The term "oxymoron" came to my mind this morning as I placed these two words together to summarize what I heard as I read of the disciples' thoughts in John 4:27, though they dared not speak them.
There was apparently some sense of spiritual elitism that had developed among them. John, now years later is walking us through his experience with the Christ and his peers.
They apparently walked up on Jesus just as he was completing his conversation with the infamous Samaritan woman, now living with her fifth male partner.
John writes that they (likely himself as well) marveled that he talked with this woman, "what seekest thou?" is the KJV. Puzzled perhaps that this One sent from God, would talk to such a "loose lady!"
Yet, on the other side of the conversation, we find a woman perhaps long in search of true love, her heart vulnerable, moreso at least it seems than the disciples at this point.
They were likely selected not because of their righteousness, but as a demonstration of the work of grace among various people types. They would in fact become the lives around which the Epistles were written, which we now read.
She however, from the moment she drew the first pail of water, had Jesus's full focus, perhaps himself captured by her hunger for love. God is love and Christ was God! Love had finally found her, it had just not yet fully captured the disciples.
John also was very descriptive of the wells location, "city of Samaria, which is called Sychar near the ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph." I am always curious when I see such a thread of connection, perhaps the Spirit assigning this fruit to Jacob or Joseph, long since their passing., Their seed now in this woman who would tell everyone, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
I wonder how John felt as he recalled this incident, and the dubious nature of their spiritual immaturity way back then? Their only concern seemed that Jesus had not yet eaten!
His response, "I have meat to eat that you know not of."
That too went over their heads, as they further assumed that just as this woman of ill repute had provided drink, someone must have also slipped him some food.
While they were so encumbered with the things of life, overly concerned about his reputatuon, the woman they had tried to protect him from was now busy telling the world about this One who "told me all that I ever did."
Her's was a righteousness that the disciples had yet to grasp.
I can only imagine the humorous and humbling conversations these fellows must have had years later, as they washed each other's feet and broke bread each year at the Passover?
John even mentioned such a moment back in John 2:22: "When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken."