The Samaritan Woman

Happy Mother’s Day!

You are God’s plan for the nurture and care of your children. You are, in most respects, the first source to fulfill God’s command:

Deuteronomy 6:6–7 (ESV)

6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

— Others can do it, but no one can do it like you, mom.

— I’m the recipient of a godly mom, and am so thrilled that my children have a godly mom.

— Greatest thing you can do for your children is to learn to live as a child of God.

As you obey your Heavenly Father, they will learn what obedience is.

As they watch you lean into your Father’s love, they will learn what trust looks like.

As you find your beauty, identity, and purpose in what God says about YOU, they will learn to go to God to find out who they are and who they are to become.

— I also recognize that while, for many, this day is a day of joy and sentiment, I know there are those for whom today is one of regret and sorrow. (today is a reminder of a child you have lost or of decisions you have made that have damaged your ability to be a mom).

— Want you to watch how Jesus seeks out a WOMAN who, through both her own choices and the judgment of the world around her became an outsider, different, used, abused, broken, worthless. See how Jesus sits with, fulfills the desires of, and gives new purpose to this woman and how she (in this story at least) accomplishes more for the gospel and God’s kingdom than the twelve men who were called to that purpose.

Running Start

John 2:24–25 (ESV)

24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

John 3 - Nicodemus (religious leader) comes to Jesus at night - curious

Jesus exposes what is really going on

doesn’t need to fulfill religious expectations — needs to surrender his heart to transformation.

John 3:16 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

‘World’ - doesn’t only mean Jewish world or religious world but WHOLE world.

How?

John 4 - shows how God loves whole world through Jesus.

Ladder

Jesus meets the religious and the outcast in order to save them

John 4:1–4 (ESV)

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria.

Jesus was led by God’s purpose. (1-4)

— ‘had to’

— Traveling from Jerusalem - going to Galilee — 3-day journey due north.

— Problem: through Samaria.

History:

— After Solomon - northern Israel, southern Judah

— 722 BC Assyrians capture Northern Kingdom Israel - scatter the people - take best and resettle the rest

— over time Jews left in land and Assyrians intermarry

— Jews viewed as ‘half-breeds’ — Samaritans developed own understanding of Pentateuch, temple, worship.

— undesired race, spiritually corrupt - sinners, unclean

— Because of this, strict Jewish law said that to travel from one Jewish area in the South to another in the North, one should avoid Samaria by travelling around it. Crossing Jordan, travelling north, crossing west.

Jesus didn’t. In fact,

‘Had to’ — Why? Because God so love the world. . .

Jesus enters mess for the sake of the (gospel) message. (1-6)

Jesus entered the mess for you and I.

Jesus didn’t avoid us

Jesus didn’t call to us from afar, he entered in.

Jesus, as our leader and example entered the mess to call us to follow Him in to the mess.

There is likely someone in your life who you want to avoid. Who do you avoid?

- “Their own sin got them there - it’s the consequence of their sin - when they are ready to clean up I’ll help them.”

That’s not what Jesus did - he entered in.

To show God’s love he HAD to.

— if gospel ministry were easy, Jesus wouldn’t need to call us to do it.

— If gospel ministry were neat and clean, they wouldn’t need a Savior.

— can be messy - when you enter the mess, you can get messy too.

Jesus feels it too:

Jesus lived in a human context. (5-6)

John 4:5–6 (ESV)

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.

Already travelled about 40 mi. and it is noon.

Entering the mess was not easy for the humanness of Jesus.

Jesus gets it. He knows. He knows you can be wearied while working in the mess.

John 4:7–9 (ESV)

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.)

Jesus honors this woman!!

The surprise of Jesus speaking to this woman is not lost on her. She recognizes how many barriers Jesus just crossed in simply speaking to her and asking for a drink.

Woman

- Jewish men were not to speak to a woman in public unless they were related to them

Woman alone at noon - hottest part of day — She was an outcast — later to find out probably because she was promiscuous.

Samaritan

- Jews would avoid Samaritans

Drink

need to share same utensil

See the stark contrast:

Jesus - Jew, Woman - Samaritan

Jesus - rabbi, Woman - common woman

Woman - sinner, Jesus - God Himself

It was easy to think of Jesus being able to save Nicodemus, the religious leader, but THIS woman?

The gospel crosses all barriers. (7-9)

We say it but do we believe it? Do we live like we believe it? Do we pray like we believe it?

There is NO ONE so far from Jesus that Jesus cannot meet them and transform them.

Or do we stick to our circles because of the social barriers so we can stay clean?

She hasn’t yet met ‘Jesus’ — she doesn’t yet know who Jesus is, but she was so surprised Jesus would intentionally cross barriers and show kindness that she was willing to listen to him, and that would change her forever.

Jesus reaches to the outcast to bring them in. (7-15)

The gospel offers what is really needed. (10-15)

After all this, Jesus does WHAT? - offers to give to her.

John 4:10–15 (ESV)

10 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.” 11 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? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

She’s thinking physically — Jesus is speaking spiritually

She thinks he is meeting the need for the day — He wants to meet the deepest need of her life.

Well / cistern / spring

spring requires no action on your part!!

She was drawing from relationships to try to fill meaning and purpose. (maybe to be a mom?) — the failure, the shame, let her empty.

We are the Samaritan woman!

At one point, we were the outcast, so far from who Jesus is that the contrast was unbridgeable -

Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV)

13 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.

Jeremiah is writing this about God’s people — they HAD the living waters but they left them - in addition - making cisterns to catch what they think will fill them up - neglecting the living waters - turning to cisterns.

Problem is, we are situated in a culture, neighborhood with a lot of glistening puddles. They are great, until they dry up.

Ultimately, it’s a worship problem.

Jesus shifts the heart of worship. (16-26)

John 4:16–18 (ESV)

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

The gospel exposes internal idolatry. (16-18)

John 4:19–22 (ESV)

19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

The gospel negates external religion. (19-22)

With heart exposed, she turns to address ways she can attempt to do something to correct it.

John 4:23–26 (ESV)

23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

The gospel calls for personal devotion. (23-26)

‘I who speak to you am he’ = I AM

That’s how we fix what is exposed in our hearts — its’ not by being religious, it’s by worshipping Jesus as the only true God!

John 4:27–30 (ESV)

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Jesus sends the healed to reach the broken. (27-30, 39-42)

Saved people are sent people. (27-30)

She went to the very people she was expected to avoid!

She cared less about her shame, inadequacies, social barriers, etc. and more about what Jesus had done for her!

Everyone is effective with God. (39-42)

John 4:39–42 (ESV)

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

This woman is much more effective for reaching the Samaritans.

most effective thing disciples did was support local business

This woman was more effective in gospel ministry than the men who were officially called to gospel ministry!

How? By sitting with Jesus, letting him change, and sharing how Jesus changed her.

Conclusion

Where are you in this story? All of us need to sit with Jesus.

The message of Jesus’ encounter with the woman of Samaria is for those who feel:

— Far beyond the REACH of Jesus.

Shame, guilt, addiction, hurt, fear, pain, mess.

You are loved.

Your identity, your value, your joy, and your purpose is found more in Jesus who sits with you than in anyone or anything that sits around you.

sit with Jesus

Jesus is still in the business of crossing barriers to sit with people the world calls lost, broken, sinful, gross, worthless.

— Far beyond the NEED of Jesus.

filling up empty cisterns

Sit with Jesus and allow worship to be renewed / reoriented / refocused.

— Far beyond the USE of Jesus.

There are people only YOU can reach

Come to Jesus, sit with Him, let Him expose what needs to be exposed, fill what needs to be filled, show you how to become a true worshipper of the great I AM.