Photina, the Woman at the Well

The Catacombs, depiction of the Woman at the Well

In the Lenten Gospel passage, (John 4:5-42) the lectionary continues to trace a watery way through the wilderness of Lent, calling us to be mindful of God’s provision, even in the desert. 

The encounter between Jesus and the unnamed woman offers us an invitation...to the well.   

The story goes like this.  Jesus and his disciples are traveling thru the region of Samaria.  The disciples went into town to get some food, and Jesus, hot, tired and thirsty comes upon a well.  

And what happens?  Jesus sees a woman there drawing water, and he asks her for a drink.   Totally understandable, it was about noontime, it was hot, and he was thirsty!   

From our modern point of view, this would not be unusual at all.  Especially for those of us that live in the desert!

But when I did my research for this passage, I could not help but notice that just about every biblical commentary and resource I reviewed seemed to overly focus on the woman’s past, her sinfulness, her bad reputation and all those "husbands" of hers. 

I thought, hmmm, there has to more to the story.

And, there is.  

I checked into how the Eastern Orthodox churches interpreted this story.  And I found that the woman at the well actually has a name, she is known as “Photina”!  (Svetlana in Russian.)

Her name is Photina because Phos means “light” in Greek.  And it was at the well she met Jesus, and encountered the light of Christ.  

The interesting thing is that for this story, the Eastern Orthodox focus on her future and not her past.   Who Photina became, not what she was, and what she did after she met Jesus.      

They look forward rather than backward.  What if we did so too?  

And so what happened after she met Jesus at Jacob’s well?   

The gospel says she ran into town telling people all about Christ.  It goes on further to say that many Samaritans believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.  

She is the first evangelist!  

The legend of Photina continues.   She leaves Samaria with her sons and daughters, and travels up to Anatolia, (modern day Turkey) and over to Carthage in North Africa, continuing her apostolic ministry, preaching wherever she went & bringing people to Christ.  

She was the first Christian female preacher & missionary!  And for the early church, she was considered “equal to the apostles”! 
 

She is frequently depicted in the catacombs in Rome. 

Photina was a very important figure in the early church.  That is the first three centuries before Constantine and the church merged with the Roman empire.  

Did the Roman Empire become more Christian, or did Christianity really become more Roman? 

For the Western Church (Rome), Photina, as well as many other female spiritual and religious leaders were erased.

The Eastern Orthodox follows many of the traditions of the early Christian church.  Thus the story & tradition of Photina continues...

As we travel through the desert this Lenten season, what are you finding in the midst of your daily rhythms and routines?   

Are your habits, thoughts and practices drawing us closer to the “living water”, or pulling you farther away from it?    

What can we learn from Photina, the Samaritan woman at the well, who conversed with a foreign man who asked her for a drink of water?

May we remain open to the Spirit, with ears to hear, eyes to see, and an open heart… for the extraordinary in the ordinary….as we journey this Lenten season.      

Amen.

[Note:  This is a blend of two sermons, one I gave in 2011 and the other in 2014. ]