Sermon - Samaritan Woman at the Well
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Heart to Heart
Turn to John 4
Title of story (woman at well, samaritan woman)
-neither seems quite right…
-story about Crusade - and how I wont talk about that… haha
Prayer
We'll read - but I will pause in the middle in some places to give context.
Read John 4:1–6 “Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.”
A lot of interest here - Jesus is tired, he was a human. Seeming random details even - not the way a made up book is written…
Talk about where Jesus is - he's in Samaria.
-detail about "Had to go through Samaria"
Aside about Samaria
• Jesus lived 0-30 AD
○ 1000 BC was 1000 years before Jesus
§ 1000 years is a LONG LONG time
○ Just to set timing
•on the screen you can see a short list of 1000 years of history
○ The kingdom begins (around 1000 BC) and the first Kings are Saul, David, and then Solomon (120 years)
○ Then in ~930 BC, Israel splits due to a rebellion by 10 tribes in Israel and they become Israel, while the southern tribes are Judah
§ Don't worry there is a payoff
○ In 880 BC the Israel king buys a hill of Samaria and makes it the Capital City - over time Samaria becomes the name of the region, not just the city
○ In 720 Assyria comes and conquers Israel (in 2 Kings it is called Samaria)
○ 400 BC they build a temple on Mt Gerizim to compete with the one in Jerusalem
○ So, by 200 BC, you have 800 years (a long time) of distrust between these two people groups. A lot of hatred that has grown.
○ And then in 164 BC you have Judas Maccabeus - who fights and frees Jerusalem from their -then Greek- overlords. This man, Maccabeus - was thought of by many as a Messianic figure.
Read John 4:7–9 “When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)”
• Quick pause. This "Jews do not associate with Samaritans" means this. But in the greek it means a bit more even. If is literally: Jews don't share tools/things with Samaritans. They don't have common USE of things.
Read John 4:10-30
• Next is a great interlude by the disciples, but for times sake, we'll skip ahead to 39
Read John 4:39–42 “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.””
OK. So that's the story.
There is SO much here. I cannot, and will not, be able to cover even all of the things that I know and understand about this passage - but I'll try to throw up a few flags where there are awesome things.
I want to give you some details for you to digest before we get to the point. Ok?
Living water - background
In addition to the background on Samaritans, I want to discuss living water. This meant something to Jesus and to the Jews of the day. We tend to often think of the things Jesus says as cryptic as secrets. And sometimes they are - he speaks in parables sometimes. This is not one of those times. Living water meant something to him and to those in his day. So, we should try to understand it:
• In 10-14, Jesus says he has living water. This phrase is SUPER loaded for Jews in this day. So, let me help us to capture some of it…
For the ancient Israelite, water that came from God WAS life.
Living Water - Verses
Jeremiah 2:13
God calls himself the "Spring of living water" - the place living water comes from!
Psalm 36:9
the Psalmist calls God the "fountain of life" meaning life flows out of God - like water from a fountain
Isaiah 44:3-4
God (through Isaiah) equates His spirit with water he will pour out
Ezekiel 47:1
Ezekiel describes part of his Angelic guided tour - and he sees the temple… and water is flowing out of the Temple of God
Much of this idea comes from Genesis 2:10-14
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
In Eden there is a river flowing out - that goes to water the world
And then, we see this exact idea repeated at the end. from the second chapter of the bible to the last...
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
linked DIRECTLY to Genesis - the living water flowing out of the throne of God and of the Lamb
Point is, this is a very clever wordplay by Jesus… when at a well with a woman coming to fetch water…
Jesus is offering to the woman - life. And not only physical life - like water brings, but eternal life - life flowing from God. In THAT life, as John describes immediately after describing the water flowing from the temple… so
Revelation 22:17,
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
When Jesus offers living water, he means the eternal life, that flows from God himself, into us.
Marriage
Next I want us to look at Marriage in that day
We don’t have time to get into it, but there is an awesome Jewish motif at play here. ask me about it after...
• What I want to get into is the woman at the well
○ She had 5 husbands
§ We don’t know how or why she had 5
□ Perhaps they died and she married the younger brother - as in In which case she was likely thought cursed
□ Perhaps she cheated or her husband did - in either case she was likely seen negatively, especially after 5
□ Perhaps something else - but after 5…
○ And we know she was living in adultery at the time
§ So, definitely would have been looked down on by her neighbors in Samaria
○ She was at the well alone
§ We don’t know why
□ But in that day, women were the ones who collected the water - and usually in the morning when it was still cool. And usually with a group
§ We know she was alone and that it was noon (6th hour)
□ So, it is easy to presume that she either wasn't welcome with the normal crowd, or she didn’t feel comfortable with the crowd
§ Most likely - she was shunned, based on her situation. And so she visited the well alone.
Women and Men
And lastly, before we get into the take-aways, I want to talk about women. Or rather the relationships that men and women had in the day.
• When the disciples arrive, they are "surprised to find Jesus talking with a woman" - not even FIRST a samaritan. But a woman. And that is because, in that day and in Jewish custom, women and men did not speak often publicly. In fact, in the mishnah, a compilation of Jewish religious teachings interpreting the Bible - tells men "not to speak much to women". In fact, for many rabbis, they didn’t even speak to female members of their family in public… sorry skye! You have to talk to me! :)
• Women were not generally seen highly in that day - inside or outside of Judaism…
OK. So we have a bunch of context.
Samaria, Living water, Marriage, Women and men
Finally, let's understand the heart to heart conversation that Jesus has with the Samaritan woman at the well. Right? Cool
I think there are 3 really meaningful things for us to take away:
Jesus destroys Prejudice
1. Jesus has no interest in non-biblical, even antibiblical traditional prejudices
a. He approaches the woman, who as a travelling rabbi - maybe he shouldn't be talking to a woman. But that isn't biblical. Is only teachings by the Jewish leaders at the time.
b. But not only that she is a woman. But that she is a samaritan woman. And this is INCREDIBLE
i. Because, as I shared, Jews and Samaritans, mostly hated each other.
ii. In verse 9- where she says to him, when he asks for a drink - for Jews do not associate with Samaritans… it means that but also more. It means literally that they don’t use common tools. It means that things that one uses. The other doesn’t.
1) This is a description of separate but equal in the US. Of beaches that have a white black seperation. Its of drinking fountains - but where they are seperated based on whether you are one people or another. It wasn't so long ago this was true for black and white people in the US. I know many south africans who can still remember Apartheid. This kind of seperation is still happening all over the world to indigenous people.
iii. This is Jesus drinking from the wrong fountain during the days in the US of Jim Crow Laws - separate but not equal. This is Jesus going to the wrong beach during apartheid.
1) We have so many modern examples of massive hatred and mistreatment - indigenous people all over… and Jesus moves in direct opposition of this. He goes to their well. And ask to drink from this woman's water bucket…
Jesus is kind
a. He treats this woman with no condemnation
i. Kindness - and he knows her
ii. She is the first to hear that he is the messiah
iii. She gets to tell her people of Jesus!
Jesus offers eternal life
- free from the curse of this world. A life to come of joy and peace. And access to that life now - that we can experience these treasures now.
a. He gives the living water. And it is FREE!
This isn’t just some future life - but life that you can access now, at least in part. one where we can experience love, joy, peave, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. One where we feel the love and life of the father. one where our priorities and values change. where we are given a new heart.
and this is why i didnt go into the evangelism - about wht and how Jesus approached the woman...
… because in this story, we aren’t jesus. We’re the woman! we’re the woman. we’re the ones who have done wrong. and we know it. we have experienced pain and heartache. probably mistreated by others who we love. probably some sadness at some elements in our life. maybe prejudice or meanness. we are the woman. who is is met in the middle of our life - when we were just going on our way… and here shows up Jesus. he is kind and he loves us and recognizes us as having innate worth - the images of God. and he offers us eternal life.
Let’s pray
