Christ is Risen! Христос Воскресе!
On the Fifth Sunday after Pascha, the Eastern Church commemorates the meeting of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well. In order to appreciate the meeting and exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, it helps to know some history.
To the Jew, the Samaritans represented the two worst abominations: schism and idolatry. Samaria was the capital of the schismatic Northern Kingdom. The land was inhabited by Canaanites, Syrians, Cutheans, Arabs, and other gentiles, who combined worship of the the God of Israel with idol worship and child sacrifice. Jacob’s well was located in Samaria’s capital together with the schismatic and idolatrous temple of Mount Garizim. As for the city of Jacob’s well, Sichar or Sichem, it was a Sichemite who violated Dina, Jacob’s daughter, as recorded in the Book of Genesis. The Samaritans were utterly despised by the Jews.
The Samaritans equally detested the Jews. When the Jews returned from the exile of Babylon, God instructed Zorobabel the Prince of Juda and Jesus the High Priest to rebuild the Temple of Solomon. The Samaritans offered to help in the building of the Temple, but Zorababel spurned their offer. After that, the Samaritans, by intrigue, attempted to stop the building of the Temple.
The gospel relates that Jesus with some of His disciples was passing through Samaria on the way from Judea to Galilee. At about noon one day, Jesus arrived wearily at a well in a town called Sychar. There He found a woman from whom He asked for some water. Since the disciples had gone off to buy something to eat, Jesus was alone with the woman. She expressed surprise that a Jew would dare speak with her, a Samaritan woman. Aside from the fact that Samaritans and Jews despised each other, private conversations between unwed men and women were not considered proper at that time.
Then Our Lord says to the woman that, if she knew who He was, she would ask Him for living water, and He would give it to her. When she noted that He had nothing for taking water from the very deep well, He simply affirmed the excellence of His water and how those who drink it never thirst again. She then asked Him for it, not yet realizing that the “living water” was a metaphor for divine grace.
Before agreeing to give her the water, Jesus told her to get her husband, ostensibly so that He might give it to both of them. The woman confessed that she had no husband. At this admission, Jesus told her that she had had five husbands and was then living with a man who was not her husband. Stunned at the stranger’s knowledge of her life, she took Him to be a prophet and proceeded to probe Him for His thoughts on the religious issue which most divided the Jews and the Samaritans: whether to worship in the Jewish temple on Mount Moriah or the Samaritan one on Mount Garizim.
In response, Jesus revealed Himself to her as the Messiah:
“’A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’ The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you—I am He’” (John 4:21-26).
At that moment the disciples arrived with the food. They were surprised at their Master for speaking to such a woman, but dared not question Him. Jesus taught them a lesson on doing the will of God. He then taught them that the harvest of souls was about to begin.
The woman had left her waterpot and went to tell the townspeople about Jesus. Upon hearing, a crowd of Samaritans arrived on the scene. They begged Jesus to stay with them, which He did, preaching to them for two days. So great was the success of the mission, that the townspeople said to the woman:
“We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).
What further do we know about the Samaritan woman? The apostles of Christ baptized her and gave her the name of Photina which means “the enlightened one.” Photina and her family left their homeland of Sychar, in Samaria, to travel to Carthage to proclaim the Gospel of Christ there.
Eventually Photina left Carthage in the company of several Christians and joined the confessors in Rome. Emperor Nero ordered the believers to be brought before him, and he ordered them to renounce Christ. All the confessors refused to renounce the Savior. The emperor then gave orders to smash their finger joints.
Photina and her five sisters, Anatola, Phota, Photis, Paraskeva and Kyriake, were then sent to the imperial court under the supervision of Nero’s daughter, Domnina. Photina converted both Domnina and her servants to Christ. She also converted a sorcerer, who had brought her poisoned food that was meant to kill her.
After three years of imprisonment, Nero had Photina brought to him and asked if she would relent and offer sacrifice to the idols. Photina spat in his face and said:
“O most impious of the blind, you profligate and stupid man! Do you think me so deluded that I would consent to renounce my Lord Christ and instead offer sacrifice to idols as blind as you?”
Hearing such words, Nero gave orders to throw Photina down a well, where she surrendered her soul to God in the year 66 AD. She is remembered by the Church as a Holy Martyr and Equal to the Apostles.
Through the prayers of the Holy Martyr Saint Photina, may Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us!
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