Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

People often mistake me for someone else.

I have been told that I look like someone’s favorite uncle.

Or a former boss, or close friend...

I have often been mistaken for that handsome devil Edgar Snyder !

But the most bizarre experience happened 15 or 20 years ago.

I went to the county court house to pay a tax or buy a dog license.

The stairs were closed so I got on the elevator.

A judge got on (in full judicial robes).

He looked at me and his face lite up and he said “Hi Dave!

How are you doing?”

I replied “Fine, but I am not Dave.”

He looked at me with a grave judicial countenance and asked “are you sure?” “Yes I am sure...” God saved me as the elevator doors opened and the Judge walked out.

A couple of weeks later I got off the bus and was walking to work up Grant street by the Federal Court House when someone beside me said “Hi Dave!

How are you doing?”

I replied “Fine, but I am not Dave.”

And then the reply “are you sure?” “Yes, I am sure.”

A month later I went to the Post Office downtown next to the Federal Court House to mail a letter.

A man passing by said “Hi Dave!

How are you doing?”

I replied “Fine, but I am not Dave.”

And then with a puzzled look on his face he said “are you sure?” “Yse, I am

But I stopped him and asked “Who’s Dave???” The man looked at me as if Dave was having amnesia or pulling his leg and said slowly as if I knew this “Why Dave is a Federal Assistant District Attorney.”

“What is Dave’s full You name?”

I asked.

“Well Dave So-and-so” as if I knew.

The man walked away sure that Dave had just pulled one over on him.

And I left thinking that I was walking around in a city filled with people who Dave had put in jail !!!

And who thought I was Dave.

In this morning’s Scripture text, a Samaria women meets Dave.

Well, not Dave.

We all know it is the second person of the Trinity, King of kings, the Lord of lords, Lord Jesus Christ.

But she didn’t.

So let’s look at this encounter and view it from the questions she asks.

And frame the questions as “are you sure?”

I - You as a Jewish man are speaking to me a Samaritan woman.

Are you sure?

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.)

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?”

We are told that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria”.

Why?

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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?”

Jesus was leaving Jerusalem in the south and heading north to Galilee.

If you looked on a map, you would see that Samaria in between the Jerusalem (Judea) and Galilee.

There a other longer routes to Galilee to by pass Samaria.

Up the coast or up the east side of the Jordan river.

That doubles or triples a 3 or 4 day journey.

Why did Jesus have to pass through Samaria?

Perhaps he had an appointment or could only afford a 4 day trip.

No, he had to pass through because of the Divine plan.

But then there was the accursed Samarians.

Well, John tells us that “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans”.

Or as the Message has it “(Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)”

-History of Jews and Samaritans-

The Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 721 B.C.

They did what conquerors often did in those days—they transported practically the whole population to Media ().

Into the district the Assyrians brought other people—from Babylon, from Cuthah, from Ava, from Hamath and from Sepharvaim ().

Now it is not possible to transport a whole people.

Some of the people of the northern kingdom were left.

Almost inevitably they began to intermarry with the incoming foreigners; and thereby they committed what to the Jews was an unforgivable crime.

The Samaritans had a corrupted Bible with only the first 5 books (Pentateuch).

And they built a competing Temple on Mount Gerizim (which was destroyed by the Jews in 130 B.C.).

This phrase could also be translated, “Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans,” referring to the legislation that forbade a Jew to eat or drink with Samaritans, who were more lax in their understanding of ritual cleanness.

The surprise was not so much that Jesus would speak with a Samaritan, but that He would drink from a Samaritan vessel.

This phrase could also be translated, “Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans,” referring to the legislation that forbade a Jew to eat or drink with Samaritans, who were more lax in their understanding of ritual cleanness.

The surprise was not so much that Jesus would speak with a Samaritan, but that He would drink from a Samaritan vessel.

So the Jews and Samaritans hated one another.

But Jesus breaks down this barrier.

And notice how he does this.

Not in a phony way.

He didn’t do a focus group.

He had genuine SYMPATHY for this Samaritan.

(And this woman, which we will get to.)

Paul explains it this way -

But there was another problem.

The Samaritan was not a man, she was a woman.

(there were only 2 genders in those days…)

But there was another problem.

She was a woman.

(there were only 2 genders in those days…)

In the Jewish morning prayer a man thanks God that he has not made him ‘a Gentile, a slave or a woman’.

The strict Rabbis forbade a Rabbi to greet a woman in public.