Believe and Live

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

A woman, a well, and a witness.

4 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), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 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.) 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.” 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.”

Jesus’ reply ignores the woman’s reference to the estrangement between Samaritans and Jews and focuses, rather, upon the two of them as individuals.

Jesus calls the woman into a discussion of truth.

Knowledge is exploding at such a rate--more than 2000 pages a minute--that even Einstein couldn't keep up. In fact, if you read 24 hours a day, from age 21 to 70, and retained all you read, you would be one and a half million years behind when you finished.

Campus Life, February, 1979.

The sum total of man's knowledge could be represented graphically:

Up to 1845 = 1 inch 1845 to 1945 = 3 inches 1945 to 1976 = the height of the Washington Monument

John McArthur

The goal of man is not to know more but to know God.

--In the next 8 verses the savior calls the woman to say good bye to the old, change her approach to God, and to know messiah.

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. 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.”

Change from above says farewell to the old.

Where is the correct place to worship God, on Mt. Gerizim or at Jerusalem?

On the origin of the Samaritan people, see the comments on v. 4, above. Rejected by the Jews who returned from Babylonian captivity to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem (Ez. 4:1–3), they ultimately built their own rival temple on Mt. Gerizim and used only their version of the first five books of Moses (“the Samaritan Pentateuch”) as their Bible. Although that temple had been destroyed by Jewish zealots during the time of the Maccabean kings, in 128 B.C., the Samaritans continued to worship on Mt. Gerizim. (A small remnant does so until this day.)

In the same manner, we must say good bye to the old and walk in newness of life. 2 Corinthians 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

We are not saved by our works but we work because we are saved.

Christians don't tell lies they just go to church and sing them. AW Tozer

Change from above is in spirit and truth.

There is no article before “Spirit.” This clause is similar to the last clause of 1:1. The absence of the article emphasizes the qualitative aspect of the noun rather than its mere identity. Jesus is saying, “Spirit is what God, in essence, is. Therefore, those who wish to worship Him must do so in a manner compatible with His essential nature. They must utilize that highest aspect of their own being, their spirit.

I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

John Wesley

We see the essence of the trinity even in our salvation. To bring honor to the Father, we must do so in spirit and truth.

Salvation is not merely a statement of faith or a moral aha moment. It is a spiritual change from above based in truth.

Change from above comes with clarity.

How masterfully has He guided the conversation to this point, yet His coup de grace is delivered quietly, even tenderly, “I am the Messiah.”

Christianity is a love relationship between a child of God and his Maker through the Son Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ does not hide his desire for you to be a new creature. He shouted it from the cross to be new. He calls us today to walk in the newness of life.