We all have developed ideas about who God is and how we are to please him, but many of these ideas are based on historic social experience as Jesus said in Mark 7:7 “And they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”. As Jesus passed through Samaria, he confronted prejudice and religious thinking by presenting spiritual truth in the context of life experience. It wasn’t Jesus prejudice that was the problem, it was the Samaritan woman in John 4:9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How do you, being a Jew, ask from me water to drink, since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”. Jesus answered her every deflection, her every defensive response to bring her to an understanding that he was the Messiah in John 4:26 “I, the one speaking to you, am he”.
If You Had Known The Gift of God
John 4:1–12
Some believe that everything Jesus did was foreordained, that his actions were all a result of God’s pre-planned course and in one sense, God knows all, but here, we find Jesus reacting to the circumstances around him in John 4:1, 3 “when Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard … he left Judea”. Jesus heads to Galilee in John 4:3 and in
John 4:4 And it was necessary for him to go through Samaria.
Samaria was between Jerusalem and Cana of Galilee where he is headed in John 4:46 and the Jews often took this shortcut rather than the longer route that was by way of the Jordan river that was maybe twenty miles longer. The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans though because of their corruptions that began when “the Assyrians brought other people—from Babylon, from Cuthah, from Ava, from Hamath and from Sepharvaim (2 Kings 17:24)”1 and later when “the renegade Jew Manasseh married a daughter of the Samaritan Sanballat (Nehemiah 13:28) and proceeded to found a rival Temple on Mount Gerizim”.2
So, this was an opportunistic meeting between Jesus and the woman at the well and we often find that Jesus altered or delayed his journey to meet the need of one person. Here in
John 4:8 (For his disciples had gone away into the town so that they could buy food.)
Jesus was at the well by himself as this woman approaches. The woman was surprised that Jesus would ask her for water, first because he was a Rabbi and it was improper for him to greet a woman in public but also because “many a Jew would not eat with a Samaritan on the latter’s home turf for fear of incurring ritual defilement”.3 That is, the Jews would not share even the water that she had drawn from the well. Jesus though is demonstrating a different standard of acceptance. Jesus spoke beyond the prejudice and traditions of the day as he said in
Mark 7:7 And they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
This is a recurring theme with Jesus as he showed what true love and compassion were all about, for example ‘in the parable of the good Samaritan (10:30–37), Jesus clearly breaks through the traditional prejudices in portraying the despised Samaritan, not the respected Jewish priest or Levite, as the true neighbor to the man in need. Here as elsewhere, Jesus, in confronting his audience with God’s demand, breaks through traditional definitions of “righteous” and “outcast.”’4 Jesus is beginning to break through all of the pre-conceived, prejudicial, and traditional social boundaries to speak the truth that she would be able to hear in
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
and by her response, we know she could not yet grasp this spiritual concept as she rapidly fires back in John 4:11-12 “you have no bucket … where do you get this living water … You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you”.
We should recognize this common response of rapid-fire questions, as someone tries to understand, as they begin to glimpse revelation. The truth of God’s word, an encounter with Jesus Christ by the spirit of God breaks the mental barriers that have kept people bound as Jesus said in
John 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The Water Which I Will Give
John 4:13–26
Jesus speaks a spiritual truth to this woman in
John 4:14 But whoever drinks of this water which I will give to him will never be thirsty for eternity, but the water which I will give to him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
She doesn’t have any spiritual context for his statement so she responds with her natural understanding, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or come here to draw water!” in John 4:15. Jesus then responds with a word of knowledge and demonstrates that he knows about her life in
John 4:16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”
She acknowledges Jesus as a prophet in John 4:19 and then deflects with a defensive religious response in John 4:20 “you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship.” Jesus steps right past her statement and breaks down her religious barrier by saying in
John 4:23 But an hour is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for indeed the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers.
As she the truth Jesus is speaking starts to break her religious mind-set, she deflects once more to some future time when Messiah comes in
John 4:25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ); “whenever that one comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”
but with Jesus, today is the day, now is the time, there is no excuse for delay, only one question matters, will you accept Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God and in
John 4:26 Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.
Do the Will of the One Who Sent Me
This One Is Truly the Savior of the World!
John 4:39–42
As this Samaritan woman believes, she brings the townspeople out to meet Jesus in
John 4:39 Now from that town many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything that I have done.”
Our personal testimony of our experience with God is a powerful tool to reach others. But these people went a step further, they invited Jesus to stay. They spent time with him and had their own personal experience with him. Now, it wasn’t just her testimony or word, but they had entered into their own experience, their own relationship with Jesus in
John 4:42 And they were saying to the woman, “No longer because of what you said do we believe, for we ourselves have heard, and we know that this one is truly the Savior of the world!”
They Had Seen All the Things He Had Done
John 4:43–45
Your Son Will Live
John 4:46–54
Man Healed at the Pool of Bethesda
John 5:1–13
Study Verses
- John 4:1–12 If You Had Known The Gift of God
- John 4:13–26 The Water Which I Will Give
- John 4:39–42 This One Is Truly the Savior of the World!
Today’s Reading
- John 4:1-54
- John 5:1-13
References
- 1. Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of John (Rev. and updated., Vol. 1, p. 174). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.
- 2. Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of John (Rev. and updated., Vol. 1, pp. 174–175). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.
- 3. Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 217). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
- 4. Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Samaritans. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 1888). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.