THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
John 4:1-42
INTRODUCTION
In chapters 2-3 we saw John selecting stories from the early ministry of Jesus which illustrated the truth that whereas other religions including Judaism are inadequate to meet the deepest needs of men’s hearts, Christ meets those needs. The 6 waterpots used for the Jewish custom of purification were empty until Christ had them filled with water and turned into wine. Nicodemus, the best man that religion apart from Christ could produce, needed a heavenly birth if he was going to enter into the kingdom of heaven, that is, be saved. If this is true of Judaism, then it is especially true of Islam, Buddhism, materialism, worship of family, etc. Chapter 4 continues the theme of the inadequacy of Judaism and other religions, especially the faith of the Samaritans, and the abundant life that comes only through Jesus Christ.
JESUS TRAVELS THROUGH SAMARIA (4:1-6)
Because of a growing hostile situation in Jerusalem and Judea, Jesus decides to leave that area and head north to Galilee where He will launch the major portion of His ministry, the Great Galilean ministry. The situation in the south is hostile because the Jews have discovered that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist. This probably spelt trouble for both Jesus and John. The Jewish religious leaders hated the Baptist because he had railed against them. As long as John was popular, he was safe from the attacks of the Jewish religious leaders. Once he no longer had popular support, they felt like they could probably do away with him. On the other hand, Jesus had started out obscure. Now that He was attracting the large crowds, He was becoming the special object of their venom. This was not the time the Father had set for Jesus’ death; therefore, He headed north to Galilee where He would conduct the major portion of His ministry.
[John makes the parenthetical statement that Jesus was not the one actually doing the baptizing; His disciples were. Just a question to our Christian friends who declare that baptism is necessary for salvation: “If baptism is so important for salvation, then why didn’t Jesus engage in baptizing His followers?” If it were that necessary, then it stands to reason that Jesus would have engaged in baptizing. The fact that He did not points to the opposite conclusion: baptism is not necessary for salvation. (By the way, Paul also claimed that he did not baptize very often—see 1 Cor. 1:14-16).]
Normally the route for the Jew from Jerusalem to Galilee involved going east to Jericho, north to Bethshan, and then west to Galilee. This journey lasted 3 days. John wrote that on this occasion though Jesus was compelled to go through Samaria which required only 2 days. Two questions: (1) why didn’t Jesus just normally go through Samaria en route to Galilee since it took up less time and (2) why was He compelled to go through Samaria on this particular occasion?
The Jews normally avoided Samaria like the plague because of the past hostilities between the 2 groups of people. Samaria which had been home to the 10 northern tribes of Israel had rebelled against Rehoboam, David’s grandson, and the southern tribe of Judah in 920 BC. From then on a hostile situation existed between the northern and southern kingdoms. War constantly erupted between the 2 kingdoms. Moreover, the northern nation immediately fell into idolatry, neglected to worship God at Jerusalem, and set up a shrine at both Bethel and Dan for their sites of worship. In 721 BC the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom, deported half of her citizens, and then forced the rest to intermarry. The northern peoples were now considered half-breeds. Things deteriorated even worse after the southern tribe of Judah returned from exile during the days of the Persian empire. When the Samaritans attempted to join the Jews in the south at Jerusalem for worship, the Jews rejected the half-breeds. As a consequence the Samaritans did all they could to impede the rebuilding of Jerusalem under the supervision of Nehemiah. Moreover, they changed their copies of the OT to designate Mt. Gerizim in Samaria as the true place of worship as opposed to Jerusalem. They then built a rival sanctuary on Mt. Gerizim. The hostilities between the 2 reached fever-pitch when the Samaritans aided the Greeks in oppressing the Jews during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes IV in 168 BC. In retaliation after the Jews gained their independence from the Greeks, John Hyrcanus the Jewish king and high priest raided and destroyed the Samaritan sanctuary on Mt. Gerizim. Things could not be worse for the relations between these 2 groups of people. For this reason the Jews were willing to tack on an extra day of travel time in order to avoid going through Samaria en route to Jerusalem from Galilee.
Why though was Jesus compelled to go through Samaria? Going through Samaria endangered His status among His target audience, the Jews. Whenever the word “compelled” or “must” is used in this sense, it refers to God’s will. Jesus had to go through Samaria because it was God’s will. There was a woman at Sychar who needed Jesus. He had to go.
On Jesus’ way through Samaria, He stopped at the town of Sychar near the parcel of ground which Jacob, a grandson of Abraham, had given to his favorite son Joseph. (Although nothing in the OT accounts for this, Jewish oral tradition is the source for this story.) Jesus and His disciples stop at a well which was located approximately a mile from the town. This well was notable because it was believed to have been originally dug by Jacob himself. It is about 12 noon (the sixth hour); Jesus being weary sends His disciples into the town to buy food while He waits by the well.
THE GIFT OF GOD—LIVING WATER (4:7-18)
While the disciples are engaged in buying food in the city, a Samaritan woman departs from Sychar and heads to the well. Now there are several unusual features about this. First, there was a perfectly good well in Sychar for the woman to draw from. To walk a total of 2 miles back and forth from the well seems highly unnecessary unless there is an outstanding reason. Second, women normally did not go to wells by themselves. They would meet at an appointed time, draw the water, and share the latest gossip, I mean, news. Third, women normally drew water either in the morning or in the evening when it was cool, not at noon during the hottest part of the day. Something was wrong that caused this woman in act in so contrary a way. Since the story is so familiar, it is alright to say right now that the woman had led a promiscuous lifestyle and thereby was shunned by the all the local women of good standing. She was an outcast, a pariah.
When the woman approaches the well, Jesus asks her to give Him a drink of water. Now as far as the woman is concerned, Jesus knows nothing about her. Why she could be the Queen of Sheba for all He knew. As a result, she compensates for all the abuse she has received from her townspeople and uses Jesus as an easy target. The persecuted becomes the persecutor. She pours out scorn on Him: “How is it that You being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”
Jesus turns the tables on her. He responds that if she knew the gift of God and who it was who was speaking to her, she would have asked Him and He would have given her living water. Just like the word “anothen” in chapter 3 had a dual meaning, so the word translated “living” (zwn , or zon pronounced “zone“) here has a double meaning: running [water] and living [water].
The woman understands Jesus’ response only in the sense of running water as opposed to the stagnant water in the well. The woman is highly suspicious of Jesus’ claim. First, Jesus has nothing to draw water with, so how can He give her any water at all? He can’t even give her water from this well much less water from a running stream or brook. Second, He can’t know where any running water is since even Jacob himself, the great father of the Israelites, had not been able to find such a source. She reasons that since Jacob is greater than Jesus and since Jacob could not find such water, Jesus is exaggerating. (We see here the first instance of irony that John uses frequently in the Fourth Gospel. Even though she does not realize it, she has been speaking the truth: Jesus is greater than Jacob.)
Jesus then compares the water He provides with the water Jacob provided. Whereas Jacob’s source of water satisfies for only a few hours or a day at the most, the water that Jesus provides always slates the thirst of the soul. In fact the water Jesus gives becomes in a person a source of eternal water which constantly springs up producing the life of God in that person. (As we shall see in John 7:39, this water is the Holy Spirit.) The woman once more refuses to go deeper; she wants to think of this water only in terms of magical water which will always slate her physical thirst and which will insure that she will never have to come to this well in humiliation ever again.
Jesus now shocks her into reality. She has acted as if all was well with her. She had acted high and mighty towards Jesus when He first asked her for a drink of water. She had refused to admit her own spiritual need by refusing to interpret Jesus’ words spiritually. She was acting as if nothing was wrong with her at all. She’s like most of us who refuse to admit there is anything wrong with our lives. When I’m asked for prayer requests, I say everything is fine while all along my marriage is falling apart or I’ve been stricken with some kind of deadly disease.
Like a splash of cold water in her face, Jesus asks her to go get her husband. Without admitting her failed past, she claims that she does not have a husband. She felt that for all He knew she might be a widow or a virgin who had never been married. Jesus though drops a bombshell on her (something He does quite frequently). Jesus agrees with her that she does not have a husband at the present time. In fact she had five husbands in the past and has been such a failure at the marriage relationship that she was now just living with a man.
WORSHIP GOD IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH (4:19-26)
The woman is stunned by this unmasking of her true self. By what He has just said, in her opinion Jesus must be a prophet. She then asks a question which really is one of the deepest questions a person can ask: “Where does a person worship God?” (Some claim that she is trying to deflect attention off herself and ask a question which is beside the point. Now some do this. In fact Bible study for such people is not an encounter with the Lord who wants to change my life; it is focusing on minutiae which has nothing to do with my life. Whereas there is truth to this, I don’t agree with this because when a person truly wishes to be right with God, worship will become a major aspect of that person’s relationship with God.) She then raises an issue which divided the Jews and Samaritans: the Jews claimed that Jerusalem was the only place to worship God, while the Samaritans claimed that Mt. Gerizim was the place God had designated as the true place of worship.
In agreement with the major theme of chapters 2 through 4, Jesus tells the woman that a new day has come with His arrival in which the true worship of God is no longer restricted to Jerusalem (or to any other place for that matter). Within 40 years the Romans will destroy the Jerusalem temple so that nobody can worship there any more; the Samaritan temple by that time had already fallen into major neglect.
Then He goes on to affirm the validity of the Jew and the Jewish OT. God’s plan of salvation did not come through the Samaritans but through the Jews. God chose to work through Abraham and then through Abraham’s great-grandson Judah to reveal to the world His purpose and plan, not through the 10 northern tribes who descended from 10 other great-grandsons of Abraham.
With the coming of Jesus though a new day has dawned when the place of worship is not what matters; what matters is the method of worship, in Spirit and in truth. Now some reduce this statement to mean that what we need in worship services is an emphasis on inner worship, such as deep meditation and inductive Bible study, as opposed to the external worship of preaching, the Lord’s Supper, baptism, etc. Such an interpretation contradicts the worship service Paul himself promotes in 1 Cor. 14:26. Instead Jesus means that the worship God desires is one led by the Spirit of God which harmonizes with the truth God has revealed to mankind. Since the Spirit is not confined to any one area, true worship can occur anywhere, Jerusalem, Rome, even Corsicana. This much is easy.
[Just a side note. Some have perverted this to justify their skipping Bible Study and worship on Sunday mornings. Yes, God is at the lake; however, if you or I go to the lake on Sunday mornings for the purpose of recreation primarily and not worship, forget God being there. God meets us when 2 or 3 have gathered together because of their relationship with God and for the purpose of worship (Matt. 18:20).]
Worshiping in the truth is a little harder to understand. First, Jesus in the Fourth Gospel calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of truth” (16:13). Second, Jesus calls Himself “the Truth” in the Gospel of John (14:6). Third, Jesus calls God’s Word the “truth” (17:17). All these combined point to the conclusion that worship in truth means that as I am led by God’s Spirit, He will speak to me God’s Word (either through the Bible or apart from the Bible) which always harmonizes with what God has shown us in Jesus. If I feel like God has told me to do something Jesus would never do even if I have a Bible verse to “back” me up, then I have not heard from God. The Spirit leads me to obey Jesus; He glorifies Jesus. Anything which contradicts this according to Jesus is not the truth and is therefore not the kind of worship God desires from us.
The woman is impressed by what Jesus has said. The Samaritans believed the Messiah would be a prophet like Moses who was primarily a great teacher (Deut. 18:18). Jesus saying these things to her makes her think of the day that will come when the Messiah Himself will come and teach all people everywhere God’s ultimate truth. Jesus tells her, “I am He,” that is, “I am the Messiah.” [Unfortunately our English translations are unable to relay to us exactly the shades of meaning Jesus puts into the words “I am He.” He literally says, “I Am,” with “He” being implied. (Many of you have the word “He” in italics which shows it is not in the Greek.) Normally this would not raise any eyebrows; however, in light of future “I Am” statements by Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, it is hard not to recognize in this statement a claim to deity since they are almost the exact same words God uses to describe Himself to Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3:14).]
THE TIME OF HARVEST IS NOW!!! (John 4:27-38)
At this point Jesus’ disciples return and are amazed that Jesus has not only been speaking with a Samaritan but with a Samaritan woman at that! Rabbis were just not expected to converse with women at all. Already at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus is overturning the biased social attitudes of His day. They are thinking to themselves: “What does Jesus seek from a woman?” and “Why does He speak with her at all?”; however, they don’t say a word, Even if the woman senses their condemnation, she doesn’t care. Instead she rushes off to the townspeople to inform them about her encounter with Jesus. (Once more the person who has truly met Jesus rushes off to share Him with others.) She tells them to come see the Man who told her all the things she had done. “This could not be the Messiah, could it?” She asks this question in such a way that it requires a negative response: “No, He’s not the Messiah.” By asking it this way, it’s like she’s saying it’s almost just too good to be true that the Messiah had come to her, of all people!
At this point Jesus discusses what drives Him. Because of time we will not deal with this here but will deal with it in depth in chapter 5.
Jesus goes on though to use 2 common parables about harvesting to show that a new age has dawned upon them. In this present evil age the statement is true: “Once you sow, it takes 4 months before you can harvest.” You sow in the spring and 4 months later the harvest comes. Well, a new day has arrived in which this statement is no longer true. Today is the day of harvesting; not 4 months from now! Why? Because we live in the age of the Spirit which is a day of harvesting souls. Jesus never exhorts us to pray for a harvest; that would be like praying for rain while it was raining. Jesus exhorts us to pray for harvesters! (See Matt. 9:37, 38). The reason the church is not harvesting souls is that its people are not harvesters. We want to water and fertilize all the time; we want to be fed; however, we don’t want to go out there and bring people to Jesus. It’s not the people’s fault that they are not being harvested; it’s our fault.
Another harvesting proverb true in the present evil age is not true in this age of the Spirit: “You work hard all your life, only to die prematurely and leave it all to somebody else.” How many times have we seen people who worked hard all their life, retire, and die within a few years? Their spouses may enjoy the fruit of their hard labors; maybe even their children. How sad it is though when the government gets it all. Well, in this new age of the Spirit the truth is that sometimes the people who sow are not the ones who reap, while the ones who reap never sowed in the first place. And that’s OK! Billy Graham at his crusade will have done little sowing; however, he will reap a great harvest during his crusade. Pastors may preach brilliantly and reap the harvest; however, many times it is the SS worker who did all the sowing and nurturing. It doesn’t matter though! It doesn’t matter whether you’re the harvester or the sower; what matters is whether or not you are a part of the process.
The disciples were going to experience in just a few moments the reversal of these old proverbs. They are going to be harvesters when the Samaritans come to hear more about Jesus. In fact Jesus points to the fields white unto harvest (the Samaritans decked in white clothes may have been approaching Jesus and the disciples). They were going to get to participate in this new age of harvesting. Second, although Jesus and John the Baptist had done all the sowing in Samaria (see John 3:23 where John states that the Baptist had been preaching in the Samaritan area of Aenon near Salim), the disciples were going to get to be the ones who did the harvesting.
JESUS THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD (John 4:39-42)
At this point the woman escorts the Samaritans back to the well. They believe in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony. They then ask Him to stay on with them. He grants them a 2-day visit. Why? Would a longer stay jeopardize His ministry with the Galilean Jews? That’s pure speculation. The true answer lies in the fact that it was the Father’s will for Jesus to stay only 2 days. That alone governed Jesus’ actions. After Jesus had spent the time there, the Samaritans inform the woman that it is no longer on account of her word only that they believed in Jesus. They believed in Him because they had encountered Him themselves. Getting to know Jesus was enough to convince them that He is “the Savior of the World.”
This last statement has puzzled many NT scholars. They want to know how the Samaritans came up with such a title for Jesus because the books of Moses (the only ones they accepted) never claim that the Messiah was going to be the Savior of the world. Well, sometimes the Bible is not the only way God reveals Himself to you and me. In this instance God revealed Himself to us by the way Jesus treated the Samaritan woman. When Jesus saved the Samaritan woman, He broke through 3 major barriers: a racial barrier (Samaritan versus Jew), a gender barrier (a woman versus a man), and a social barrier (a slut versus a virtuous woman). The truth is that if Jesus would save such a person as this woman, He would save anybody. Paul wrote that God saved him in order to demonstrate to the rest of the world that He wants to save all mankind (1 Tim. 1:15-16). Paul had murdered Christians because of his hatred for Christ. If Christ would save one like him, how much more will He save anybody else who comes to Him. If Jesus was interested in saving persons like her and Paul, He is interested in saving you and me too.
Just a little side-note. Since Jesus saves and accepts people like the Samaritan woman, then we too need to accept people not like us. The main reason we don’t many times is that we think that God didn’t have to do all that much to save us. Sure it took a lot to save the Samaritan woman; however, God is really fortunate to have me in His kingdom. I don’t know what He would do if I were not a part of that kingdom. That is so misguided. The truth is that Pilate ultimately was not the one who killed Jesus. The sins of the best Christian at FBC Corsicana killed Jesus as much as the sins of the worst person in the world. It took as much to save us as it did the lowliest person in town. As such, we should be as accepting of that person as we are of the best people in the city.