John’s Gospel #5 She said; He said
CHCC: February 3, 2008
John 4:1-21
INTRODUCTION:
What would it be like to have a one-on-one conversation with Jesus? John chapters 3 and 4 tell about two private conversations Jesus had during the first months of his Public ministry. Jesus offered two very different people the same thing: salvation. To Nicodemus he offered new birth. To the Woman at the Well he offered living water.
It was no coincidence that John put the two accounts right next to each other. They show that salvation is available for ANYONE and EVERYONE. Nicodemus and the Woman at the Well were about as opposite as it gets.
Nicodemus The Woman at the Well
At midnight At noon
Man Woman
Religious Jew Irreligious Samaritan
Wealthy and Respected Poor and an Outcast
Moral Immoral
Pristine Past abuse,pain,and bad choices
Said very little Had a lot to say
Not long after he talked to Nicodemus, Jesus left Judea and traveled to Galilee where he would stay for most of his 3-year ministry. Jesus was attracting such a big following that the Jewish Leaders in Jerusalem had already started looking for excuses to arrest Him. Jesus had to travel through Samaria.
You can see why on the map … but there was so much animosity between Jews and Samaritans that many Jews would cross the Jordan River and go the long way rather than travel through this land of despised half-breeds. Whatever his Disciples might have preferred, Jesus intended to go through Samaria.
About half way through the trip, Jesus and his Disciples stopped near Sychar. While the disciples went to the town to get some food, Jesus sat down and leaned against a Well to rest. This was a famous well that Jacob dug thousands of years before. If you went to the Holy Land you could still visit Jacob’s well today. There was no one around until a woman walked up with her water pot. Jesus made a simple request. “Will you give me a drink?” And that’s where the She Said, He Said part begins.
What this woman said to Jesus was not exactly friendly: She snapped, "You’re a Jew and I’m a Samaritan woman. Why would you ask me for a drink?" John 4:9 In her defense, she had good reason to be suspicious. Jews avoided Samaritans like the plague. Besides that, men and women didn’t usually talk to each other. (By the way, it’s still that way in much of the world. For example in India, men and women are rarely ever seen together unless a married couple are traveling together)
So the last thing this Woman expected was for a Jewish Man to ask her for help. She basically told Jesus, “I’m not about to give you any of our well water.”
Jesus ignored her rude comment. He said, "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." John 4:10
She said: I won’t give you well water.
He said: I will give you living water.
So how did this woman respond? She said, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are 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?" John 4:11-12
Even though she addressed Jesus as “Sir” (which seems a little more polite) … I think she was goading Jesus. To her, all Jews were self-righteous know-it-alls.
Again, Jesus looked past her cantankerous attitude. He said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but 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." John 4:13-14
A while back, SPRITE had a commercial that said, “Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. OBEY YOUR THIRST.” Jesus wanted this woman to OBEY HER THIRST.
I’m sure his offer of living water caught her interest … because she already WAS thirsty. She was about to lower a bucket over 200 feet down into the well so she could quench her thirst.
She said, "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." John 4:15
You might think Jesus had won her over. But I don’t think so. The more we learn about this Woman, the more we see that she had lived a hard life. After years of abuse and rejection, she had built a hard, protective wall around herself. She didn’t trust anyone … especially not this Jew.
When she said, Sir, give me this water so I won’t have to hike out to this well any more. I think she was really saying, Okay, big shot. If you have some sort of magic water, then PROVE IT!
She was probably mocking him. Maybe she was trying to make a joke. But things were about to stop being funny. Jesus hit a sore spot when he suddenly said, "Go, call your husband and come back." John 4:16
She muttered, "I have no husband," John 4:17
Then Jesus shocked her by saying, "You are right … you have no husband. The 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." John 4:17-18
This was why the woman came to the well at noon instead of joining the women of Sychar in the cool of the morning. She had learned from experience that if she came near the “upstanding” women, they would gather in little groups and point and whisper and give her the “stink-eye.”
She said: Prove it.
He said: I know everything about you.
When the Woman at the Well challenged Jesus to “PROVE IT,” Jesus answered, “I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU”
* I know that you are an outcast in your own town.
* I know that you’ve been hurt over and over again.
* I know that you’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places.
* I know that you’ve been left HIGH and DRY --- --- 5 times!
Keep in mind that in that time and place, women had no right to divorce … even an abusive or unfaithful husband. She had not ended those marriages. She had been rejected 5 times.
The first time or two, she probably thought, “I’ll NEVER get involved with anyone like that guy again.” But, for whatever reason, she kept making the same mistake over and over again … until she finally lost all trust in promises and commitment. She was with her 6th man, and she didn’t even bother with marriage.
She was like the women Dr. Laura Schlesinger had in mind when she wrote a book called, “Ten Stupid Things Women do to Mess Up Their Lives.” Here are 5 of them ---
(Now, keep in mind, these didn’t come from me. I’m quoting from the Table of Contents.)
1. “Stupid Attachment: You look to a man to find and define yourself.
2. ”Stupid Courtship: Desperate to have a man, you become a beggar, not a chooser in the dating relationship.
3. “Stupid Devotion: You are driven to love and suffer and appease in vain.
4. “Stupid Passion: You have sex too soon and set yourself up to get burned.
5. “Stupid Cohabitation: Stop lying to yourself! You’re not living with him because you love him. You’re living with him because you hope he’ll want you!”
The book is based on thousands of calls Dr. Laura has received on her radio talk show. Things haven’t changed much from the days of the Woman at the Well, have they? The truth is, if you take gender out of those 5 stupid things, they are true for men as well as women.
All of us can fall into the trap of looking for love in all the wrong places. We try to quench spiritual thirst with plain old well water --- we use relationships or status or career --- or we turn to alcohol and drugs --- or we try to satisfy our thirst with entertainments and accumulation of lots of STUFF. We make the same mistakes over and over. And over and over we get left HIGH and DRY. Maybe you know someone like that. Maybe you ARE someone like that.
Jesus offers the ONLY solution for our parched lives. Jesus has offered you and me the same Living Water that he offered the woman at the well.
The Woman at the Well didn’t want to face up to her past. Jesus was getting way too close to home. So she changed the subject. She said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." John 4:19-20
She brought up a religious controversy as a smoke screen.
But Jesus wasn’t going to be sidetracked. He used it as an opportunity to give her a taste of His living water. He said, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when worship will have nothing to do with where you are … 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.
God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:21-24
She said: Where can I worship God?
He said: It’s not where, it’s Who.
Look at that last sentence. Notice the Big S and the little s. God is Spirit … his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth. True worship happens when God’s Holy Spirit connects with your spirit. True worship can happen in church. It can happen in your living room, or in the car, or in your bed, or at the grocery store, or in a prison, or at work … because true worship happens in your heart.
True worship is God’s Spirit connecting to your spirit.
The Woman at the Well felt her wall of defense crumbling in the face of compassion and truth. But it took a lifetime of pain and rejection to build up that protective wall. She made one last effort to hold herself back from trusting this remarkable Jewish man.
She said, "I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." John 4:25
Then Jesus said, "I who speak to you am he." John 4:25-26
She said: I’ll wait until the Messiah comes.
He said: I who speak to you am he.
For the Woman at the Well, that was the moment when her last defenses crumbled. How could she help being drawn in? She was hearing the voice of God’s Son. She was looking into eyes filled with God’s love. Hope sprang up in the heart she had thought was long dead. She left her water pot behind and ran into town. When she came back, she brought a crowd with her. Jesus stayed there in Sychar for 2 more days, offering living water to anyone and everyone who believed.
CONCLUSION:
* Are you like Nicodemus? Have you led an upstanding, moral life? Are you successful and well respected?
* Or are you like the Woman at the Well? Have you made the wrong choices over and over again? Have you been left HIGH and DRY? Do you have a past full of rejection and pain?
* Or are you … like most of us … somewhere in the middle?
It doesn’t matter how good or bad your life has been. Jesus makes the same offer to all of us. You can experience new birth. You can taste His living water. If only you will ask.
