Summary: Our story today starts with the word "so." S-O, "so" -- two little letters, too significant to skip. "So" is a conjunction here and the function of this conjunction is to inform you that you are entering a story already underway. "So" in this case implies a causal relationship. It would be as if I said: "So, I went to the house on the hill" or "So, she finally made that trip to Bangladesh." It shows that something has already happened in the narrative which is now (at least in part) causing what is about to happen. A conjunction with a causal relationship. So, when we begin with the word "so," we must realize we begin with a backstory. "So [it says] Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar."[i] Jesus had been down in Judea out in the countryside with his cousin John: John the baptizer, John the testifier, John the voice of the one crying out. Jesus and John had been down in a little town called Aenon near Salim. Aenon literally means fresh spring or natural fountain. So for those of you with a more-gooder-vocabulary than myself, you might already know this is an aquatic sanctuary of sorts. But for those of us who are a bit slower, the text in the previous chapter goes ahead and spells this out for us, it reads: "Jesus was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was abundant there."[ii] Water was abundant there. Now, I don't know what your definition of abundant water is. Sounds kind of subjective, doesn't it?
