In saying, God is spirit, he means that God is incorporeal: “A spirit does not have flesh and bones” (Lk 24:39); and also that he is a life-giver, because our entire life is from God, as its creative source. God is also truth: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (below 14:6). Therefore, we should worship him in spirit and in truth.
616 When he says, The woman said to him, he mentions the one who gives the gift; and this corresponds to what our Lord said before, If you knew the gift of God, and realized who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you perhaps would have asked him. First, we have the woman’s profession. Secondly, the teaching of Christ (v 26). As to the first, he does two things. First, the woman professes her faith in the Christ to come. Secondly, in the fulness of his teaching, he will tell us everything.
617 The woman, wearied by the profound nature of what Christ was saying, was confused and unable to understand all this. She says: I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called Christ. As if to say: I do not understand what you are saying, but a time will come when the Messiah will arrive, and then we will understand all these things. For “Messiah” in Hebrew means the same as “Anointed One” in Latin, and “Christ” in Greek. She knew that the Messiah was coming because she had been taught by the books of Moses, which foretell the coming of Christ: “The scepter will not be taken away from Judah... until he who is to be sent comes” (Gn 49:10). As Augustine says, this is the first time the woman mentions the name “Christ”: and we see by this that she is now beginning to return to her lawful husband.
618 When this Messiah comes, he will give us a complete teaching. Hence she says, when he comes he will tell us everything. This was foretold by Moses: “I will raise up a prophet for them, from among their own brothers, like them; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them all I command him” (Dt 18:18). Because this woman had now called her husband, i.e., intellect and reason, the Lord now offers her the water of spiritual teaching by revealing himself to her in a most excellent way.
619 And so Jesus says: I who speak to you am he, i.e., I am the Christ: “Wisdom goes to meet those who desire her, so she may first reveal herself to them” (Wis 6:14), and below (14:21): “I will love him, and reveal myself to him.”
Our Lord did not reveal himself to this woman at once because it might have seemed to her that he was speaking out of vainglory. But now, having brought her step by step to a knowledge of himself, Christ revealed himself at the appropriate time: “Words appropriately spoken are like apples of gold on beds of silver” (Prv 25:11). In contrast, when he was asked by the Pharisees whether he was the Christ, “If you are the Christ, tell us clearly” (below 10:24), he did not reveal himself to them clearly, because they did not ask to learn but to test him. But this woman is speaking in all simplicity.
LECTURE 3
27 His disciples, returning at this point, were amazed that Jesus was speaking with a woman. But no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking to her?” 28 The woman then left her water jar and went off to the town. And she said to the people: 29 “Come, and see the man who told me everything that I have done. Could he not be the Christ?” 30 At that they set out from the town to meet him. 31 Meanwhile, his disciples asked him saying, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
33 At this the disciples said to one another, “Do you suppose that someone has brought him something to eat?”
620 After presenting the teaching on spiritual water, the Evangelist now deals with the effect of this teaching. First, he sets down the effect itself. Secondly, he elaborates on it (v 3 1). The effect of this teaching is its fruit for those who believe. And first we have its fruit which relates to the disciples, who were surprised at Christ’s conduct. Secondly, its fruit in relation to the woman, who proclaimed Christ’s power (v 28).
621 We are told three things about the disciples. First, their return to Christ: he says, His disciples, returning at this point. As Chrysostorn reminds us, it was very convenient that the disciples returned after Christ had revealed himself to the woman, since this shows us that all events are regulated by divine providence: “He made the small and the great, and takes care for all alike” (Wis 6:8); “There is a time and fitness for everything” (Ecc 8:6).
622 Secondly, we see their surprise at what Christ was doing; he says, they were amazed that Jesus was speaking with a woman. They were amazed at what was good; and as Augustine says, they did not suspect any evil. They were amazed at two things. First, at the extraordinary gentleness and humility of Christ: for the Lord of the world stooped to speak with a poor woman, and for a long time, giving us an example of humility: “Be friendly to the poor” (Sir 4:7). Secondly, they were amazed that he was speaking with a Samaritan and a foreigner, for they did not know the mystery by which this woman was a symbol of the Church of the Gentiles; and Christ sought the Gentiles, for he came “to seek and to save what was lost” (Lk 19:10).
623 Thirdly, we see the disciples’ reverence for Christ, shown by their silence. For we show our reverence for God when we do not presume to discuss his affairs: “It is to the glory of God to conceal things; and to the glory of kings to search things out” (Prv 25:2). So the Evangelist says that although his disciples were surprised, none of them said, What do you want? or asked him, Why are you talking to her? “Listen in silence” (Sir 32:9). Yet the disciples had been so trained to observe order, because of their reverence and filial fear toward Christ, that now and then they would question him about matters that concerned themselves, i.e., when Christ said things relating to them, but which were beyond their understanding: “Young men, speak if you have to” (Sir 3 2:10). At other times they did not question him; in those matters that were not their business, as here.
624 Then (v 28), we have the fruit which relates to the woman; by what she said to her people, she was taking on the role of an apostle. From what she says and does, we can learn three things. First, her affective devotion; secondly, her way of preaching; thirdly the effect her preaching had (v 30).
625 Her affection is revealed in two ways. First, because her devotion was so great that she forgot why she had come to the well, and left without the water and her water jar. So he says, the woman then left her water jar and went off to the town, to tell of the wonderful things Christ had done; and she was not now concerned for her own bodily comfort but for the welfare of others. In this respect she was like the apostles, who “leaving their nets, followed the Lord” (Mt 4:20). The water jar is a symbol of worldly desires, by which men draw out pleasures from the depths of darkness—symbolized by the well—i.e., from a worldly manner of life. Accordingly, those who abandon worldly desires for the sake of God leave their water jars: “No soldier of God becomes entangled in the business of this world” (2 Tim 2:4). Secondly, we see her affection from the great number of those to whom she brings the news: not to just one or two, but to the entire town; we read that she went off to the town. This signifies the duty Christ gave to the apostles: “Go, teach all nations” (Mt 28:19); and “I have chosen you to go and bring forth fruit” (below 15:16).
626 Next we see her manner of preaching (v 29). She first invites them to see Christ, saying, Come and see the man. Although she had heard Christ say that he was the Christ, she did not at once tell the people that they should come to the Christ, or believe, so as not to give them a reason for scoffing. So at first she mentions things that were believable and evident about Christ, as that he was a man: “made in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:7). Neither did she say, “believe,” but Come, and see ; for she was convinced that if they were to taste from that well by seeing him, they would be affected in the same way she was: “Come, and I will tell you the great things he has done for me” (Ps 65:16). In this she is imitating the example of a true preacher, not calling men to himself, but to Christ: “What we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:5).
627 Secondly, she mentions a clue to Christ’s divinity, saying, who told me everything that I have done, that is, how many husbands she had had. For it is the function and sign of the divinity to disclose hidden things and the secrets of hearts. Although the things she had done would cause her shame, she is still not ashamed to mention them; for as Chrysostom says: “When the soul is on fire with the divine fire, it no longer pays attention to earthly things, neither to glory nor to shame, but only to that flame that holds it fast.”
628 Thirdly, she infers the greatness of Christ, saying, Could he not be the Christ? She did not dare to say that he was the Christ, lest she seem to be trying to teach them; they could have become angry at this and refuse to go with her. Yet she was not entirely silent on this point, but submitting it to their judgment, set it forth in the form of a question, saying, Could he not be the Christ? For this is an easier way to persuade someone.
629 This insignificant woman signifies the condition of the apostles, who were sent out to preach: “Not many of you are learned in the worldly sense, not many powerful... But God chose the simple ones of the world to embarrass the wise” (1 Cor 1:26). Thus in Proverbs (9:3) the apostles are called handmaids: “She,” divine wisdom, i.e., the Son of God, “sent out her handmaids,” the apostles, “to summon to the tower.”
630 The fruit of her preaching is given when he says, At that they set out from the town, to where she had returned, to meet him, Christ. We see by this that if we desire to come to Christ, we must set out from the town, i.e., leave behind our carnal desires: “Let us go out to him outside the camp, bearing the abuse he took,” as we read in Hebrews (13:13).
631 Now the effect of this spiritual teaching is elaborated. First, by what Christ said to his disciples; secondly, by the effect of all this on the Samaritans (v 39). Concerning the first he does two things. First, we have the situation in which Christ speaks to his disciples; secondly, what he said (v 32).
632 The situation is the insistence of the apostles that Christ eat. He says, Meanwhile, i.e., between the time that Christ and the woman spoke and the Samaritans came, his disciples asked him, that is, Christ, Rabbi, eat something: for they thought that then was a good time to eat, before the crowds came from the town. For the disciples did not usually offer Christ food in the presence of strangers: so we read in Mark (6:3 1), that so many people came to him that he did not even have time to eat.
633 After presenting the situation, he gives its fruit. First, it is given in figurative language. Secondly, we see the disciples are slow in understanding this. Thirdly, the Lord explains what he meant (v 34).
634 The fruit of his spiritual teaching is proposed under the symbols of’ food and nourishment, so the Lord says, I have food to eat. We Should note that just as bodily nourishment is incomplete miless there is both food and drink, so also both Should be found in spirittial notirishment: “The Lord fed him with the bread of life and understanding,” this is the food, “and gave him a drink of the water of saving wisdom,” and this is the drink (Sir 15:3). So it was appropriate for Christ to speak of food after having given drink to the Samaritan woman. And just as water is a symbol for saving wisdom, so food is a symbol of good works.