end of the conversation, Jesus revealed to the Samaritan woman [Jn 4: 26], “I who am speaking to you: I AM HE (the Messiah, the Christ who is coming).”

   The woman put down her water jar (representing her breaking free from her sinful cycle of life) and hurried back to her town and announcing to the people [Jn 4: 29], “Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did; I wonder if he is the Christ?” And many Samaritans who came to listen to Jesus, believed in Him [Jn 4: 42], “Now we no longer believe because of what you have told us; we have heard Him ourselves and we know that He really is the SAVIOUR of the world.”

   Jesus is the ‘salesperson’ par excellence.

If Jesus were a salesperson, He would be the ‘salesperson’ par excellence.

• Despite the wait, Jesus is PATIENT, and He always MAKES HIMSELF AVAILABLE. He WAITS FOR US in the ordinariness and mundaneness of our daily life. He is always HERE WITH US and WITHIN OUR REACH at all times, at all places and in all circumstances: we only need to open our eyes to see Him, open our ears to listen to Him, open our minds to know Him, open our hearts to believe in Him, and open our arms to receive Him.

• Despite our ignorance and doubts, Jesus offers the LIGHT OF FAITH and GUIDES US ALONG THE RIGHT PATH, if we would listen to Him, and allow Him to work with us and within us.

• Despite our hostility, Jesus is GENTLE yet FIRM. He knows our sinfulness, brokenness and wretchedness. He loves sinners yet is uncompromising on sins. He does not condemn us, but He disciplines and corrects us. HE LOVES US, and He wants us to break free from our sinful cycles, inordinate attachments and harmful addictions.

• Despite being turned down or rejected, Jesus continues to be FAITHFUL and He does not leave us to face our own perils alone.

   Jesus Himself is the Living Water, our Messiah and the Saviour of the world.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI beautifully explains that, “This year, on this Third Sunday of Lent, the liturgy again presents one of the most beautiful and profound passages of the Bible: the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. The Samaritan woman represents the existential dissatisfaction of one who does not find what he seeks. She had ‘five husbands’ and now she lives with another man; her going to and from the well to draw water expresses a repetitive and resigned life. However, everything changes for her that day, thanks to the conversation with the Lord Jesus. Like the Samaritan woman, let us also open our hearts to listen trustingly to God’s Word in order to encounter Jesus who reveals His love to us and tells us, ‘I who speak to you am He’, the Messiah, your Saviour.”

If Jesus were a salesperson, HIS PRODUCT WOULD BE HIMSELF: He is offering Himself to us. 

• He is the LIVING WATER who quenches all our existential thirsts.

• He is the same Living Water who will turn into a LIVING SPRING inside us, welling up to eternal life.

• He is our MESSIAH, and He is the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD!

Like the Samaritan woman, let us break free from our sinful cycles, inordinate attachments and harmful addictions. Like her, let us share Jesus the Living Water with others that others too may be saved by Him.

Let our fervent prayer be:

   “O Jesus, the Living Water, help me break free from my sinful cycle. Come, quench my existential thirst, and be a Living Spring within me.”

Let us also pray that God’s justice, peace, truth and love may prevail in Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Nicaragua.