On the Samaritan Woman

Thursday after the Third Sunday of Lent

On the Samaritan Woman

The woman therefore left her waterpot, and went her way into the city. (John 4:28)

This woman, after Christ taught her, assumed the role of an apostle. From what she says and does, we can learn three things.

I. First, her affective devotion, which 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 therefore left her waterpot and went into the city, to announce all the wonders 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 (Matt 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