Don Friesen, writer
Don Friesen and Ghenette Houston, presenters
Photina: My name is Photina. I'm the woman who met Jesus at the well in Samaria. The Bible didn't release my name, but Byzantine tradition calls me Photine or Photina — NOT to be confused with Photinus, a fourth-century heretic!
Anyway, one day I went to fetch water from a well near my home — an ancient well, built by our ancestor, Jacob. And there — at the well — I met a man called Jesus.
Nicodemus: Hi!
Photina: Who are you?
Nicodemus: My name is Nicodemus. I couldn't help hearing about your chat with Jesus. I too met Jesus.
Photina: Hey, don't I know you?
Nicodemus: Yeah, we're both in the Gospel of John.
Photina: ...but aren't you in chapter 3? Chapter 3 was read last Sunday. I'm in chapter 4! Why are you here on my Sunday?
Nicodemus: I know that chapter 3 was read last Sunday, but the preacher here didn't talk about me; he was all caught up with that Abraham guy. So I thought I'd share this Sunday with you.
Photina: But we have absolutely nothing in common!
Nicodemus: I hope you're right! I don't really like you! Your story takes up far too much space in John's Gospel. It's embarrassing! Jesus shouldn't have even talked to you!
Photina: Excuse me!
Nicodemus: Well, for one thing, you're a Samaritan. My people usually try to avoid you and your kind. It was one thing for Jesus to walk through Samaria; it was quite another for him to engage you in conversation; and it was quite — quite another — for John to put it in his Gospel! My people are the true worshippers of God, ...whereas your people are ...assimilators! You assimilate with anyone who comes along.
Photina: I think you forget that "your" people and "my" people actually have a common history. It was only when the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom and brought in a bunch of immigrants that you stuck up your noses at us!
Nicodemus: Well, you married them!
Photina: Sure, there was some inter-marriage, and that was unforgivable?!? It's not as if we were doing it to spite you. We weren't the ones who shunned you; you shunned us! You may remember that you in the southern kingdom decided to rebuild the Temple, we offered to help, but you brushed us off! With no small measure of disdain!
Nicodemus: Oh, don't try to make us out to be the bad guys! I recall some of your people dumping human bones in the Temple. Why do you think we've tightened security around the Temple? And there have been other incidents, at the border and elsewhere. And then — then your people built your own temple! Built by a defector from our side! How do you think that made us feel?
Photina: How do you think we felt when some of your leaders went on record as saying that eating the bread of Samaritans is like eating the flesh of swine?
Nicodemus: Anyway, let's not fight. I stopped by because I wondered what you thought about Jesus. I think your encounter with him is similar to mine.
Photina: Similar to your's?!? They're not at all alike. I met him at noon; you came at night! And you disappeared into the night.
Nicodemus: Well, that's not quite true.
You know, I hesitate to mention it, but there's another reason Jesus should have avoided you; it's because you're a... a... a woman. It's not our custom to keep public company with women; in fact, it's against our customs to do so. And rabbis especially should not talk to women in a public place. A rabbi isn't allowed even to greet his own wife in a public place. You know the rules.
Photina: Listen, Mr. Rectitude! They're your rules, not mine — not ours!
Nicodemus: Oh, come on, Photina, didn't you see the look on his disciples' faces when they saw you with him? They were astonished! It says so, right in John's Gospel, "They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman...." (John 4:27) Even they knew better.
Photina: May I ask why you are speaking to me? Don't you know any better? And this is a public place!
Nicodemus: You know, you've got quite the mouth on you. And that's another thing. The way you carried on with Jesus was really quite impertinent — like you were some big debate queen.
Photina: I enjoyed sparring with him. He asked me for a drink. And so I called him a Jew, to remind him that he shouldn't be talking to me — in — a — public — place. And that would have been the end of it, only he had a twinkle in his eye, and started talking about water — living water. And so I teased him about coming to the well without a bucket. And so it went. I enjoyed the interchange. It was much less painful than your stilted conversation with Jesus.
Nicodemus: What do you mean?
Photina: Well, Mr. High-and-Mighty, you came to him all smarmy and like you knew what you're talking about, and within two verses he'd lost you!
Nicodemus: Well, I was trying to engage in a serious intellectual discussion, and he was off on some other level talking about being born again — or born from above — or some other such woman-talk.
Photina: You looked like a fool! It was like playing ping pong with someone who doesn't know his bat from his bingo card.
Nicodemus: You play a lot of ping pong in Judea, do you?
Photina: It doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand his comments about the wind. The wind blows where it wills! You think the wind is going to stop blowing when it gets to the border between our two countries! He was saying that the Spirit of God can not be contained or restricted by your little customs and rules and borders. He was saying that God is much bigger than us. Bigger than our little spats and border incidents. Bigger than both of us.
Nicodemus: That's not all he said.
Photina: Excuse me?
Nicodemus: He told you a lot of stuff about yourself!
Photina: Hey, that's personal!
Nicodemus: Hardly! It's in the Gospel of John, for all to read. One little husband; two little husbands; three little husbands...
Photina: Listen, don't make assumptions about my marriages. You're pretty quick to make me look like some tramp, but you know as well as I do that the divorce laws are stacked in favour of men! A man can discard his wife at will. It wasn't me who got rid of them; they got rid of me! Five times I got put out at the curb like a sack of garbage!
But you know what? When Jesus pointed out my personal history, I felt no judgment from him. He didn't recoil in horror, like some of you. He smiled. With but a few words he held up a mirror to my soul. He knew me. He knew me. He didn't care about the labels people had pinned on me, the little boxes people had put me in. He knew the truth behind them. He knew secrets I had almost forgotten. He was amazing!
Like you, I was holding him at a distance with my clever repartee, but with just a few words he peeled back the covers. He saw right through me — through my defences, through all the layers of self-protection in which I'd wrapped myself.
I admit I felt very vulnerable in his presence. But you know, he didn't move in for the kill. I'm accustomed to that, even from members of my own family! I'm not accustomed to tenderness and love. Jesus touched something deep within me. His words and presence stirred something within me — awakened something — like water poured onto a dry garden. What began as banter turned into an animated conversation, and someone I barely recognized as myself began expressing herself in words long denied me — words about hopes and aspirations, about yearning for the truth, and for the One who will reveal the truth. (Thanks to Nathan Nettleton for much of the above)
Nicodemus: You know, Tina, I'm rather jealous of your conversation with him. You must have affected him as well, because he was always cautious about his identity, especially around my colleagues. And yet the only time he fully disclosed his identity to someone, it was to you.
Photina: I think I knew already, before he said it, that he was the Anointed One. And I was bursting to tell someone. I felt like dancing — and I'm not a dancer — but I felt like dancing, and I waltzed into town and told everyone about this man. I knew they wouldn't take my word for it, but I said, "Come and see for yourselves!"
Nicodemus: Photina, I know that Jesus was an incredible human being, and I have no doubt that he affected you deeply, but I'm really uncomfortable with the way he deliberately went out of his way to thumb his nose at us.
Photina: Nicodemus, you hold a high position of trust in your community. You're highly educated, and an honoured member of the national council. I'm not surprised that you'd feel that way, but I think he intended to fulfill your people's hopes and aspirations. Remember Abraham? We share Abraham; he's the ancestor of both of us. God called Abraham to "be a blessing ...(to) all the families of the earth...." (Genesis 12:2-3) I pushed him on this point.
Nicodemus: You taunted him.
Photina: I pushed him on this point. I said, "Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." (John 4:20) And you know what he said to me; he told me that the "time is coming ...when the true worshippers will worship (God) in spirit and truth.... God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth." (4:23-24 , NIV) That's what he said. I was shocked, but he's right. There's something about him that transcends these divisions between us.
Nicodemus: Perhaps, but I don't know. A new community, worshipping in a new and vague holy place, drinking from some new and spiritual source of holy water — it's all a bit vague and ...different! I'm not used to thinking about God in this way.
Photina: You know, Nicodemus, I know of another Pharisee just like you. He too wanted to be perfect (Philippians 3:4-6), but he changed his mind when he met Jesus. He was more zealous than you, and he persecuted Christians with just a touch too much enthusiasm! But when he met Jesus he changed his mind, and he said, "...whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, (but) I (now) regard them as rubbish...." (3:7-8)
Nicodemus: Boy, you're quite the little evangelist, aren't you?
Photina: It's quite amazing, isn't it? One day people in my community — and especially in yours — wouldn't give me the time of day! And the next day they're thanking me because I took them to meet Jesus. Did you read what John wrote in his Gospel? He wrote, "Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony...." (John 4:39) The woman! That be me!
Nicodemus: Listen, Tina, I'm not quite as thick as John's Gospel makes me out to be. If it looks like I disappeared into the night, it's because I needed time to think.
Photina: Listen, Nicky, I've got to go. I'm on water bucket duty again. But I hope you keep thinking about Jesus.
Nicodemus: I do keep thinking about him. I know what it looks like. I came to Jesus, engaged in a rather perfunctory discussion with him and then seemed to disappear. But if you read the whole of John's Gospel you'll discover that isn't quite true. The conversation stayed with me. And I never forgot him. I wasn't ready to embrace his radical approach, but I recognized a kernel of truth in his words.
And later, when he got in a spot of trouble and some of my colleagues wanted to put him away I couldn't bring myself to jump on the bandwagon. It was quite a scene. (John 7:43-53) Early on some leaders wanted to arrest Jesus, but the temple police came back to us — the chief priests and the Pharisees — without him. Some of my colleagues asked, "Why didn't you arrest him?" And the police themselves said, "Never has anyone spoken like this!" Some of the Pharisees replied, "Did he fool you, too? Have you ever known one of the authorities or one Pharisee to believe in him?" (7:48, TEV) It got quite heated in the chamber that day, and I was uncomfortable with it. I said, "Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?" (7:51) One of the other Pharisees got a bit snippy and said, "Are you from Galilee, too?" (7:52) But things calmed down and I was glad that I hadn't been party to a lynching.
I've struggled a long time about my encounter with Jesus. I'm not altogether convinced that he's the one who will lead us dancing into the banquet room of heaven, but I've never been able to banish him from my mind. Even when he died, which convinced my colleagues that they had put an end to a charade, I wasn't sure. Even the way he died moved me deeply. In fact, not a lot of people know this, but I was a friend of Joseph of Arimathea, who was a secret disciple of Jesus, and when Jesus died Joseph asked Pilate for permission to take away the body of Jesus. Permission was granted, and when Joseph removed the body I contributed about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, and together Joe and I wrapped Jesus' body with the spices and with linen cloths, as is our custom, and laid him in a new tomb. (John 19:38-42)
Jesus told me that I need to re-think the things of God. He said that I need to start all over again! I don't know; I'll have to think more on that. I hope you do as well.