Pubic Ministry: Journey to Sychar - Part 1 (4:1-26)

Introduction:

As we Continue in our study of the Gospel according to the apostle John, we will remember last week that we saw two baptizing events going on at the same time. One was in Judea, just to the north of Jerusalem, with Jesus and his disciples, and the other was John the Baptist and his disciples, a bit further north, not far from Galilee. As a result of these two events, the disciples of John became indignant and quarrelsome because Jesus and his disciples were getting more people coming to them, even though they had been at it longer than them.

John the Baptist however, quickly sets the record straight, reminding his disciples that he was only the forerunner of the Messiah, and that as a result, John’s ministry would now decrease, since Jesus was now revealed, and that Jesus’ ministry would increase in his eternal purpose as the true messiah.

This morning, we will begin a rather long but important passage linked appropriately to the ministry of Jesus and his disciples whereby we see him purposely traveling from Judea through Samaria, in his Journey to Sychar - Part 1, in John 4:1-26.

Text: John 4:1-26

John 4:1–26 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. 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.” 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.”

Main Idea: Because Jesus alone is God in the flesh, he alone can provide for all humanity their Spiritual needs.

Background:

So how does all that we have seen in John’s gospel thus far link to this morning’s message? We shall see shortly, that not only is Jesus the revealer and implementor of the New Covenant, as was seen in his changing water to wine and cleansing the temple, but in this passage and next week’s, we will see that this new covenant was not just for a certain group of people. Jesus chooses very carefully what he does next since the background of this incident is the profound contempt that the Jews and the Samaritans felt for each other.

The Samaritan religion mingled reverence for Israel’s God with the pagan practices of non-Israelite peoples who had been resettled into the territory of the northern kingdom by the conquering Assyrians (2 Kin. 17:24–41). Samaritan compromises with pagan idolatry intensified the Jews’ hostility toward them. Not surprisingly, the Samaritans responded with enmity toward the Jews. Thus, when traveling between Galilee and Judea, many Jews would cross the Jordan twice rather than pass through Samaria. However, as we will see, Jesus did not follow this practice.

I. Journey Through Samaria (1-6)

A. Reason for the Journey (1-3)

(1) Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John - Jesus’ popularity with the Judean masses would provoke a premature crisis with the Pharisees, so He departed from Judea. As we have seen and will see, with Jesus, timing is everything.

(2) (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), - as we mentioned last week that Jesus was overseeing the baptisms.

(3) he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. - Jesus, begins his trek back to Galilee.

B. Necessity of the Journey (4)

This small verse is packed with significance…

(4) And he had to pass through Samaria.

Jesus had to pass at first glance may give the impression that he went this way because of geography (it was the shortest route), but the words may also indicate that Jesus’ itinerary was subject to the sovereign and providential plan of God (had to translates Gk. dei, “to be necessary,” which always indicates divine necessity or requirement, and is translated as must elsewhere in John: 3:7, 14, 30; 9:4; 10:16; 12:34; 20:9).

John 3:7 ESV

7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

John 10:16 ESV

16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

through Samaria was the usual route taken by travelers from Judea to Galilee, though strict Jews, in order to avoid defilement, could bypass Samaria by opting for a longer route that involved crossing the Jordan twice and traveling on the east side, then back to the west side.

The Samaritans, because they were a racially mixed group of partly Jewish and partly Gentile ancestry, were disdained by both Jews and non-Jews.

2 Kings 17:24–31, describes how the king of Assyria brought foreign people to settle in Samaria in 722 B.C.; over time they had intermarried with some Jews who had remained in the area. Many inhabitants of this region between Judea and Galilee were descendants of the OT northern kingdom of Israel, although from the Jewish perspective these Samaritans had assimilated strongly into non-Jewish culture and had intermarried with Gentiles.

The Samaritans had their own version of the Pentateuch, their own temple on Mount Gerizim (see 4:20), and their own rendering of Israelite history.

Tensions often ran so high between Jews and Samaritans that Josephus recounts fighting between Jews and Samaritans during Claudius’s reign in the first century A.D. being so intense that Roman soldiers were called in to pacify (and to crucify) many of the rebels.

C. Humanity of Jesus (5-6)

(5) So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

The village of Sychar is usually identified with Askar, which is approximately 0.7 miles (1.2 km) from Jacob’s well and on the slope of Mount Ebal.

The reference to the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph reflects the customary inference from Gen. 48:21–22 and Josh. 24:32 that Jacob gave his son Joseph the land at Shechem, which he had bought from the sons of Hamor (Gen. 33:18–19) and which later served as Joseph’s burial place (Ex. 13:19; Josh. 24:32).

(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.

Jacob’s well. The probable location for this well lies in modern Nablus and called in the OT by the name Shechem. It is quite deep (as described in v. 11), although measurements have varied over the years (possibly due to debris in the well). It was also at a juncture of major ancient roads and near the traditional sacred site of Joseph’s tomb.

The reference to Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey underscores his full humanity (see also 11:35; 19:28). Jesus’ human nature could be weak and tired, though his divine nature was omnipotent (cf. 1:3, 10).

Sixth hour refers to noon, when it would have been hot and time to rest, and travelers would be thirsty. Normally, women would come to draw water in the morning or evening when it was cooler (Gen. 24:11; cf. 29:7–8), however, the immoral woman would come at a time when no one else would be at the well…this is where we go next as we meet the…

II. Woman of Samaria (7-15)

A. Jesus’ Request of Her (7-8)

(7) A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”

A woman from Samaria came to draw water - to draw water as a woman at noon, meant that you were an outcast and probably immoral.

“Give me a drink.”- Jesus took the initiative in speaking to a Samaritan woman—an astonishing break with culture and tradition, showing his desire to save the lost.

(8) (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) - shows that Jesus was alone with this woman.

B. Woman Surprised by Him (9)

(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.)

This woman was doubly disdained in that she was a woman, which in that culture meant that she was inferior to men, and she was a Samaritan. Jewish men in that culture would make unbiblical statements like, “I am grateful not to be a dog (Gentile), or a woman”.

The comment that Jews have no dealings with Samaritans explains to John’s readers outside the land of Palestine that Samaritans were considered by many Jews to be in a continual state of uncleanness, thus they would have thought that drinking water from this woman’s water jar would make a person ceremonially unclean. The verb in the phrase rendered have no dealings can also have a more specific meaning of “share use of [things].”

C. Jesus’ Response to Her (10-15)

(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.”

Here we see humanity being introduced to its spiritual need, in that Jesus’ words about living water again involve a double meaning:

Literally, the phrase refers to fresh spring water (Gen. 26:19; Lev. 14:6),

John 7:38–39, also identifies this “living water” as the Holy Spirit dwelling within a believer (cf. Jer. 2:13; Ezek. 47:1–6; Zech. 14:8; also Isa. 12:3).

Isaiah 12:3 ESV

3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

(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?

the well is deep - The well today is still over 100 feet (31 m) deep and was probably deeper at that time.

Where do you get that living water - we see here the woman is still understanding Jesus from the pure physical sense.

(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.”

By referring to our father Jacob the woman shows that she and her people still think of themselves as true descendants of Jacob (Israel, Gen. 32:28).

Clearly the woman does not understand who Jesus is, for then she would understand that he is greater even than Jacob, the father of the 12 tribes of Israel (see Gen. 49:1–28).

(13) Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

will be thirsty again. Jesus contrasts temporary with eternal satisfaction, teaching that all earthly pleasures, even legitimate ones, are fading.

(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.”

I will give - expresses that this water is only given by divine origin: “welling up” is its great abundance; “eternal life” is its endless duration.

The water that I will give him is the “living water” of v. 10, identified in 7:37–39 as the Holy Spirit dwelling within believers, never be thirsty again. A person’s deepest spiritual longing to know God personally will, amazingly, be satisfied forever, as we see next…

The phrase will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life is reminiscent of Isa. 12:3 (see also Isa. 55:1–3)

Isaiah 55:1–3 ESV

1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

(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.”

The woman takes Jesus literally and misunderstands him, just as Nicodemus did (see 3:4). In John’s Gospel, Jesus frequently speaks in terms of the visible, physical world (birth, water, bread, his body, light) to teach about the unseen spiritual world. These known images taught spiritual eternal truths.

In order for her to receive this living water, she must be confronted with her sin…

III. Confrontation and Revelation by Jesus (16-26)

A. Jesus Confronts Her Sin (16-18)

(16) Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

There is a close connection between the woman’s request (Sir, give me this water) and Christ’s to “Go, call your husband, and come here.”. Does the woman desire living water? Then there must be a thirst for this water. This thirst will not be truly awakened unless there be a sense of guilt, a consciousness of sin.

The mention of her husband is the best means of reminding this woman of her immoral life. The Lord is now addressing himself to her conscience.

(17) The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;

no husband. While technically truthful, the woman’s curt statement is probably intended to close the subject. But Jesus, with gentleness and compassion, reveals both her sin and his omniscient knowledge of her life.

(18) for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

The woman has had five husbands who had either died or divorced her. When Jesus says the one you now have is not your husband, he implies that merely living together does not constitute a marriage. A marriage requires some kind of official sanction and public ceremony at which a man and woman commit to the obligations of marriage and the community then recognizes that a marriage has begun.

Sexual relationships prior to marriage were without question thought to be morally wrong (1 Cor. 6:18; 7:2).

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV

18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV

2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

B. Jesus Confronts Her Worship (19-24)

(19) The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

The woman does not deny the remarks of Jesus concerning her immoral life. In fact, by calling him a prophet (which to her meant one who can read secrets) she really admits her guilt!

(20) Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

At the division of the kingdom into Israel (north) and Judah (south), Jeroboam established shrines in the north, at Bethel and Dan, to discourage his subjects from traveling to Jerusalem for the three annual feasts (1 Kin. 12:25–33).

After the northern kingdom fell to Assyria (721 B.C.), the split widened between the Jews in Jerusalem and the Israelites living in Samaria, who built a temple on Mount Gerizim, which was destroyed around 130 B.C. Samaritans have continued to worship on Mount Gerizim even into modern times.

(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.

Jesus is inaugurating a new age in which people will not have to travel to a physical temple in one city to worship but will be able to worship God in every place, because the Holy Spirit will dwell in them, and therefore God’s people everywhere will become the new temple where God dwells.

(22) You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

You is plural, implying “You Samaritans.” In saying we worship what we know Jesus identifies himself as a Jew. The verse shows that John’s Gospel is not anti-Semitic. Salvation is from the Jews in the sense that the whole OT, which taught about salvation, was from the Jewish people, and the Messiah himself came from the Jews and not from the Samaritans or (by implication) from the Gentiles.

(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.”

the hour is coming, and is now here. The time is soon coming when divisions between Jews and Samaritans will be removed (v. 21), and temple worship will be superseded. The time “is now here” because Jesus is present and has begun the work leading to the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church.

true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth - Jesus revealed that the where of worship is not vital, only the how and the what. God seeks worshippers who will worship Him in spirit (from the heart, by the Holy Spirit) and in truth (in accord with His revelation of Himself). The Jews did not worship in spirit (their religion was external) and the Samaritans did not worship in truth (they worshipped a god of their own imagination, not the God of revelation).

Prominent marks of the age of the Spirit are the removal of the barrier between Jews and Gentiles, and the ability of Christians to worship without the need for a temple of any kind.

Ephesians 2:14–22 ESV

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

God is spirit means that God is not made of any physical matter and does not have a material body but has a more wonderful kind of existence that is everywhere present (hence worship is not confined to one place, v. 21), He is not perceived by the bodily senses (cf. 3:6, 8), and yet is so powerful that he brought the universe into existence (cf. 1:1–3, 10; 17:5). Because “God is spirit,” the Israelites were not to make idols “in the form of anything” in creation as did the surrounding nations (Ex. 20:4).

C. Jesus Reveals Himself (25-26)

(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.”

Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). Jesus does not often identify himself directly as the Messiah since most would then think he had come to bring instant political deliverance, but he departs from that pattern here in Samaria, which is removed from the centers of Judaism.

I who speak to you am he. The Greek reads, “I am, [that is] the one speaking to you.” “I am” is a theologically significant construction in this gospel, often implying a claim to deity, we will see this phrase used over and over again in John as Jesus continually identifies himself as the I am!

So What?

Do we understand that the gospel is to be taken to the whole world regardless of race, color, or creed?

Do we see Jesus as the only one that can truly satisfy the deepest and most essential needs of humanity?

Do we truly worship God in spirit and truth, or do we seek emotion over truth or truth over emotion?