Fifth Sunday after Pascha – Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, Tone 4; our Father Among the Saints Athanasius the Great (373)
Acts 11:19-26, 29-30; John 4:5-42
Read John 4:5-42
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
The Gospel of John is described as an onion where the beginning of the Gospel relates to the end. Then images from the next chapter connect with the chapter before last, and so on.
When Jesus asks the Samaritan woman at the 6th hour (noon): “Give me a drink,” it connects with the words of Jesus that He says from the cross around the 6th hour, “I thirst.” What does Jesus want to drink? What is He thirsty for? Jesus thirsts for souls. When we offer Jesus our soul, we quench His thirst.
When the Samaritan woman left Jesus to tell everyone how Jesus told her everything about her life, “the woman left her water jar” for Jesus. That would mean that the woman left her soul (water) behind for Jesus to receive it and change it into wine.
Will you open yourself today and allow Jesus to transform you?