What Are You Drinking

Samaria?

John 4:1–6 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.

What is about to happen is a “divine appointment”

Jesus did not “have” to go through Samaria, like it was the only way, it is more like when the Spirit led Him into the dessert…He was compelled to go through Samaria

Maybe Jesus knew what was coming, maybe He didn’t - we get too caught up in the deity/humanity of Jesus…what we can know is the the Holy Spirit led Him through Samaria to this little town called Sychar

John 4:7–15 ESV

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.”

A woman from Samaria

A. No Jewish man would talk to a woman in public unless she was his wife. It was considered improper

B. No Jew would talk to a Samaritan

Quick History

Omri was one of the Kings of Israel and he acquired Samaria which became the capital of the Northern Kingdom ( the 10 tribes of Israel that were not Judah or Benjamin). When Israel was exiled to Assyria, the king of Assyria brought in foreigners to settle in Samaria and intermarry with the Israelites left behind. The brought their strange practices and their idol worship

2 Kings 17:29–34 ESV

But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.

Samaria became “polytheistic” worshipping everything, so no good upstanding Jew would have anything to do with them because they were “pagans”.

If you knew the gift of God - Jesus IS the gift of God

Her response: “wait a minute, who are you?” This well has been here for almost 2000 years and is still giving water, why do I need you?

Jesus: “yup, you get water that nourishes the body but I am offering water that nourishes the soul” almost with a wink Jesus is saying, “You know we aren’t really talking about H2O here…we are talking about something deeper.

Woman: I think I would like that...

Here’s where the conversation starts to get deep

John 4:16–24 ESV

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 tendency here is to think that Jesus is getting REALLY personal here…but don’t miss the caring and compassionate way He appeals to her..He is not calling her an adulteress, or a whore or anything else like that…He is saying, “Dear sister, you have been hurt. There is a pattern here of men leaving…and you have the mistaken idea that a man is the solution to your problems...

The woman tries to deflect…the biggest issue between the Israelites and the Samaritans was, where is the proper place to worship…for the Israelites, the Temple in Jerusalem was the only place to worship. For the Samaritans true worship could only take place on Mt. Gezhim…so the woman uses this to deflect…where are we supposed to worship?

So Jesus patiently dealt with her deflection and got right back to the point: Will you be a true worshipper?

John 4:25–26 ESV

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.”

This is the first time that Jesus revealed Himself as Messiah…and HE called the woman to follow Him.

The rest of the story - the Disciples came back, the woman went to town and brought people to Jesus, and many believed ...

Here is what we need to take from this:

Jesus is the well of living water. There are many other wells, relationships, money, success, jobs, education, all sorts of wells that we think will give us what we need…and the “water” we get from these wells may taste good for a little while. It might even make us feel better for a little while…but in the end, those wells will go dry and that water will no longer satisfy. Jesus offers living water.