Woman at the Well (John 4:1-30, 39-42)
Encounters with Jesus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Single Mom… tired and burnt out
(Today we are going to look at a women who was in a similar place… until she encounter Jesus)
[3rd sermon in our series titled encounters with Jesus]
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.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
John records this event that Jesus has with the Samaritan women at the well.
And the first thing John points out is that Jesus is forced out of the area of Judea,
because the Pharisees heard of Jesus’ following.
And because he was compelled to move out of Judea,
he heads toward Galilee.
John makes an interesting remark in verse 4...
V4 “And he had to pass through Samaria.”
I have learned in life that those had to moments,
God either caused or worked in them…
(Had to… get a new job… find a new home…)
We have all experienced those had to moments…
[God ordained] Romans 8:28
Jesus had to pass through Samaria..
We may interpret this moment for Jesus as an inconvenience,
an interruption to the plan,
but really this moment for Jesus was Divinely ordained.
Jesus had to leave Judea to go to Galilee,
had to pass through Samaria,
and He finds himself absolutely exhausted from His journey,
and sits to rest by this seemingly random well.
(But of course God is not random is He?)
As Jesus is seating by the well at the heat of the day, (6th hour… noon)
a Samaritan women comes to the well.
Original readers would have recognized 2 things immediately when reading this.
It is the heat of the day and no one goes to the well than...
(this is were original context matters.. Wisconsin… Georgia…)
2. This women is all alone… (they came in groups)
John begins to record Jesus’ conversation with this women,
and the first thing that Johns says is that Jesus asks the women for some water.
And she responds saying…
V9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”
As I said last week the relationship between Samaritans and Jews were very simple...
Jews hated Samaritans and Samaritans hated Jews.
Mark Keown writes on the subject to give some background,
“The Samaritans were hated by the Jews, who considered them half-Jews because they were descended from those who had been taken into exile in 722 BC by Assyria and had intermarried and mixed with other nations. The Samaritans had their own temple on Mount Gerizim...
During the reign of Antiochus Epiphanies (168 BC) the Samaritans complied with his decrees and stopped observing the Sabbath and circumcising, and dedicated their temple to Zeus, causing the Jews to hate them even more…
(What could have been a unifying moment turned into an even bigger barrier between the 2 groups)
This moment in history was one of the reason why,
In 128 BC, the Samaritans temple was destroyed by the Maccabean family as it was considered blasphemy.”
There is of course more that I could go into,
but hopefully you get a little better picture of how the Samaritans and Jews saw one another. (Hate)
Therefore,
this women is probably a little cynical in her response to Jesus because Jews and Samaritans do not usually talk,
and here is this Jew asking for a drink.
What I am sure ads to here skepticism of this situation,
is she is all alone,
and she really has not had the best experience with men.
So she says to Jesus,
V9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”
Jesus responds to her saying,
V10 “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.”
So she humors Jesus,
maybe out of curiosity,
maybe out of being lonely and wanting to talk with someone.
and she responds to Jesus,
in a very natural way..
V11 “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?
She is thinking in the natural when Jesus is addressing the spiritual.
Explain…
Grandpa Clark…
Pastor we all know you are not a spiritual man…
(Jesus is patience with the women at the well)
Jesus says,
(V 13-14)“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.”
Now this get her attention...
V15 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.”
(I don't have to come here again?)
I’m tired… going alone… heat of day...
As Jesus is weary from his journey,
He sits by a well,
to encounter a women who is weary from life.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
This women needed to enter into God’s rest and drink from that living water.
But there is a problem,
there is stuff in her life that is blocking her from entering into this rest,
and drinking from this living water.
Therefore,
Jesus knows that he must address things that are blocking her from receiving this living water,
and entering into this rest.
V16-17 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’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
I said going into this series that we can sometimes think or believe things about Jesus that are not true.
PRESUPPOSITIONS...
Because of this,
there is a false idea that has crept into the church that Jesus does not care how we live.
(Wont say it that way… me and Jesus are good)
The idea that is many times entruched into our thinking is...
God is love,
therefore he will only say things that I like and will never say things that are uncomfortable.
It comes down to the fact that we have believed a false version of loved.
It is a love that is shaped by culture,
not shaped by the Word of God.
Example… of true of love vs false love…
Son or daughter playing…
loving and nurturing people to death.
Jesus is not exposing her sin in order to show how wicked she is,
rather Jesus is exposing that which is a barrier from her receiving eternal life.
Jesus is doing this out of a love and compassion for this women who tired...
a women who has been rejected...
a women who has been been thrown out by the world...
As Jesus addresses this barrier,
The women does what many people do when a sensitive issue is addressed,
she change the subject.
And in this case she changes the subject from morality,
into abstract theological conversation,
that is likely embedded with a point about her particular circumstance.
she says…
V20 “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
In other words...
she is saying...
I was brought up to worship at the mountain....
you Jews were brought up to worship at Jerusalem....
we all can’t be right...
I can’t but help but wonder if her implication of what she is saying,
is can we really be certain what truth is…
Can we be certain where to worship...
therefore if we can’t be certain where to worship,
can we be certain that my 5 divorces and my current citation of living with a man outside of someone outside of marriage,
to be deemed as wrong.
Is there concrete truth or is there only subjective truth.
Jesus knows exactly how to answer her…
V23b-24 “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Spirit and truth
golden calf = spirit
knowledge = truth
After Jesus makes this statement about worshiping in Spirit and Truth.
V25-26 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.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
NLT “I AM the Messiah!”
I Am.…
living water… Eternal life… rest
I am the one who can take away your sins…
The women leaves her water jar behind and runs back into the village to tell them about Jesus....
The women left everything behind in order to tell people about Jesus.
here me when I say this…
An Encounter with Jesus must lead us to leave our past behind us… 2x
John finishes this story by saying this.…
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
It was Jesus’ word that saved them...
The women was the one to give the introduction to Jesus,
but it was Jesus’s Word that brought the harvest.
The job of the Evangelist is to give the introduction,
but God is the one who brings the transformation.
Paul said..
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
The Pastor plants the seeds on Sunday,
The congregation that waters the seed during the week,
but God is the one who grows that seed.
I want to close with this…
Today you may feel unworthy and unqualified to be apart of anything of the Kingdom of God…
If that is you...
I want you to understand what Jesus did with this women and still does today.
Many theologians contribute this Samaritan women at the well to be the first recorded Evangelist in Jesus ministry.
In many ways she is probably the last person at this time in history that one would ever think would be called as an evangelist.
There was 3 big things going against her...
(1) she was a woman,
(2) she was a Samaritan,
(3) she was an outcast among outcast.
