Jesus and the Woman of Samaria – Part One (4:1-14)
The Gospel According to St. John • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsTo avoid a premature crisis with the Pharisees, Jesus departs Judea for Galilee, stopping to rest during the journey at Jacob’s well near Sychar, a city of Samaria.
Notes
Transcript
Pre-Class Questions
Pre-Class Questions
Why would the situation in verses 1-3 cause Jesus to leave Judea?
Where is Sychar?
What significance is there in Jesus being “wearied”?
4. What called forth the woman's first question?
5. What or Who is the “gift of God"?
6. How does the "living water" become a "well of water springing up into eternal life"?
Paraphrase
Paraphrase
So, when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had heard that He was making and immersing more disciples than John the Baptist (although Jesus Himself was not immersing but His disciples were), He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. It was necessary for him to pass through Samaria. He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground which Jacob gave to Joseph, his son, and Jacob’s well was there. So, Jesus, having become tired from His journey, was sitting wearily by the well. It was about six p.m.
Summary
Summary
To avoid a premature crisis with the Pharisees, Jesus departs Judea for Galilee, stopping to rest during the journey at Jacob’s well near Sychar, a city of Samaria.
Comment
Comment
This chapter is a gold mine! There are spiritual treasures here to enrich any soul who will search and dig. Take a look at these nuggets — The Humanity of Jesus, The Deity of Jesus, The Universality of the Gospel, Spontaneous Evangelism, True Worship Defined, A Missionary Vision, and other equally precious lessons, Chapter Four is included in the First Year of Public Ministry and is outlined thusly :
II. The Word Manifested to the Jews, and Their Rejection of Him 1:19—12:50 (cont.)
B. The Public Ministry — First Year 2:13—4:54 (cont.)
4. Labors in Samaria 4:1-42
a. Withdrawal from Judea — arrival in Samaria 4:1-6
b. Jesus and the living water 4:7-14
c. Jesus searches out a woman’s secret 4:15-18
d. True worshippers of God 4:19-26
e. Spontaneous evangelism 4:27-30
f. Fields white unto harvest 4:31-38
g. Reaping the harvest 4:39-42
5. Labors in Galilee 4:43-54
a. Public teaching in Galilee 4:43-45 (cf. ; ; )
b. Healing a nobleman’s son at Capernaum 4:46-54
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
The gospel writer now resumes the chronology of the story where he left it in 3:22-23. He has paused in telling the movements of Jesus to tell of the testimony of John the Baptist, but now he takes up the story of Jesus) travels again.
> Why would the situation in verses 1-3 cause Jesus to leave Judea?
Beginning with His cleansing of the temple of Jerusalem (), including a considerable public ministry in the environs of Jerusalem and ending with the Lord’s departure into Galilee, a period of approximately eight or nine months have transpired. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem at Passover-time (2 — also “harvest-time”). The next notice of time is “yet four months, and then cometh the harvest” (4 :35 — which would be four months away from the next Passover-time). Thus, we conclude that Jesus spent approximately eight months in Judea — from one Passover-time until about four months before the next Passover-time.
Just prior to the Lord’s departure into Galilee, John the Baptist is imprisoned (cf. ; ; ).
Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,
But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
The Baptist’s arrest probably also influenced Jesus’ decision, as recorded here (4:1-3), to go into Galilee. There are two probable reasons for His change of location:
(a) He may have feared a premature death at the hands of the authorities. This would not allow Him to fulfill the earthly ministry which the Father had sent Him to accomplish;
(b) or, possibly, He feared a reaction from the multitudes much like that which was to happen later in ().
Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
He must yet teach the multitudes of the Galilee spiritual nature of His kingdom. Political revolution and bloodshed must be restrained. In His Divine mission a definite time had been appointed for the supreme crisis —He must avoid a premature crisis, So Jesus withdrew from His work of baptizing in the Jordan (somewhere near Jericho) and traveled toward Galilee.
(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples),
The parenthetical statement of verse 2 is to explain that Jesus did not personally baptize, but is said to have baptized through His agents — the disciples. Compare our comments on .
he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria.
Why does John say Jesus “must needs pass through Samaria”? A brief geographical survey might offer one possible answer. There were three geographical divisions of the land of Palestine in Jesus’ day: Galilee in the north, Judea in the south, and Samaria in between (see maps in the back of any Bible).
At first, it would appear to be the natural route of travel to Galilee. If Jesus was in Judea and wanted to reach Galilee, naturally He would have to go through Samaria. But due to an age-old hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans, the usual route of travel between Judea and Galilee was not so. The Jew going north usually crossed to the eastern side of the Jordan river (probably at the Jericho ford) and went up the Jordan Valley to avoid Samaria, and re-crossed the river into Galilee (probably at Bethabara).
There are two possibilities as to why Jesus must go through Samaria:
(a) it was the shortest route to Galilee, and He was not restricted by the prejudices of the Jews, or
(b) He purposely passed through there to “break down barriers” and plant the seed of the gospel that Philip might later reap ().
So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
> Where is Sychar?
Traveling the Roman road that leads through Samaria, Jesus would come to a fork in the road. At this fork in the road there is a well called Jacob’s Well. About one-half mile northwest is the village of Sychar. About the same distance to the west are Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, a short distance north of Gerizim, with a natural amphitheater in between where Joshua stood and shouted the blessings and curses of the Law to the nation assembled on the slopes of these two mountains (cf. ; ).
“When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.
Also in the immediate vicinity is a burial plot, purchased by Jacob ‘but given to his son Joseph, and Joseph subsequently had his bones buried there (cf. ; ; ).
And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.
Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”
As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.
This location is of great significance in Jewish history. Nearly all archaeologists and scholars of the geography of Palestine agree that Jacob’s Well is one place to which we may point with certainty and say, “Jesus sat on these stones.” Grooves are worn deep into the’ stones around the opening of the well where ropes have, for centuries, been let down and pulled up drawing water for thirsty Palestinians.
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.
In verse 6 we meet again the problem of John’s method of counting time. This problem was discussed briefly in our comments on . There can be little doubt that John counts time by the Roman method (modern method), i.e., from twelve-midnight to twelve-midnight. Some commentators have a problem with the account of the crucifixion. Jesus was crucified at 9 a.m. and died at 3 p.m. describes the trial in progress at the “sixth hour” (6 a.m.). Such an hour (6 a.m.) is not too early for sentence to be pronounced and it does not leave too long a lapse between sentence and crucifixion as some think. Do not forget the many events that took place between the sentence and crucifixion. Jesus struggled under the burden of the heavy cross probably a mile or more; large crowds pressed on every side slowing progress; He stopped to allow Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross part of the way ; He held at least one conversation with some women. Do not forget also that the gospel accounts are fragmentary. After Pilate had pronounced sentence at six a.m., considerably more conversation and discussion may have transpired between Jesus and Pilate, or Jesus and the Sanhedrin.
We are to conclude, until better information comes forth, that John followed the Roman method of counting time. Thus, when Jesus sat by the well “about the sixth hour,” it was either 6 a.m. or 6 p.m. The later hour fits the circumstances better.
> What significance is there in Jesus being “wearied”?
The significant phrase of verse 6, however, is “Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus by the well.” The Gospel of John is “the Gospel of Deity,” that is, its primary purpose seems to be to prove the deity of Jesus. But the Fourth Gospel also shows very clearly the humanity of Jesus. He knew exhaustion, thirst, sorrow, joy, temptation; He Who “left an example that we should follow his steps” knew suffering, poverty and opposition, and yet he was without sin. He took the form of a servant and the vessel of human flesh for a number of reasons:
(a) that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest ();
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
(b) that He might be able to succor them that are tempted ();
For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
(c) that He might be touched with our infirmities and give us help in time of need ();
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
(d) that He might deliver us from the bondage of the fear of death ();
and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
(e) and especially that He might condemn sin in the flesh ().
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
Incidentally, this passage shows the writer to have been an eyewitness to what he wrote. The mention of the Lord’s posture, and even the hour of day shows the deep impression the events in Samaria must have made on John. Peter and John later enjoyed quite an extensive preaching tour in the land of Samaria ().
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)
The woman evidently came from the city of Sychar. Every day she would walk half a mile or so to the well, and as far back again carrying her waterpot either on her head or her shoulder. According to the custom, the women of those days met at a certain time of the day at the public watering place to exchange news and "small-talk" as they drew the next day's supply of water. This woman came alone! From subsequent information concerning her adulterous situation we assume she was a social outcast. None of the respectable citizens dared associate with her. She was an outcast an unclean adulteress—a Samaritan — a woman I How would Jesus approach her? How would He overcome these barriers and reach her without raising more barriers?
The Master Teacher uses His need as an opening to gain her interest. He is tired and thirsty, and He asks her for a drink. It is a natural request, and one which could not raise any barrier. Had His disciples been there, they would have provided for His thirst. But they had gone away into one of Samaritan cities to "market" for food. (The Greek word translated "buy" is from the same word which is often translated "market.")
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.)
In verse 9 we see that for Jesus to ask a drink, even to speak to her, was not the ordinary custom of that day. The woman is plainly astonished. She probably recognizes Jesus as a Jew either from His speech or His dress. Part of her astonishment comes from the fact that Jews did not use the same vessels as Samaritans. They considered the Samaritans as unclean as the Gentiles, and, according to Pharisaic interpretation, they would have to purify themselves ceremonially should they thus defile themselves. If Jesus is to get a drink He will have to drink from her bucket, for He has none of His own. The above interpretation is better than "have no dealings with" and this is evident from the fact that the disciples did go into a Samaritan city and did purchase food from the market-place.
A brief history of Samaria is in order here to show why the Jews considered the Samaritans unclean. When the kingdom of Israel was divided in about 926 B.C. (), the northern kingdom, under Jeroboam, embraced all the territory originally alloted to the ten northern tribes. This kingdom was known as Israel, and encompassed the provinces of Samaria and Galilee. Hoshea, Israel's last king, spurned the powerful nation of Assyria and made a political alliance with Egypt. About the year 722 B.C. the Assyrian king besieged the capitol city and later carried nearly all the people of the northern kingdom away into slavery and captivity (). A small remnant of the ten tribes was left. The Assyrians, in order to better control the conquered territory, imported foreign peoples into Samaria (). The remnant of Jews intermarried with the foreign peoples, and this mixed people was given the name Samaritan.
This heathen mixture worshipped-idols. God sent wild beasts, and many Samaritans were slain. They attributed the plague of lions to their failure to know the Law of Jehovah, and they appealed to the king of Assyria for help. He sent them a Jewish priest "to teach them the manner of' the God of the land." Although the Samaritan religion was very nearly the same as that handed down by Moses, it was probably tainted with some paganism. This would be one reason for the aversion of the Jew toward the Samaritan.
Approximately 200 years after the captivity of the northern tribes, the kingdom of Judah was taken captive by Babylon. Judah was subsequently, allowed to return to her homeland in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The first thing the people of Judah did was begin reconstruction of the Temple at Jerusalem. In the fourth chapter of the book of Ezra we are told the Samaritans wanted to join the Jews in rebuilding the Temple. The Samaritans were told with contempt, "You have nothing to do with us in building a house unto our God." The ire of the Samaritans was aroused against the Jew.
Hostility continued and increased between the Jew and the Samaritan. About 409 B.C. Manasseh built a rival temple on Mt. Gerizim. The Samaritans were generally inhospitable toward pilgrims from Galilee going to Jerusalem for the feasts (cf. ), and many of these pilgrims journeyed to the feast by the way of the eastern side of the Jordan valley. The rivalry became so intense that the Samaritans would often set rival fires to perplex and confuse the Jews as they watched for their own signal fires which were to announce the rising of the Passover moon. Someone has written, "The Samaritan was publicly cursed in the synagogues of the Jews... and was thus, so far as the Jew could affect his position, excluded from eternal life."
In addition to this centuries-old hostility, no Jew would speak to any woman in public—not even his own wife or daughter. This foolish tradition was carried to such an extreme that some Pharisees would close their eyes when they saw -a woman on the city streets. As a result, they often bumped into walls and houses, and they came to be known as "the bruised and bleeding Pharisees," Thus we can see the woman's astonishment that Jesus should even speak to her. If He had been a normal Jewish rabbi, He would have gone home immediately and washed himself because He had been in her presence.
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.”
The Greek idiom of verse 10 gives us an insight into the thoughts of Jesus. He sees a certain pathos in the woman's situation. He is saying to her, "If you only knew (but you do not) Who it is . . . He would have given you living •water (but He cannot because you know Him not) No man can receive the living water until he ' 'knows" Jesus. Faith comes by hearing, and the hearing that brings faith comes from the Word of God (cf. ; ).
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Jesus is the source of life, and we must partake of Him (cf. , ) through His word to have that life!
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
Notice how, having gained her sympathy, He gradually raises her thoughts from the temporal to the spiritual, ever holding her interest and ever leading (not driving) her into new light.
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? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
The woman is a little cynical in her reply. Jesus implies He can supply her with some sort of perpetual source of water better than what is in this well. Yet, even the great patriarch Jacob used this well. Does He insinuate He is greater than their ancestors (they claimed descent from Joseph and his two sons)?
Jesus said to her, “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. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The water the woman is thinking of (v. 13-14) never completely quenches even the physical thirst. But the water which Jesus gives completely and perpetually quenches the soul's thirst. This is what Paul meant when he said, "our inward man is renewed day by day."
The Old Testament is permeated with the idea of God supplying His new people with living water. Jesus was not uttering a new idea. Of course, the Jews rejected the idea that the Nazarene could be the "living water," just as they rejected anything connecting Him with the Messiah. Jesus was claiming to be the fulfillment of these messianic prophecies concerning the “living water" (cf. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ). Read these references; they are important
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them.
“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
O Lord, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth,
for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.
Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side.
Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?”
Then he led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”
“On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter.
Some commentators do not connect this living water with the living water of .
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
But it is improper to disconnect the two. In 7:37-39 Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as the living water, and adds, "this life-source shall flow out from the believer." Neither passage, or 7:37-39, is contradictory of other.
Jesus said to her, “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. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
In-Class Questions
In-Class Questions
How long was Jesus’ first Judean ministry? How do we know?
What two possible reasons may be given for His decision to leave Judea and go into Galilee?
What are two possible explanations for “He must needs go through Samaria”?
Locate Jacob’s Well.
What time of the day did Jesus stop at the well?
Give three reasons for Christ’s taking the human form.
What were some of the barriers Jesus broke by talking to this woman?
Why may we assume that Jews did have some dealings With Samaritans?
Where did the Samaritan people originate?
What was the beginning of hostilities between Jew and Samaritan?
Why was Jesus unable to give this woman living water?
What was Jesus claiming when He claimed to be able to give living water? Give 5 Old Testament references.
What does add about the living water?