Text John 4:1-42
1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17"I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ[b]?" 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
34"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
"He told me everything I ever did." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.
42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
Introduction
What do you think you need to make your life complete?
Close your eyes and imagine. What gives you joy?
Last week we learned that Christian life is to know the true God who sent Jesus based on John 17:3.
3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
How can we know God? We can know God by looking at Christ whom God sent. This is our prayer for this semester. We want to have life in Jesus. (John 17:3)
We will look at Jesus and how he describes our God in his interactions with several people. Today Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman.
Prayer
Dear LORD, teach us who you are through your Son. May the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be pleasing to you. In Jesus’ name.
Background
In this part Jesus is going through Samaria. Originally there were twelve tribes in Israel. After Solomon the nation was divided into two. Northern and Southern. Northern part had 10 tribes and later it was destroyed by Assyria. As a result, they intermingled and they became half Israel and half Assyrian.
To Jews they were not kosher. Jews did not associate with Samaritans. Even though they could go through Samaria, they took a long road just to avoid them.
Think of someone whom we dread to meet. They are the Samaritans of Jesus’ time.
Jesus met a Samaritan woman
Jesus was tired and thirsty and hungry after a long trip. The disciples went into the town to get food. Jesus sat by the well in the heat of the day. Then this woman comes to the well by herself in the heat of the day.
Who is she? According to the Bible, she
From the perspective of the Jews, the Samaritan woman is a member of the wrong race. In Jesus’ time they hated Samaritans more than Romans. They thought that they were polluting the Jewish race.
Samaritans blended the worship of God with their pagan idolatry.The Jews despised Samaritans as heretics because of their confused theology and their improper worship.(2 Kings 17:21-41)
At that time a Jewish Rabbi or teacher would not talk to this woman.
Of course Jesus has barriers of race, religion, gender and social. This woman at the well had one more issue. It was her sin. She had been married five times and she was now living with a man outside of any marriage context. At that time a woman that was divorced five times was despised by her town’s people. In this small community, she was a marriage crasher and was known to be sexually available. Everyone knew that she was a sinner. As a result, she was an outcast. Most women would go to the well in the morning when it was cool, but she came out when no one was around. But this woman was alone in the heat of the day.
Who is Jesus who talked to this Samaritan woman?
Who is the one who goes out of his way to meet this person of mixed race, heretical beliefs, wrong gender, and immorality.
It is Jesus who in the text is described as
If you combine all these statements, we come to the conclusion that Jesus is God who became a man and who is so holy and so righteous but talks to this sinful and social outcast.
From observing Jesus talking to this woman we can see something about him and about the Father who sent Jesus to her and to us.
Learning from Jesus
Well we can say that Jesus was in Judea in the south and he is on his way to Galilee in the north so he had to go through Samaria. This is the most practical way. However, in Jesus’ day Jewish people usually did not go through Samaria unless they were in a hurry and Jesus was not in hurry since Jesus spent two extra days there.
Jesus, a Jew desired to meet this woman at the well. In obedience to Father’s will Jesus desired to make the gospel known in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and beyond to Gentiles.
“He had to go through Samaria” is Jesus desire to come to us. (1)
Even though Jesus was God, he was
Jesus showed his vulnerability and need to her - He is tired and thirsty. The Creator of the world, the One who is the source of everything, the One who needs nothing from anyone acknowledged his need of something she can do for him.
He was tired and thirsty and she can do something for him. In this way Jesus put her higher than himself.
Can you see Jesus’ humility?
Can you see how Jesus put her dignity back? She was despised by all her town’s people but now this woman could despise Jesus.
When we are stressed out, tired and thirsty, the true self comes out. I am a nice guy except when I am stressed out or hungry. I am not that nice. Imagine a coffee mug that is full of coffee but with no lid. You put it on your car. You are driving on a smooth highway. It is good. But imagine when you hit a bump. What will happen to the coffee? You will get splashed.
Your real you comes out.
It is you when you are stressed out.
Now you can see the true Jesus when he was hungry, tired and thirsty.
Jesus does not change even though he was stressed out.
But when Jesus was tired and thirsty, look at how Jesus interacted with this woman. Out of Jesus’ heart, his gentleness and grace came out.
Jesus was not sarcastic. Jesus was not condemning. Jesus was humble.
Jesus knew everything about her. Suppose you met someone who knows everything about you. Can he love you?
Can he accept you?
Can he love you regardless of what you have done?
If I were Jesus, the answer is no. But to Jesus it is Yes.
We play games. We want to be portrayed better than actually we are. This is called “Dating game or Facebooking.”
If the real you comes out, no one will be your friend. Can you see the love of Jesus here? The grace of Jesus who accepted her and gave living water to this thirsty woman?
This is indeed God’s grace for us. So we do not pretend to be better than anyone else.
Christians are those who know God’s unconditional love for us. Jesus knows everything about me but he loves me.
He came to see me. He showed his vulnerability and humbled himself. So this woman’s testimony was very simple.
“Come see a man who told me everything I ever did but loved me and accepted me and restored me.”
Even though Jesus knew everything for her, he was not surprised by her. Jesus came to her and showed himself who he was. In this way, Jesus revealed his Father who sent Jesus into Samaria. After listening to her testimony and listening to the word of Jesus, many Samaritans put their faith in Jesus.
They believed that Jesus is the savior of the world (42) How did Jesus become the savior of the world? Look at John 19.
Jesus became the savior of the world by dying on the cross. It was this Samaritan woman who had to stand before God. Her many sins should have condemned her.
But on the cross, Jesus said,
Who are we?
Basically we are thirsty people.
We are messed up people.
Her sins trapped her and no one could help her but the grace of Jesus came to her and comes to us.
“I am thirsty.”
I am thirsty for love.
I am thirsty for acceptance.
I am thirsty for recognition.
My wife went to Korea for two months this Summer. I was alone. So I began to know the verse in Gen 2:18. “It is not good for a man to be alone.” Of course, I was not good without my wife. I asked my wife to come back ASAP.
Is my thirst problem gone when she comes back? The second part of Gen 2:18 says, “I will make a helper suitable for you.”
Who is this helper? It is Jesus who showed his love for us.
Jesus understands our thirst.
On the cross Jesus was of course thirsty and dehydrated but he was more thirsty for God.
When he felt that he was forsaken by God, his next to the last word was, “I am thirsty.”
By becoming thirsty, he became our savior.
The next word was, “It is finished.”
When we accept this Jesus, then we are no more thirsty people. We know God’s grace and his love for us.
Let’s thank God for Jesus who had to come to us and explain everything to us and give himself up for us.
This is our life.
References:
Jerram Barrs, Learning Evangelism from Jesus
Martin Luther, Simple way to pray, http://www.hope-aurora.org/docs/ASimpleWaytoPray.pdf
Alan Hirsch, Forgotten ways
D.A. Carson, The God who is there