An act of betrothal.
John must have known the Hebrew Scriptures pretty well and as he set out to write his thoughtful and theological gospel, he included incidents that would illustrate his wider themes. In the first three chapters he has described Jesus' first miracle, making water into wine at a wedding, and he has also introduced John the Baptist. Immediately before Jesus' journey into Samaria, John the Baptist says, 'I am not the Messiah but I have been sent ahead of him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice'.
And then we come to a story of a man travelling to a foreign country and stopping at a well. A woman comes to the well, they talk and the woman runs home to report on the stranger, who is invited back to the village. With variations, that is the story of Abraham's servant finding Rebekah for Isaac, Jacob finding Rachel, and Moses finding Zipporah. Was John deliberately echoing these betrothal narratives, narratives from the Pentateuch, the only scriptures Samaritans recognised? This is Jacob's well, and Jesus is the bridegroom come for his bride. Of course John makes pointed contrasts. But a Samaritan woman with a chaotic married life is wooed and called to become a believer, a follower and a 'bride of Christ'.
Metaphors for our relationship with God abound in Scripture, but perhaps Jesus as the bridegroom and the church as bride is one of the richest. It is not just about marriage itself, but it invites us to imagine the point where love and commitment, joy and promises, expectation and the opening up of a glorious future come together in a wedding.
So on a dark Monday morning in February, when we have to get up, have to go to work, and deal with the usual amounts of frustration and satisfaction, it's good to remember that we are not just the foot-soldiers, not just the hired servants, but we too are the bride, the one at the centre of the celebration, the one sitting down next to the bridegroom at the wedding banquet of the Lamb.
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