The Outcast Series

Picture this: Your political beliefs put you in the small minority. The majority party, in fact, shuns you. Socially you are considered not really part of the nation because your ancestors were immigrants. Spiritually your stands made you unpopular, and leave you confused. Morally you have made some bad decisions, the same bad decisions over and over and can’t seem to break out of it. Even your gender makes it very hard to survive, let alone thrive. But survive you must. A person in that position avoids everyone and trusts no one. It would be a very lonely and frustrating and hard life.

Enter into that life someone who should for all of the above reasons have nothing to do with you, and yet they seem to not only care but know you in a way that no one does-no one could, and who seems to have answers to questions so deep you had been afraid to ask them.

That’s where we find today’s study in John 4, as Jesus goes to a place no self respecting Jew would go, to talk to a person no one would talk to, in order to bring life into an existence that felt so dead.

1 - 3

Jesus is God, yet He cared so much for John that He left, rather than make John move on. No competition of ministries here. Jesus took the lower place. Amazing. Last time we saw John take the lower place-are they competing for who can be humblest? Of course not. Jesus really is the King of Kings, yet the heart of God is one of such humbleness that he makes way for another human to continue ministry unabated. What lessons for us!

4 - 6

Samaria is located in the northwestern part of Israel. It cut Israel in half and a strict Jew would go east of the Jordan to avoid having to go through Samaria on his way to Galilee. Samaria was settled with mostly non-Jews after the Assyrians deported the Jews of Israel in 724 BC. The Assyrians sent back some priests from the Jeroboam cult after wild animals started attacking the immigrants. They thought they should appease the gods of the land. Those living in Judah treated those in Samaria as non-Jews, though both claimed to worship Yahweh.

Jeroboam had split Israel in two halves after Solomon’s son Rehoboam refused to listen to good counsel. Jeroboam created his own religion because he was afraid that if northern Israel went back to Jerusalem each year they would eventually revert to a united nation. He was not worshipping Yahweh, however, but a calf idol. It was Yahweh worship in name only and it wasn’t true. Even today you can have groups that claim Jesus but are not Christian and if you believe their doctrine it will do you no good when you die. The true gospel is that Jesus, God in the flesh, came to earth and became fully a physical man, died a voluntary death on the cross as a free gift to us and the only way to wash us from sin. He then raised up from the dead as proof and lives forever as man and God.

Needless to say, there was not love lost between these two groups of people. Jesus, however, saw no distinction because all are lost and need a Savior.

Notice also that Jesus was tired. He really was a human. Sometimes as we serve the Lord we get tired too. That’s okay. It’s not bad to attend to our physical needs. Later, Paul will talk about our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, so we should take care of them so as to be able to minister for the Lord (1 Cor 6:19).

Jacob had purchased land near Sychar in Genesis 33. It gave the Samaritans a way to claim Jacob as their ancestor.

7 - 9

This woman had at least two things against her: she was a Samaritan, and she was a woman. A good Jewish man, and especially a devout Rabbi, would never speak to a Samaritan, or an alone unattached woman. The woman could have gone to a closer well and at the usual time for drawing water-she obviously wants to avoid contact with other women, and for good reason. It’s also surprising that Jesus would drink from a Samaritan’s cup.

10 - 15

The woman doesn’t get the fact that Jesus is not talking about physical water. She assumes that he has some hidden water source. Like Nicodemus, the people go straight to the physical, practical. Jesus is trying to get them to understand a different dimension of life: the spiritual.

Jesus says that if you drink of the physical water you will thirst again. That is so true. If we focus entirely on physical satisfaction - that is, satisfaction of the life that we see and experience around us - we will always want more. You will always run out of money, you will always want more power, you will always want more things. But Jesus is offering something that will satisfy forever. Once you have tasted a relationship with Jesus you know that you have found the answer. He is a never-ending stream of life that always satisfies.