11 August 2010
Psalm 101, 109; Judges 13:15-24; Acts 6:1-15; John 4:1-26

Manoah seems not to know that this one who has given them the word concerning the child is an angel of the Lord. The story bears similarities to Genesis when Abraham entertained the three men and also to the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. Manoah wants to provide the proper hospitality so offers a meal but in this case, unlike the episode with Abraham, the angel will not eat but accepts the offering as a sacrifice to his lord. Manoah wants to know the name of the angel here but the only response he gets is that the name is too wonderful to speak or is beyond understanding. The word translated here as “wonderful” is the same word in Isaiah 9.6 describing Messiah as “Wonderful Counselor” among other names. As they realize who this was before them, the couple fall on their faces in worship and fear and it is again the woman who relieves the fear with words something akin to you shall not surely die but because their sacrifice had been accepted.

Jesus and His disciples arrive in a Samaritan town at mid-day, a time when no one should have been at the community well. Women went early in the day before the heat made this a more difficult journey with a heavy water pitcher or pot and it was a time for fellowship and camaraderie with other women from the town. This woman, however, comes alone in the heat of the day to get water. She engages with the man she doesn’t know who asks her for water and challenges Him as a Jew. She knows the Jews look down on Samaritans and won’t share eating or drinking vessels with them and speaks into that reality. She sets herself and her people above the Jews by speaking of “our father Jacob.” Jesus’ promise of living water breaks through her defenses and exposes her desire, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” She thinks he is speaking of magic when, in fact, He is promising something much deeper. As Jesus exposes her sinful life, she turns to religion as a way of deflecting the course of conversation yet ultimately she received the first direct revelation of Jesus, from his own lips, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” The revelation that Manoah didn’t receive is instead given to this sinful woman.

The apostles define their role in the new church as devoted to prayer and serving the word and therefore instruct the congregation to raise up other men for the work of distributing food to the widows. The qualifications were that they be men of good standing, full of the Spirit and wisdom. In Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus he gives further qualifications but those really are little more than definitions of the terms used here. One of those deacons was Stephen and here we see that the early church’s message was clear and those who heard it and saw the effect it was having in drawing people knew that it was a threat and determined to stamp it out. It wasn’t for his skill at waiting tables that Stephen was tried, it was his proclamation. Deacons, it seems, had a preaching ministry as well as the jobs for which they were originally chosen to perform.

With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord;
I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
For he stands at the right hand of the needy,
to save them from those who would condemn them to death.