Faith

Friday, March 6, 2026Faith

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The Lord does not denounce their ingratitude but continues to provide for them even in their grumbling.

It's a good thing that God does not treat us the way we treat one another. If we are honest, we human beings are not very patient or forgiving. The Scriptures make clear that the Lord is long-suffering, patient, and forgiving.
This Sunday, we will hear about the patience of the Lord with the Hebrews in the wilderness. After experiencing a miraculous delivery from slavery, they fail to trust that the Lord Who delivered them from the power of Egypt would deliver them from the harshness of the desert. Very quickly, they longed for the food they had eaten in slavery. In the passage from Exodus 17, they complain about their thirst. They would rather go back to slavery than rely on the Lord Who parted the sea for them to pass. Even Moses appears exasperated with them. The Lord does not denounce their ingratitude but continues to provide for them even in their grumbling. The staff that dried the water at the Red Sea will now bring forth a gushing flow of water in the desert. And in those waters, we see the contrast between their inconstancy and the faithful loving care of the Lord.

Psalm 95 recalls that moment when the people tested the Lord and failed the test themselves. It invites future generations to learn from the mistake and place their trust in the Lord Who is the "rock." This metaphor certainly expresses the truth of God's reliability, but it also speaks on another level. Rabbinic tradition taught that the "rock" from which the water gushed in the desert accompanied the people -- appearing in each camp to provide for the people. And the Rabbis extended the metaphor, teaching that the Law, like the rock, accompanied God's people and provided another kind of life-sustaining power.
Of course, the miraculous water in the desert was only one gift among many. The people ate the bread from heaven and the meat provided by the Lord. They saw the Lord's presence in the pillar of cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night. They had learned the personal name of the Lord -- a name that expressed God's presence with them on their journey. The truth expressed in all of these ways is that of God's providential care of His people and their call to respond in trusting love.
In the passage from John, we see that same mystery on display. Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman of "living" water. She is at a well, where she must lower a bucket into the brackish water of a deep pit that reaches down to the water table. But He speaks of a gushing flow of water -- clear, fresh water that erupts from the ground. At first, her interest is in an easier way to secure necessary water, but she begins to understand that Jesus is offering more. Her eyes and her heart are gradually opened -- she begins with hostility but moves quickly to respect ("Sir"), then interest ("I see that you are a prophet"), and finally to reverence ("Messiah!"). Finally, she becomes an evangelist of sorts as she goes to her village and brings others to the Lord.
The language of this passage, "living water," "this mountain," "I am He," indicates the link to the Sinai experience. We are to understand that in Jesus, God is present to His people -- and that the Lord will provide for them as He did in the desert. Although Jesus' promise extends beyond mere physical sustenance to promise of eternal life.
On this Third Sunday of Lent, we hear of that patient, long-suffering, faithful love of God. Indeed, we were, and are, sinners, unworthy of God's generosity. And yet this God of manna and water and mercy gives us His Son for our salvation.
We might wish to recall that John's Gospel uses the term living or gushing waters again at the death of Jesus. When His side is pierced, water and blood gush forth. The stream from that rock continues to flow for us in the desert. We trust and acclaim the One Who stands at the head of our assembly. Grumblers though we might be, He would save us from sin and death and even from ourselves.

- Archbishop Richard G. Henning is the Archbishop of Boston