#womenbythewell

[stevekarma-blog]

John 4:1-26 A Samaritan Woman Meets Her Messiah

You're Not a Good Samritan - Your This One

C - This section is preceded by the conversation with Nicodemus and the Pharisees about baptism and the spirit and is proceeded by the Samaritan revival. Historically the Samaritans and the Jews were religious and ethnic enemies who hated one another and this discussion takes place at the Jacob’s well.

A - Look at the significance of wells and divorce in the first century.

p - Most people see her as the adulterer and not the abused.

T - Chrst gives to us that which sustains us and quenches the thirst from our souls. Main image is water. 

O - Come to Christ for the life giving Spirit.

R - FCF Inner thirst an only be satisfied in Christ RHF Brings an end to the endless search for that which will never satisfy. For her it was a relationship and maybe kids.

Therefore, when the Lord knew 

   that the Pharisees had heard 

      that Jesus made 

         and baptized more disciples than John 

             2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, 

              but His disciples), 

                   3 He left Judea 

                  and departed again to Galilee. 

Jesus did not want to give the Pharisees the satisfaction of undermining His or John’s ministry by setting them up as rivals in the same way that two churches in the same city setting up an Alpha course on the same night and the same time may negatively effect both and undermine both in the eyes of others. The fact that Jesus ‘did not baptise,’ Paul will later say that he ‘did not come to baptise,’ was probably so that people would not place too much importance upon it and believe that spiritual rebirth (the biblical term that is often used is ‘regeneration’) came about through baptism.  It is an outward sign of public repentance, faith and entrance into the Church.

4 But He needed to go through Samaria.

Practically He did not need to ‘go through Samaria’ in fact, most law-abiding Jews would have noothing to do with the ethnic half-breeds and heretics that were the Samaritans. Nontheless, ‘He needed to go through Samaria’ as this would be the place of His encounter with the women at the well and would be the place of a religious revival.  

5 So He came to a city of Samaria 

   which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground 

      that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 

          6 Now Jacob’s well was there. 

The well belongs to Jacob or Israel and was an ancestor that was claimed by both the Jews and the Samaritans the fact that it takes places near a watering hole is not biblical warrant to drop by the bar to pick up girls in the name of evangelism though (and I have heard this text used in this way).

           Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Here we are reminded of Jesus’ full humanity. Jesus did not appear to be human, He did not pretend to be human and He was not half human.  He was fully God and fully man in one person, this is like a glass that is full of oil and water.  The components are seperate but contained within the one container.  In the noon day sun Jesus, who was halfway through a 120 mile journey from the region of Judea in the South and the region of Galilee in the North, was exhausted. 

7A woman of Samaria came 

   to draw water. 

The reader is supposed to wonder why this woman was drawing water alone, since the women would draw water together and why this women was drawing water in the noon day sun, the hottest part of the day. 

Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

      8 For His disciples had gone away into the city 

        to buy food.

Jesus not only humbly served others but He humbly allowed Himself to be served by others.  In the missionary world this is sometimes called reverse hospitality which is when the missionary is not the one providing all of the food and health care and education but also a recipient.  This elevates the person providing hospitality like: Zaacheus, Mary/Marhta/Lazarus, Simon the Leper, Matthew Levi etc in the same way when the believer not only welcomes people to their home but allows them to bring something or help out with the dishes or will come to their home.  This can be difficult for proud people, like me, who like to give but do not like to feel indebted to anyone for anything.

9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” 

   For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Relgious Jews had nothing to do with women or Samaritans in fact Jews and Samaritans hated one another in the same way that Sunni and Shia Muslims or Catholics and Protestants in NIRE in the 70s and 80s or Jews and Nazis in the 30s and 40s might.

      10 Jesus answered and said to her, 

         “If you knew the gift of God, 

Jesus was not only God’s gift to the Jews but to the whole world.  That is that He was the long awaited Jewish Messiah but He was also the long awaited Samaritan Messiah and is the long awaited Messiah of all peoples.  He is the Oliver Cromwell, the William Wallace, the Che Guerra, the Nelson Mandela, the George Washington, the Christian Ronaldo, the Ussain Bolt, the Gandhi that we have all been waiting for.  In fact, the reason why their stories fascinate us is because they are mere shadows of something more significant that came through Him.

            and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, 

              and He would have given you living water.”

John does something interesting here he uses the idea of dead water (meaning water from a stagnant source, the spring from this well had probably ceased or this well had always been a well that collected the rain from the rainy season) and living water (which is water from a spring or flowing water from a river).  He says that Jesus was comparing the dead water of life with the living water that comes from Him.

11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, 

   and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, 

     who gave us the well, 

        and drank from it himself, as well as his sons 

           and his livestock?”

Yet again we see that Jesus is misunderstood by those who are overly literalisitic with His words.  What if there were 2 ways to percieve the world, maybe that is too simplisitc too, but what if there was one way which was overly literlaisitic and one that was equally true but was more the langage of the poet or song writer and contained within it metaphor and word picture and symbol?  Well in Chrit these two ways or lens need to be alligned so that we might read His word not in a literalisitic sense but in a literal sense recognising shades of meaning and not dismiss it as ‘arty farty.’  Ultimately to understand the things that are revealed, revelation, we need the illuminating light of the Spirit - illumination.

13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,

   14 but whoever drinks of the water 

      that I shall give him will never thirst. 

        But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

‘We are all baptised by the one Spirit’ which means that Christ fills us with the same Holy Spirit that filled Him and the apostles which mean that the power that dwells in the youngest and weakest believer is unfathomable.  And that power is not just pragmatic, for the healing of the sick or so that one may be able to interpret dreams etc that power bubbles up in someone and becomes the source, or ‘fountain’ that leads to the life that is promised by Christ.  Abundant life in the here-and-now and everlasting life in the bye-and-bye.

15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, 

   that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

This woman longs for this water as her shame and her string of failed relationships have never been able to satsify the inner thirst she has had she is like the gambler who thinks that the one big win or the drunk who will just have one more binge before giving up but no matter how much the one wins and loses and wins again and the other drinks and drinks and drinks nothing can satisfy the craving of their innermost being. Intectually, relationally, spiritually the thirst in our souls can only be fulfilled in Christ, when He and He alone is our single delight when if everything if stripped away would be nothing in comparison with His good pleasure.

  16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, 

      and come here.”

17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 

   18 for you have had five husbands, 

      and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

Although many preachers and commentaries would see this womn, in the words of Alister Begg as having had ‘5 husbands and a live in lover,’ I don’t think this is the case.  I say that because in this day a woman caught in adultery would be stoned to death and it was only men who were able to iniaite divorce I think we have a woman who was always a good looking girl the stunner from Sychar.  And not only was she physically attractive but she had a personality that made men like putty in her hands.  Maybe she married her childhood sweetheart and then he died, she is till young and still has her looks and her charm and maybe her second husband leaves her for another woman and the fourth because of the hard time his friends and family give him and the fith because she can bare him no children.  Until the final guy is happy to sleep with her or live with her but he is not marryng her. This is the young girl who served you at Boots, this is the one in your English lit lecturers, this is your cousin this could be you.  Not so much immoral, though that is maybe a art of it and Christ saves the immoral, but the lost and oppressed who have tried to fill the Christless void with actual or imaginary romantic relationships.

If I can only find me a Justin Bieber or Scarlett Johanson.

If only if I had a little girl who I could take to pilates or a little boy who I could take to the football.

If only I had genuine friends and a Church that loves me.

Look! It is not that I grudge you this, I want you to have this but you ask the people who wanted the same things and who got what they wanted and they will tell you honestly that although it was awesome, though for some the dream became a nightmare, it was unable quench the inner thirst within them.

19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, 

   and you Jews say 

     that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

This woman does what we often do when the spotlight of conviction comes upon us by the Spirit she makes excuses.  What she says here is the context of the conversation is stupid.  This is the I would follow Jesus but I need to first figure out if I should be a Pentecostal or a Preysbetarian or if I perfer Gospel choirs or worship bands.  

 Some of you know enough by now to repent of your sins, place your faith in Christ, be baptised.  Some of you know that you should make covenant and serving in leadership.  And some of you should be training for the ministry, be setting up a Christian business, adopting or fostering or be on the mission field but you wont because you have excuses.

I heard of the American General Paton who was taking his men across a bridge while they being pursued by the enemy.  Something was holding up the men so the general got to the front of the bridge and found out that it was a donkey that was not allowing people to pass.  He took out his 9mm and blow the donkey’s brains out.  That’s what you do with excuses you destory them before they destroy you or God’s plan for you.

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, 

   nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship,

      for salvation is of the Jews. 

          23 But the hour is coming, 

           and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit 

             and truth; 

                for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 

God cares nothing about beautiful and ornate and well functioning buildings - these are good things but not when they become more important than people.  So in some churches the philsophy is guard the church from young people and the local community or where the asethtics and the architecture becomes more important than the function.  This why the Puritans smashed the stained glass windows and tore out the statues because the good things had become god things.

But your car and your desk at work or the weight section of Lancaster House Hotel gym is just as sacred as this building.  Worship is nothing to do with the form but the person that you worship (God), the way that you worship (the spirit - one that is set ablaze by the Holy Spirit not bored and indifferent or mechanical) and the way that you worship (its true: it’s biblical, it is as revealed, it is the kind of worship that God delights in).

Not only are there some who do not worship God as the all-powerful all-loving God of the Bible but there are those that do not worship Him with their hearts abalze and their Bibles open.

You might be someone with a limited emotional spectrum.  Your steady Eddie, your cool, your controlled or your Spock your analytical and rational.  Well do the things that stir your affections.  Listen to the preachers, get the CDs of the songs be around the people who strangely warm your heart for the things of God.  Sit at the front so you do not have to put off by others, remember God looks on the outward appearance and God judges the heart and that Church is a place for people in all places in their spiritual journey and none.  In fact, let me deal with the flag waving issue.  Personally it is not my thing.  Unless we could make them look like they belong to an underground resistance movement or military unit but can I tell you something it moves the very heart of God so you wave those bad boys.

Or you might be someone who is content to have a shallow and superficial faith.  For goodness sake open your bible.  Learn, develop, grow, take notes, ask questions, read, watch listen, study.  The more you get to know of God the more your heart stretches and burns for Him.  Theology is not the enemy of passion but the enemy of ignorance, immaturity and ineffectiveness.  The more you love Him the more you will want to know 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” (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.” 

Not only where the Jews waiting for the Messiah but so where the Samaritans in the same way that Buddhists are searching from freedom from suffering (well Jesus gives life and life in its abundance), in the same way the philosophy student is looking for truth (He is the way, the truth and the life) and in the same way that the work-a-holic financial investor is looking for peace (He is the Prince of Peace) and He comes not only to her but to you but what will you do with His offer.  Will you tear it up and throw it in His face or will you sign on the dotted line?