It Was About Noon

 

There is no mistake that most crimes happen in the dark of night.  It is obvious the criminal does not want to be seen.  He or she does not want light shed on their activities.  All sinfulness plunges us into a darkness.  It is for many a darkness that remains for a very long time.  For some it lasts a lifetime.  All of us spend some time in the darkness.  Each and every one of us has a dark side.  If we are honest, we all have part of us that we don’t want to bring into the light of day.

And so, we hide things.  We hide them and deceive others and ourselves.  There are times perhaps when we hide things by creating our own truth.  So we justify what is clearly wrong by creating our own version of right and wrong.  As more and more of this happens and more and more of the truth is distorted, there suddenly isn’t a clear distinction between darkness and light.  We live in a twilight where suddenly nothing is what it seems to be.

The only thing that can make things clear, that can bring things into the light is the Light himself.  In the story of the woman at the well, there is that seemingly small but important detail.  It says the encounter between Jesus and the woman happens around noon.  It happens at the time of day when it is the brightest, when there will be no hiding in the dark. It will be when everything is brought to light. 

We know the real light in that encounter has nothing to do with the sun, but rather with the Son, who is the Light.  He reveals to the woman her past that likely she wanted kept in the dark.  He tells her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.”

The Light of the World sheds light on this woman not to condemn her but to save her and to save all.  It seems appropriate that the Lenten season comes in the spring.  Slowly the days are getting longer.  The darkness of the winter months is giving way to the brightness of spring and ultimately to summer.  So we must allow the Light of Christ to shine on us. 

It must have been initially embarrassing and painful for the woman to have Jesus acknowledge her sinfulness.  He came though not to condemn her but to refresh her and save her.  He is the Light and the living water.  She believes the messiah is coming and he echoes the words of God to Moses, “I am he.”

So let us not be blinded or put off by the noon-time light.  It is bright.  It will shed light on things that perhaps we want kept in the dark, but the true Light came that we might have life, not the darkness of death and sin. 

-  The Servant