I Who Speak to You Am He! Jesus is the Savior

1–26 ‘I WHO SPEAK TO YOU AM HE!’

Jesus is the Messiah who brings life to all, Samaritan as well as Jew. He reunites Jew and Samaritan in ‘true worship’. Everything in this section builds towards verse 26. Jesus’ calling of a Samaritan woman is further evidence of what has been taught from the beginning of the Gospel, that He is the longed-for Messiah (see OT notes).

Living Water in Samaria? (John 4:1-6)

John 4:1–6 ESV

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

1–6 Scene change to Samaria. The scene change and the geographical notes all ensure that the reader is in no doubt, in the following verses, about the implications of Jesus’ actions and His offer of living water. We are not told why He ‘has’ to go through Samaria, merely that His decision to move into Gentile territory was a direct result of what the Pharisees had learned - the time for open conflict with the Pharisees has not yet arrived. Note the humanity of Jesus, that He was tired, thirsty and, presumably, hungry.

Whoever really means whoever (John 4:7-15)

John 4:7–15 ESV

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

7–15 Jesus is the Christ. God gives eternal life through Him – a person, not a place! Jesus takes the initiative in calling this woman, whose character and identity both suggest she shouldn’t stand a chance. She realises this. She is a Samaritan, to whom a Jew would not speak without risking defilement, and a woman, to whom a rabbi should not have spoken at all (v. 27). Further, the Samaritans and Jews hated one another bitterly. There is a deliberate contrast between Nicodemus and the woman, ‘He was learned, powerful, respected, orthodox, theologically trained; she was unschooled, without influence, despised, capable of only folk religion. He was a man, a Jew, a ruler; she was a woman, a Samaritan, a moral outcast. And both needed Jesus.’ (Carson, p 216). We are learning the breadth of the word ‘whoever’ in 3:36 which acts as a fulcrum between chapters 3 and 4: there is no-one that is too good to need Jesus, but no-one who is too bad to benefit from His death.

Jesus is God and His Gift is Eternal Life (John 4:10-12)

John 4:10–12 ESV

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

In verses 10–12 Jesus introduces the main issues of the conversation – who He is, and the nature of God’s gift (as readers we already know that Jesus is Himself God’s gift to a rebellious world, and that those who receive Him receive the gift of eternal life (3:16)). Both these ideas had come into the conversation with Nicodemus, and there are real comparisons to be drawn between the ways they are discussed, with him and with her (notice that once again Jesus is talking to someone who is thinking from below - about physical water, while He is speaking from above - about living water. But the new thing (and it is surprising) is that Jesus is now offering God’s gift of eternal life to a Gentile woman. She questions both His identity and His ability. Her question, ‘From where…?’ is another instance of ignorance about the origin of spiritual matters in John - 2:9; 3:8; 6.5; 9:29.

Jesus’ Living Water Satisfies (John 4:13-15)

John 4:13–15 ESV

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

Jesus’ words about living water resonate with another passage in Ezekiel, in which the prophet is shown the living water that flows out from the temple, after the return of God’s glory to the temple (Ezekiel 47:1–12; 43:1–12). Perhaps even more relevantly, living water is also a picture of eternal life and the pouring out of God’s Spirit in the day of God’s salvation (Isaiah 44:3; 55:1–3).

In verses 13–15 Jesus brings the conversation back to the point. The issue He is dealing with is God’s gift of eternal life. The gift of eternal life lies with Him and He is offering it to this woman. He really is the Saviour of the whole world. Jesus implies that He is much greater than Jacob and that He can give something far greater than Jacob ever gave the Samaritans. In addition, this gift is for whoever drinks the water that He gives. Again, there is a comparison here between the Samaritan woman, who presumes that she is one of God’s people because she can claim Jacob as her spiritual father, and Nicodemus, who fails to understand his need for anything other than his religion. The magnitude of the offer that Jesus is making should not be missed. There is a deep thirst in the heart of many men and women - Jesus is offering deep, enduring, thirst-quenching satisfaction to ‘whoever’ drinks of His living water. Eternal life is not just a cold, legal status; it is a thrilling, lavish feast.

Jesus Knows your sin, and still loves you the same (John 4:16-26)

John 4:16–26 ESV

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

16–26 Jesus is the Christ: God seeks true worship focused in Him – a person, not a place! In verses 16–20 Jesus’ exposure of the woman’s background serves primarily as a means of identifying Himself to her (although in the context of the betrothal-scene, there may well be a link between the woman’s marital infidelity and the spiritual infidelity of her people - with the coming of Jesus, there is now the potential for Samaria’s apostasy to be forgiven, and for her to be reunited with Israel and restored to her true Lord). Like Nathanael (in 1:49), the woman realises that she is not speaking to any ordinary stranger. Here is someone who ‘told me everything I ever did’ (v. 29) - a prophet rather like the prophet of Deuteronomy 18. Once she begins to realise who Jesus is, then the spiritual nature of the conversation begins to make sense. The fact that Jesus pinpoints her sin is not commented upon, so we should beware of making it a major point. For the reader, Jesus’ supernatural knowledge of this individual provides a mark of His divinity. It also gives a further emphasis to the word ‘whoever’ in 4:14: He knows this adulterous Samaritan woman through and through, and yet still He offers her the salvation that earlier He had offered to Nicodemus.

We live in the already not yet ( John 4:21-25)

John 4:21–25 ESV

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”

In verses 21–25 Jesus brings the conversation to a focus. God is seeking ‘true worshippers’ who will worship in spirit and in truth. The phrase ‘God is spirit’ controls our understanding of what Jesus means: God is divine and other; He does not have a body, but is everywhere and knows everything. True worshippers, therefore, cannot tie Him down to a place, they cannot regulate Him or control Him. He cannot be confined by a simple set of legalistic codes, nor can He be confined just to one race. He must be worshipped in spirit because He is Spirit. He should be worshipped all the time, everywhere, and by all people. And yet, as ‘spirit’ He has revealed Himself in ‘the truth’, and so He must be worshipped as He has revealed Himself, first to the Jews in the OT and now in Jesus. Now that Jesus is here, He will unite Jews and Samaritans as true worshippers who will worship in spirit and in truth. This means that religious places for worship are declared redundant – a deeply shocking concept for both Samaritan and Jew – and also that the same kind of response is demanded from both Jew and Samaritan. Notice that Jesus speaks both of an ‘hour that is coming and is now here’ (v. 23), and ‘the hour [that] is coming’ but is not yet here (v. 21). Not everything that Ezekiel promised is yet fulfilled, but it is already possible to worship the Father in spirit and truth - all we have to do is worship Jesus (9:38).

Jesus is I AM (John 4:26)

John 4:26 ESV

26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Verse 26: Jesus really is the Messiah, for the Samaritans as well as for the Jews (Ezekiel 37:15–28). More than that, this is Jesus’ first ‘I AM…’ statement in John, as Jesus takes to Himself a name reserved for Yahweh alone. He can do so because He is the new tabernacle (1:14), the new house of God (1:51), and the new temple (2:19-22) - He is the right place to worship God; indeed, He is God.