Reflection for the Week - January 9

Jesus has a multiplicity of ways of engaging people. When he is recorded as saying something to Nicodemus, he speaks in one manner, yet when it’s recounted that he has a dialogue with a Samaritan woman, he does so in another. This surplus of voices should not be missed, as it shows readers that Jesus is willing to proclaim his message into the context of whoever he’s talking to, whether his audience is baffled by it or not. “Being born from above” for one and “living water” for the other, as is evident in the stories, have a number of puzzling referents, including the possibility of receiving a transformed life. Hearers then have to “understand” Jesus’ numinous sayings in their own environment and after doing so act them out.