More Meaningful Conversations

Intro

John 4:1-42 & John 4:43-54

What kind of conversations happen by the water cooler? It’s a bit of a cliche question, but reflective of how gossip can take root in the workplace. People meet up by places designed to satisfy thirst and what naturally flows is conversation. But what conversations might you have there? Talk about the Grey Cup perhaps? Chat about Christmas plans? Vacation possibilities? Other people?

As we walked through John 3 last week, we met Nicodemus, a religious leader who thought he knew a lot and had some questions for Jesus. By the end of the narrative portion of the text, he sort of slipped out the back door and we had to look ahead to see him show up again and discover the path of discipleship that he would eventually take. Today, we turn our attention to a foreigner who knows very little about Jesus, and yet by the end has a vibrant and fruitful discipleship journey fueled by her own story of redemption, forgiveness and a fateful encounter with Jesus by a certain well...

This episode should make us ask ourselves a few questions. First, when we encounter Jesus, how will we respond? Second, when we respond to Jesus, who will we tell? Third, what incredible possibilities await us after beginning a life of faith in Jesus? Jesus is living water in a dry and thirsty land. Would you come and drink deeply of His well that never runs dry?

Our path through the narrative will find three main connected points about the woman at the well, one side note regarding the disciples, and then another smaller narrative at the end of chapter 4 worth noting, but we won’t be dedicating an entire message to it. We’re blazing through a large portion of scripture this morning and so we will be skipping over some parts to fit it all in, but I do encourage a more thorough read through of the text as time allows.

The first six verses of the chapter help set the stage and explain how Jesus came to be in Samaria. Let’s jump to verse 7 to see the interaction between Jesus and this woman.

From the Natural...

John 4:7–15 NASB95

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”

The amount of cultural overtones in this text that we so easily miss are staggering. John tries to point them out to his readers, but I think even by the time he sat down to write this gospel, certain things were still just assumed to be known. Of course, 2000 years later, unless we are told or do the research, we would simply miss it.

First of all, itshouldn’t surprise us that Jesus would come across a Samaritan in Samaria. The cultural animosity between Jews and Samarians goes deep. I will try to summarize what one commentary states (Gary M. Burge, NIVAC: John, p. 140-141):

“The apostasy of the OT northern kingdom of Israel was well known. When the Assyrians conquered and exiled the northern kingdom in 722 B.C., they repopulated the region with people from throughout their empire. Remnants of the defeated Israelite kingdom now mixed with Persians and other conquered peoples… Following the Babylonian exile when Zerubbabel led the rebuilding of the temple, Samaritan help was adamantly refused (Ezra 4:2-3), which fueled more conflict. When Alexander the Great and later Greek generals controlled Palestine (beginning about 330 B.C.), they made Samaria an important base, knowing that here they could find sympathetic, anti-Jewish allies. When the Jews had their opportunity (128 B.C.), they attacked Samaria, destroyed Shechem, and burned the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.”

There were political and cultural rivalries, competing religious ideologies (Samaria accepted the Pentateuch, but rejected all the prophetic and historical writings of the OT). By Jesus’ time, Jews and Samaritans hated and generally avoided one another. On top of that, cultural norms of the time prevented men from speaking with women and so what Jesus was doing asking the woman for a drink of water was a culture shock for the woman. We see this in her repsonse in verse 9.

But much like with Nicodemus from chapter 3, Jesus tries to have a spiritual conversation with someone who has a hard time thinking outside of the natural order of things. Jesus introduces the idea of living water, which is only available through a divine source. But the woman hears only a request for water, and now a confusing discourse about it. Jesus asked for water, and now He says that He is a source of some special water. But how can He get this water, He has no bucket… She starts to begin flexing her “religious” muscles and appeals to Jacob, a common ancestor whose story is recorded in the book of Genesis, and asks if Jesus is greater than Jacob who dug the well.

Jesus quickly points out that she is thinking naturally. If you drink from a natural source of water, you will naturally get thirsty again. What He offers is something different. Samaria was a dry and arid land with few fresh water sources. The fact that Jacob had to dig a well reveals that running water was not common for the region. Jesus describes a fountain of water… a bubbling source of water, fresh water, spiritual water that will never end. This water leads to eternal life. Again, Jesus is trying to have a spiritual conversation with someone who is having a hard time thinking of anything but the natural order of things.

Despite her confusion, she is willing to continue speaking with Jesus and she asks for this water, thinking that this will save her time since she won’t need to drink water anymore.

… To the Supernatural

John 4:16–26 NASB95

He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Jesus asks for her to bring her husband. After responding that she has no husband, Jesus reveals some of His divine knowledge about her situation… multiple husbands and currently living with a man that is not her husband.

Confronted with the sin in her life, and indeed, further evidence of her social status as a known sinner, she tries to safe face by engaging in a spiritual conversation of her own choosing. She perceives that He is a prophet and asks a question about where to worship… one of the dividing points between the Samaritans and the Jews… in the Temple or on this mountain?

Jesus surprises her in His response in that He doesn’t defend the temple as she expects, rather He points to an immanent future where location doesn’t matter, but intention does. Do you truly intend to worship God? That’s what matters.

She is still trying to save face and thus asks a question that she no doubt didn’t realize how significant it was. She was vaguely aware of a prophesied Messiah and mentions this to Jesus. Jesus straight up says: “I who speak to you am He.” (verse 26). It’s not often Jesus openly identifies Himself as the Messiah, but here in Samaria, He speaks plainly and truly.

Sidenote #1

John 4:27-38

At this point in the narrative, the disciples come back and see Jesus speaking with her. Amazed at the fact that He is shattering all cultural norms and expectations, they ask why He would speak with her. Whether because of the question or in utter amazement at what Jesus had revealed to her, she runs off to the city, leaving her waterpot behind.

But look at what she says to the people… John 4:29 ““Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”” It’s the gospel in its most simple form isn’t it? Come and see! This is my story, but you need to experience Him for yourself! See for yourself if He is the Messiah prophesied!

The interaction Jesus has with the disciples is interesting although similar enough to Jesus’ conversation with the woman about living water. They saw that He hadn’t eaten anything and Jesus indicates that He has food that they don’t know about. John 4:34 “Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”

Jesus then launches into a miniature parable about the fields being ready for the harvest, and while there are great lessons to learn here, it’s perhaps better if we leave it aside and consider coming back to it another day. Let’s keep our focus on the woman in the story.

Sharing Your Story

John 4:39–42 NASB95

From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”

This small passage presenting the results of a woman’s evangelism to her own town is remarkable. She was virtually an outcast because of her lifestyle, and yet her testimony was sincere and compelling enough that the people came out to see Jesus for themselves. And did you notice what her testimony was? Come see a man who told me everything I have done… this woman whose lifestyle was questionable at best, but more likely adulterous. And the people believed her enough to come see for themselves. John 4:41 “Many more believed because of His word;” Because of her, they met Jesus. Because of Jesus, they believed in Him!

Look at verse 42, because I think this is important for us to understand if we have ever doubted our ability to evangelize. John 4:42 “and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”” She shared what happened to her, and that was enough. She didn’t have to have all the right words or the right doctrines about forgiveness for sins. She simply stated that she found Jesus and reported her encounter with Him. The people came to see for themselves and because they did, they too began to believe. And Jesus’ ministry there must have been incredible to behold!

Closing out this brief section, John offers an explanation as to how Jesus came to Galilee and the reception He received when He got there. Again, we could try to dig further into this, but for the sake of time and focusing on the main lessons we can glean from this text today, we will leave it at that.

Sidenote #2

John 4:46-54

The last part of chapter 4 really deserves special focus of its own, but for the sake of time and progressing through the gospel at a certain pace, I want to simply make mention here that this passage is worth further study. It further tells us of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee and a miracle surrounding the son of a certain “royal official” who requests that Jesus come heal his son who was dying. Jesus heals the boy from a distance and the man notes the time and goes home to find the boy recovered at the same time as Jesus issued the command. John points out that this was the second sign Jesus performs in Galilee after coming out of Judea.

Conclusion

There is so much going on in this passage of scripture. We could spend a few Sunday’s here and still have more to learn. If I could just read the text and we all pick up on everything, that would be great, but we are so far removed from the culture in which this was written that we simply miss so much of what is going on. I’ve read through this text dozens of times, studied it, preached on it, led devotions on it and I am still learning more about what is going on here.

But to summarize our walk through the text this morning and to hilight the things I would like us to take away, we find Jesus in Samaria interacting with a woman. In so doing, He breaks more cultural taboos than we could fully comprehend, but reveals a truth that needs to be looked at. Jesus is living water for the thirsty soul.

The woman contrasts with Nicodemus whom we looked at last week in so many ways. While Nicodemus met Jesus at night, this interaction takes place at noon. Remember the significance of the motif of light and darkness in John’s gospel. Nicodemus was a “righteous” religious leader who thought he knew a lot, but in truth knew very little. This woman never tried to present herself as knowing all that much, but was willing to learn. Nicodemus wasn’t yet ready to openly follow Jesus because he just didn’t understand. This woman, though not fully understanding was willing to put her faith in Jesus and tell everyone else about it!

Nicodemus would take time to come to a faith of sorts in Jesus whereas this woman came right away. We could look to the book of Acts to see more of what happens in this particular region, and we can guess as to what might have happened, but such is way beyond the scope of this message this morning.

Oh, and so that you know what to expect in the coming weeks, we will be setting aside our walk through of John for the four Sundays of Advent as well as for a week of holidays after Christmas. We will resume this study in the New Year!

If you have been hearing these messages over the past few weeks and you’ve heard the challenges to consider following Jesus, perhaps today is the day. If you would like to accept Jesus into your heart, I invite you to join me at the front after service and we can talk and pray and help you receive Jesus into your life as the woman at the well did in our text today.