Carrying Water

 

Luke 22:1-13 (CJB)

8 Yeshua sent Kefa and Yochanan, instructing them, “Go and prepare our Seder, so we can eat.” 9 They asked him, “Where do you want us to prepare it?” 10 He told them, “As you’re going into the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house he enters, 11 and say to its owner, ‘The Rabbi says to you, “Where is the guest room, where I am to eat the Pesach meal with my talmidim?” ’ 12 He will show you a large room upstairs already furnished; make the preparations there.” 13 They went and found things just as Yeshua had told them they would be, and they prepared for the Seder.

Exodus 2:15b-20

15b But Moshe fled from Pharaoh to live in the land of Midyan. One day, as he was sitting by a well, 16 the seven daughters of the priest of Midyan came to draw water. They had filled the troughs to water their father’s sheep, 17 when the shepherds came and tried to drive them away. But Moshe got up and defended them; then he watered their sheep. 18 When they came to Re‘u’el their father, he said, “How come you’re back so soon today?” 19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds; more than that, he drew water for us and watered the sheep.” 20 He asked his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave the man there? Invite him to have something to eat.”

 

Oh, I’m down in the weeds today!

The phrase that stuck out for me today was “a man carrying a jar of water.”

I did my usual online research, and got a few very interesting perspectives, but what I really noticed was the omission of any connection between the New Testament gospel text and the Hebrew bible. That struck me as odd, because the New Testament (Paul, in particular) is full of allusions and quotes from the Hebrew bible, and there are other examples of a connection between Moses and Jesus.

Given that I have learned to go first to the Hebrew bible when looking for symbolic patterns, I was very surprised that none of the scholarly articles I found on the internet connected the ‘man carrying water’ with the story of Moses defending the women at the well, and then helping them by carrying their water for them. I mean, really surprised.

There was a cool article, though, that suggested that Jesus was using a bit of spy tradecraft to keep his disciples from finding out ahead of time where he was going to be eating the Seder meal. It’s clear from other stories in the gospels that Jesus knew that the authorities were after him to kill him, so it only makes sense that he would want to be cagey. (There are plenty of other examples of Jesus being cagey, too.)

I’m not sure exactly how it fits together, but Moses was also on the run from the authorities when he helped the women at the well, so I’m feeling pretty good about the symbolic connection I’m making. I also noticed that, in the Exodus story, Re’u’el chides his daughters for leaving Moses at the well and not inviting him home to have something to eat, so there’s a connection to eating as well.

So, Jesus, on the run, tells his disciples that a man carrying a jar of water will meet them. They don’t have to find this guy, he will find them, and lead them to where they are going to eat. I’m assuming that Jesus’s disciples, being Jews who were extremely well-versed in Torah, immediately made the Moses connection too.

That connection lends this gospel story the archetypal punch it needs to really sink in. It’s a hero legend, walking up to the disciples, making them sit up and pay attention. What’s happening is significant! Things that were forgotten, neglected, unresolved, are being made right.

 

Fugitive meets fugitive—

Moses invites himself home,

to finally feed and be fed.

What had been neglected

will be finished as it should be.

Moses died before he reached home,

buried in an unmarked grave.

At last he’s coming home to die.

 

Now, again—

Moses humbles himself

carrying water

for the One Coming Into the World.

The disciples wonder,

abashed in the Presence

of this antediluvian angel.

Silently, they follow him,

still not knowing that

there will be no need,

this time,

to mark a grave.