Withering lands to Renovated Earth
The word Ecology is derived from two Greek terms oikos (house) and logos (knowledge). The term ‘house’ is one of the most powerful analogies used in the Bible to depict the relationship between God and creation. Ecology defines the experiential approach of relating the whole cosmos as our house. Ecology, economics, ecumenics are all derived from this common root oikos. This symbolism of the earth as our common home evokes the communal and inter-relational nature of life on earth, touching into felt experiences of safety and shelter, house or habitat, justice and security.
The passage John 4:3-15, talks about the meeting of Jesus and a woman in Sychar, a Samaritan town. The time of this conversation, on the sixth hour, still arises a question whether it happened at noon (according to Jewish time calculations) or in the evening (according to Roman time calculations).
A story parallel to Jesus and Samaritan woman can be seen in Buddhist traditions also, where Aananda, Buddha’s favorite disciple ask a girl of chandala caste who is drawing water from the well for a drink.
The meeting of Jesus and the woman near a well in Samaria can be viewed and understood in various perspectives. In this paper we are trying to interpret this text in an ecological perspective.
Reaffirming the inherent worth of land
Samaria was a region of Palestine comprising the northern kingdom of Israel created when north and south split after the death of Solomon. The region was named after its capital city, Samaria.
Samaria was a country beautifully diversified with mountain and hill, valley and plain. The extremely fertile soil had resulted in the growth of vines, olives, fruit trees, barley, wheat (v.4:35) etc. Josephus speaks about excellent grass, by reason of which the cows yield more milk than those in any other place. This city was built during the reign of King Omri and later became the capital of Northern Israel. The name "Samaritans" clearly applies to the Israelite inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom.
But as results of the colonisation and continuous invasions by the empires (e.g Babylon and Assyrians), many people are deported to other lands and replaced with foreigners. As a result, a mixed tribe gradually began to develop in that area. Moreover the influence of foreign cultures has led the land to adopt idol worship. Because of this, Jews regarded this place as the ‘land of heathens’ and the people as a "mixed race" contaminated by foreign blood and false worship. As a result many Jews avoided the journey through Samaria and chose a long route across the Jordan and up through Perea to travel between Judea and Galilee. In other words, for jews Jerusalem is the holy place and Samaria is a cursed place. Similarly there was theological opposition for jews to worship in the land of Jerusalem.
From this passage it is clear that Jesus deliberately chose his way to Galilee through Samaria not only to deconstruct the notions of purity and pollution, but also to reaffirm the intrinsic worth of the land of Samaria. Here, Jesus rejects the very concept of division of land based on ‘purity’ of blood.
Every land has its own worth. The value of a land exists within the natural order. The worth of a land is determined neither by its residing people nor by its utilitarian value for human beings. In v. 21 Jesus tries to say that no piece of land is a perfect entity or more holy than others and hence the true worship should not be confined to a particular area or place.
The term used to signify a territory in earlier times in Kerala was Amsham (which means a portion). Now this term is considered as an apt word that used to indicate that the particular land was not an entity but only a part of the whole cosmos.
The Earth was so good when God created it. But later due to the dualistic Cartesian concept, nature was considered as a resource for human utility. This dualism in turn resulted in the subjugation of nature by man and gave rise to a new world view in which nature is inert and passive; uniform and mechanistic; separable and fragmented within itself; separate from man and inferior to be dominated and exploited by human.
In Indian cosmology, the nature as prakriti is an expression of shakthi, the powerful creative principle of the cosmology, in conjunction with the masculine principle Purusha. Prakriti is considered as sacred and is worshipped as Adi Shakti. In contrast to the Cartesian system, Indian cosmology considers person and nature (Purusha-Prakriti) as a duality in unity which are inseparable complements.
Resources as God given Gifts
The woman is the central character of this passage. Jesus found her as she came to fetch water from Jacob’s well. In Palestine, water is commonly drawn out of the wells or cisterns by females, and carried, upon the shoulder or head; in large leathern or earthen vessels. Moreover, Deep wells (probably about 100 feet deep) are not uncommon there as the shallow wells will become dry in summer.
During the conversations with Jesus, the problems posed by the women reflect her concerns about the deep well, v.11, (may indicate the scarcity of water) and her difficulty to come up to the well continually, v.15 (may because of the long distance).
The drying up of India is a man made rather than a natural calamity. This water seeking Samaritan woman in this passage can be compared to one among hundreds of the women in our country who walk kilometres daily to fetch water for their family due to mega dams and other developmental projects. The availability, accessibility, affordability and quality of the water are still a question before them. Thus the scarcity of water is a complex theological, socio-economic and political issue. Women and water are the most vulnerable elements in the nature that are easily exploited by the dominant powers. Violence to the water cycle is probably the worst and most invisible form of violence. Due to technology assisted pollutions on water, it has now becoming a non-‘renewable’ resource.
Water and well were considered as a symbol of pride and prosperity in Old Testament times. To give a name to a well denoted a right of property, and was also a mark of conquest, or an encroachment on territorial right claimed or existing in its neighbourhood.
The present day context is not too different. Due to Globalization and privatization, Earth and its natural resources are considered as mere commodities. Rivers, sea shores that are acquired and encroached as private property, Bottled water labelled as ‘mineral enriched pure’ are excellent examples of packaging of God given resources. Human violence towards nature is still continuing since it is not considered to be violence.
Every religion gives prominence to water. Every civilisation formed beside the water. Both the creation accounts in the book of Genesis simply assume the existence of water. God does not have to create water; it was presented fundamentally as a part of divine reality. Water was used in bible as a means for personal, social and planetary transformation. In this passage, Jesus uses water and its symbolism as a means to deconstruct the inferior attitude of the women and to lead her to a complete transformation.
Human beings as Earth bound Creatures
The whole conversation between Jesus and this woman happens near the well. V 11 mentions that this well was a source of living for human and animals for generations. In other words this well was a site for interdependence between human and animals. Earth is a community of interconnected living things that are mutually dependent on each other for life and survival. The Tamil term ‘Mannin manam’ signifies all creations essentially carry the inherent smell of nature. This invisible link makes us all, nexus of a circle of inter-belongingness.
As the mode of relationship changes, the concept of custodianship is more relevant than the stewardship. Custodianship is a mutual partnership between earth and earth community. Earth has provided food shelter, beauty and other riches to sustain the life of the human beings. In return, the human beings have to assume that these riches as the contribution of their partners to the earth community. Even on a humanly dominated planet, we do not save the planet, rather the planet saves us day by day, in every cell of our body, in every breath we take and every morsel we eat.
Cries of the creation as voice of the Earth
The hostility between Jews and the Samaritans prohibited them even drinking from the same vessels. In v. 7, Jesus requests the women to give him something to drink. Can’t we hear the cry of Jesus for water from hundreds of poor who are denied to access the wells due to caste problems and environmental issues? Millions of people in this world suffer because of water shortages or supplies that are contaminated by toxic chemicals.
Jesus’ cry can also be considered as a bold attempt to break the traditional boundaries that segregated Jews and Samaritans. The symbolism that Jesus used is the living water that is flowing and bubbling continuously (Amplified Version Bible), which can be considered as an ever moving life force that overrides all boundaries. Living water, then, is free to move and to follow its God given mysterious nature. It is unnatural for water to remain still. Its essential nature is that it is always moving, creating, purifying, healing, energizing, and nourishing life. It must override the traditional barriers of caste, state and so on. The provision for the thirst of the poor is a fundamental measure of one’s faithfulness to God.
Discerning the resistance of Earth
The ecological crisis is one of the major problems which we face in the present context. It destroys the entire happiness and joy of the world and species on the earth. According to Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary general, “Evermore people are denied food because prices are stubbornly high, because purchasing power has fallen due to economic crisis, it is because rains have failed”. It reminds us the ecological crisis definitely creates problems of the survival of human life.
A new order of life is the will of God and the need of the hour. In this given passage, Jesus identifies himself with the natural element of water. He apparently expresses his ecological concern saying “Living water is the gift of God”, in other words water is life and nature is the gift of God (John 4:10). If we deny it, we are thwarting the very purpose of God i.e. the redemption of all creation.
As Amos 4:1 says the land of the Samaria happened to be the victim in the hands of the prevailing system who oppressed the poor and crushed the needy. But we can explicitly discern the resistance of earth against the injustice of the dominant system in Amos 4: 7-13 where the rain fall became uneven, scarcity of water raises, locusts destroyed the fig trees and so on.
In Indian philosophy earth is portrayed as “Mother Earth or Bhoomatha” who is said to have long lasting endurance. But she loses her endurance on account of human’s greed for more and more. As a result our mother earth resists and protests herself to the injustice of human through natural calamities in the form of droughts, earth quakes, floods, cyclones and tsunami etc.
India is one of the most vulnerable countries when it comes to the effect of Global warming. Two islands have already vanished and 10,000 people have already been displaced in the sundarbans, an area which India shares with Bangladesh. Orissa is another state which is already being hit hard by global warming. The village after village in Orissa’s coastal kendrapara district vanishes into the Bay of Bengal because of rising sea level. Ironically these people hardly contribute to global warming and green house gases. The virulent effect of Tsunami costs 11,000 lives, and about 3,80,000 people were displaced in India alone.
Earth is sensitive to the injustices to which earth is subjected. Though the earth has an inherent ability to revive and regenerate, this ecological healing is limited. Does the groaning of creation (Rom 8) and the vomiting of land (Lev 18:24-30) reflects the struggle of earth against the injustices? Hence the need of this hour is the promotion of a cosmic centred spirituality that is sensitive to the injustices that threaten the total ecosystem of earth.
[Prepared by Abraham Sudeep Oommen, Anandraj Paul Jacob V., Jaya Jesudas Pudi, John Haide Manukonda, Lijo Johnson, Philipose John, Fourth Year BD students of Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India]
