Jesus in Samaria

John 4:1–30 ESV

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 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. 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 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 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 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.” 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 woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on 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 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. 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 he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” 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?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.

In John 4 salvation spreads beyond the borders of Israel.

Nicodemus & the Woman

These are two different people from two different cultures with one common need.

These six verses are the setting for the spread of salvation to non-Jews (vv. 1-6).

Everyone, everywhere needs Jesus.

Rich or poor, religious or secular, Republican, Democrat, or Independent, African, Asian, or American.

This woman did not share Nicodemus’s commitment to keeping the rules.

Having five divorces on her record, she went a different route: cohabitation.

A footnote in the NIV provides an alternate translation of this same phrase: “[Jews] do not use dishes Samaritans have used.”

The roots of this contempt were hundreds of years old. The nation of Israel had divided into two separate kingdoms, the northern and southern. In 722 BC the Assyrians captured the northern kingdom, whose capitol was Samaria. In the book of Kings, we read of the decision by the Assyrians to deport many of the Israelites from the northern kingdom, particularly from its capital Samaria. Many Assyrian and other foreigners settled in Samaria and intermarried with the remaining Jews. The result of these marriages was not only blended nationalities but also blended worship. The region of the northern kingdom, now known as Samaria, was a place that worshiped the true God along with false idols. Because of the mixed marriages and corrupt religion, the Jews from the southern kingdom treated the Samaritans with disgust. For centuries the contempt between Jews and Samaritans had grown.

Jesus reached out to the moral Pharisee and the immoral Samaritan. Both of them were in desperate need of salvation from sin—a salvation that could only come through Jesus.

Thirsty? John 4:7-18

Jesus Exposes Her Spiritual Thirst John 4:7-10

However, before he answers her question about where the living water can be found, he first wants her to understand her need for this living water.

Every man and woman is thirsty. We each thirst for something. Jesus offers water that will forever quench our thirst.

In Ecclesiastes King Solomon writes about his attempt to quench his thirst. In chapter 2 he lists all of the things

She was attempting to quench her thirst through relationships. She was moving from one bad relationship to another and from one bed to another.

Jesus Offers Her Living Water John 4:10-13

God is not opposed to your pursuit of happiness and satisfaction. He made you to pursue genuine happiness, joy, and satisfaction in the one person who can truly offer it. He designed you to find true delight in him. In fact, the imagery of living water is full of promise and reward. Consider this promise from the perspective of a people living in a dry and dusty land, where drought would be devastating, where a lack of water meant a lack of food. Clean, pure, abundant, flowing water was a wonderful picture of promise and security. Jesus makes clear to the Samaritan woman that joy and satisfaction can only be found in him.

Jesus Promises Her Lasting Satisfaction John 4:14-18

C. S. Lewis called this “an ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure” (Screwtape, 44).

The root of sin is pursuing happiness in something other than God, and sin produces an ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure.

The living water will become a spring of water within her.

- John Piper’s well-known quote, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”

A Christian who doesn’t seek satisfaction in money, vacation, leisure, healthy children, or a good job but seeks Jesus instead makes a statement about the value of Jesus. When we find our greatest satisfaction in him, we bring him the most glory.