John 4:1-42
Notes
Transcript
John 4 contains one of the great interactions between Jesus and another person, this time: a Samaritan woman.
Most of us have heard this story. It might even be an old, familiar favorite.
I don’t anticipate or expect that anything I say this morning will be new to you, nothing novel or groundbreaking.
The most important thing we can do when we come to the Bible is to ask what this has to teach us about Jesus—His person, His character, His work.
What do we learn about Jesus from this interaction He has with this woman at Jacob’s well in the land of Samaria?
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
To get from Point A (Judea) to Point B (Galilee), one had two options. The first is to travel a straight line from A to B and walk through Samaria.
Some Jewish people, so strong was their aversion to Samaria and Samaritan people, that some Jews would intentionally walk out of the way to avoid Samaria altogether.
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Some Jews would cross the border and walk the Transjordan path around Samaria and into Galilee, so as not to set foot in Samaria.
Most would venture straight through, but the hatred ran deep. They’d hold their nose and suffer the Samaritan voyage.
For both Jews and Samaritans, the border between them was defined by, more than anything, history and religion.
Think back to 1 Kings: King Omri named the new capital of the Northern Kingdom “Samaria”—the name was then transferred to the district and sometimes the entire Northern Kingdom.
After the Assyrians captured Samaria in 722-721 BC, they deported most of the Israelites and settled the land with foreigners who intermarried with the remaining Israelites and then adhered to some version of their ancient religion (only following the Pentateuch, not worshipping in Jerusalem, but Mt. Gerizim; interestingly, a small number of Samaritans survives to this day).
After the exile, the Jews viewed Samaritans as the children of political rebels and racial half-breeds whose religion was tainted by various unacceptable elements.
There’s a reason some people avoided Samaria altogether.
But not Jesus.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 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.)
There’s certainly a reason why this story about Jesus marching directly through Samaria is recorded here for us.
As he’s writing his Gospel, John may have intended to contrast the stories of this woman and Nicodemus.
Let’s think about the differences between them:
Nicodemus was learned, powerful, respected, orthodox, theologically trained.
This woman was unschooled, without influence, despised, capable only of folk religion.
Nicodemus was a man, a Jew, a ruler.
She’s a woman, a Samaritan, and moral outcast.
It’s quite the contrast between the two, and yet there’s this that unites them: both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman desperately need Jesus.
Let’s remember who Jesus is and what Jesus knows.
Jesus knows Samaritans and Jews don’t get along. He’s no fool. He’s well-aware. He’s been raised with this understanding that Jews and Samaritans don’t mix.
John notes parenthetically at the end of verse 8 that Jews and Samaritans don’t associate.
Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, knows this.
Jesus, the Son of God, omniscient/all-knowing certainly knows this. From eternity past. Jesus knows all this. He gets the situation.
Jesus is divinely familiar with Jacob’s Well. He knew where He was going. Knew what He was doing. Knew this lady would be at this well at this time on this day.
John’s little statement in parentheses is there, I believe, to highlight the difference between the common perspective about Samaritans and Jesus’ perspective about Samaritans.
You see, here’s something we learn about Jesus from this incredible story:
Jesus is for Everyone
Jesus is for Everyone
Nationality, race, ethnicity, socio-economic factors—none of that matters to Jesus. Jesus is for every single kind of person.
And every single person has the same desperate need for Jesus.
Even the woman thought it was odd for a Jewish man to be speaking with her. She all but says so. John 4:9 “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Of course this woman doesn’t know who Jesus is. All she can perceive is that Jesus is some Jewish man, randomly asking a random Samaritan woman for a drink of water.
She has no idea who she’s talking to, and now Jesus offers a far better drink.
The “gift of God” that she doesn’t recognize is probably the eternal life that only Jesus can bestow.
The woman is understandably confused. Jesus isn’t making much sense. Jesus speaks of water He will give, water that quenches thirst permanently.
That sounds great, but what is He talking about? He thinks He’s greater than Jacob?!
Jesus is actually making reference to the OT prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 2, God declares:
13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
That is, the people have rejected the fresh, running supply of God and His faithful goodness, choosing instead the stagnant waters of cisterns they themselves prepared. Their cisterns were cracked, leaving them with nothing to sustain life and blessing.
Other OT prophets (Zechariah hand Ezekiel) look forward to a time when living water will flow out of Jerusalem.
The living water is a metaphor speaking about God and His grace, the knowledge of God, life, transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere, water promises cleansing.
Here in John 4, the water Jesus offers is the satisfying eternal life that only Jesus, the Messiah and Savior of the world, can provide.
Only Jesus Satisfies
Only Jesus Satisfies
This is, for me, probably the single most important truth about Jesus from John 4.
Jesus speaks of the living water He offers. That is, He speaks to this woman about eternal life found in Him.
This woman came to the well that day, like every other day, to fetch some water. She carried her jar, day after day. It’s just another day for this woman.
But this day, this encounter with Jesus changes everything for this woman. Because this is the day she meets Jesus.
Jesus knows this Samaritan woman is looking for satisfaction, for significance, for happiness, for fulfilment—you name it.
And Jesus knows she’s never going to find it in the places she’s looking for it.
So Jesus offers to the woman the one thing she truly needs: a relationship with Him.
He reveals Himself and makes clear to her that He is the One who has been promised. He is the Messiah, the Christ. He is LIFE. He’s living water.
Only Jesus and the life He offers will satisfy—this is what Jesus says, because it’s true. We need to hear it. We see it here (and we’ll see it a little later in the story; my favorite line in the story is still a ways off).
The Samaritan woman wants what Jesus is offering (though she doesn’t fully understand what He’ll give).
She thinks it would be great to permanently cross that one particular chore off her list. “Sir, give me this water,” she says.
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
As we’re reading the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, we have to keep something in mind: nothing that happens is a surprise to Jesus or a mistake that catches Him off-guard.
Jesus is the eternal, all-knowing, Creator of all things. Nothing is outside His knowledge or will.
So think about this. On this day, the day Jesus’ meets the Samaritan woman, it’s not happenstance or a nice little coincidence that their paths cross.
No, no. This is intentional. Purposeful.
This story makes clear:
Jesus Knows Us
Jesus Knows Us
Pretty sneaky of Jesus to pull the “Go, call your husband and come back” move.
He knows her; knows all about her. Knows she has had 5 husbands and is now with a man who isn’t her husband.
Jesus encounters this woman, a Samaritan woman, a Samaritan woman who’s had a bunch of husbands. This is three different kinds of scandalous.
Any one of these would be enough for any other self-respecting rabbi to keep her at arms-length.
Jesus doesn’t stay away; He engages.
Jesus isn’t shocked by her life story; He knows all about her and wants her to experience the life He offers.
Jesus knows this woman better than she knows herself.
Jesus knows the deepest parts of us. He knows all about us. There’s nothing Jesus doesn’t know about you.
There’s something oddly comforting about that. There’s no pretense. No need to clean ourselves up before coming to Jesus. It’s not a prerequisite to have your life together and then approach Jesus.
No. In fact, Jesus comes to us before we’d ever think about going to Him. Jesus comes down, takes on flesh, moves into the neighborhood, and calls us to Himself.
The Samaritan woman, of course, is impressed by Jesus’ knowledge. She says, “I can tell you’re a prophet.”
She’s wanting Jesus to address some of the differences in Jewish and Samaritan belief.
She has some questions about worship, and is about to find out that the One she’s speaking with is the One worthy of her worship and her belief.
Jesus speaks of true worship of God.
What we know is this: true worship can take place only in and through Jesus. Jesus is the true temple, the resurrection and the life.
When Jesus says (v. 23) that a time is coming and has now come, it’s because He is that turning point of both history and salvation.
The worshippers God seeks worship Him out of the fullness of life they have received from His Spirit, and on the basis of what God has revealed about Himself in the person of Jesus. “in the Spirit and in truth.”
We don’t know how much the woman truly understands at this point, but she gives Jesus an opening.
She knows that Messiah/the Christ is coming and that He’ll explain everything when He comes.
That’s Good News. She’s anxious for that. Hopeful. Someone to come and explain things, answer her questions, meet her needs.
What she doesn’t realize is that the One who sat by the well and asked her for a drink was the Messiah, the One who could and would provide her with living water.
Jesus—without beating around the bush—declares that He is the Messiah. “I, the one speaking to you—I am He.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
Jesus’ stinking disciples interrupt the conversation, but this brings me to my favorite detail in the story.
Jesus has told the Samaritan woman that He offers something—living water/eternal life. Jesus offers that which truly satisfies. He has just declared that He is the Messiah—the Promised One of God.
And now, Jesus’ disciples returning from town gives the woman an opportunity.
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
My very favorite part of the story is that little phrase in verse 28: Then, leaving her water jar,
She leaves her water jar! This woman came to the well that day to get some water. But she ends up leaving her water jar.
She came away with WAY more than she bargained for.
She had been searching her whole life for something to fill her, to make her whole.
She looked and looked and looked for something to satisfy. She tried everything, and came up empty every single time.
UNTIL, until she met Jesus.
Jesus, she realizes, is everything she needs.
It’s Jesus—not anything else. Not a husband, or boyfriend. Nothing material will satisfy.
Friends, the same is true for you.
No person or thing—in any amount or measure—will complete you or satisfy you.
Jesus Knows We Need Him
Jesus Knows We Need Him
This woman, just like me and you, was searching for the thing that would fulfill her. That which would bring her joy. Significance. Security.
Jesus says to her (and to us): John 4:13–14 “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
You can search all over. You can try all the things. You can follow your heart and attempt the impossible.
Apart from Jesus, you will not find what you need.
You will not, apart from Jesus, find what your heart’s longing for.
For the sake of time, we’re going to jump down to verse 39, where we read:
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 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.”
The Samaritan woman, unnamed and unknown to us, because of her interaction with Jesus becomes a missionary to her own people.
She goes and tells her story, her encounter with Jesus. And her fellow Samaritans have their own interaction with Jesus.
They hear for themselves and they come to this conclusion: We know that this man—Jesus—really is the Savior of the world.
It’s such good news and it’s so true.
Jesus is for Everyone
Only Jesus Satisfies
Jesus Knows Us
Jesus Knows We Need Him
