Beyond all Hope?
1 Tim. 1:12-16 records Paul’s confession and testimony of God’s grace in his life. Paul basically says, "If Jesus can save me, he can save anyone!"
Have you ever known someone who was beyond help?
Here in John 4 Jesus meets a woman whose life is a string of broken relationships. She’s a foreigner with a life that speaks of failure in marriage, failure in morals, and failure in faith. Just imagine, five husbands and now a live in. It almost sounds like modern America, doesn’t it? Let me tell you something. Spiritual failure has a high price tag!
Listen, this world’s water is dry. It doesn’t quench thirst, it makes you come back for more. The more you get of this world’s water the more you have to come back and refill. It never satisfies. Never! It only deadens the pain for the moment. When the intoxication wears off, you only find yourself worse off than before. Every step into sin leads towards it’s reward... ultimate, eternal death.
Does Jesus have anything better to offer to a world that runs to the shallow wells of sin for refreshment? Look at John 4 with me and lets see...
John 4:3b he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When 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.)
This is the meeting of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Let’s picture it. The trip from Judea to Galilee was quite a hike. It is 76.4 miles from Jerusalem to Capernaum according to my Bible atlas. That’s if you travel in a straight line. Jesus and the disciples must have walked for a couple of days just to get to Jacob’s well in Sychar which is over 29 miles from Jerusalem. The Bible says he had to go through Samaria. Had to go? Some commentators say this means Jesus mission included this trip through Samaria. Others see it as the shortest distance between Judea and Galilee includes the dreaded Samaritan passage. Either way, God was at work in it and Jesus finds himself in the company of this Samaritan woman and as best we can tell, they are alone by the well. It is a good guess that she is not interested in conversation with this Jewish man, but Jesus is.
Everyone who studies this encounter finds the treasure of God’s heart in action with a sinner who most would write off as beyond hope or help spiritually. Jesus was not beyond writing people off. I think of Judas. Jesus clearly calls him a devil and the son of perdition.
John 6:70 Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!"
John 17:12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction (kjv son of perdition) so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
You see, Jesus knows us. He knows what is in our hearts. He knows who will accept him and who will not, and yet the offer of his saving grace goes out to all. Some have hearts to receive him... others don’t.
But this woman, who has a life wrecked by sin, Jesus refers to as white unto harvest for eternal life! (Vs 35-36).
How does one approach such a person? What appeal would win her heart to God? Jesus the master Teacher shows us with several appeals, how to bring life to those in death, how to bring light to those in darkness, how to open the door of ones heart to God.
He starts where she is. He gives her a chance to use what she has. He appeals first to her kindness. He opens the conversation with a question. Would you give me a drink? The KJV is weak here. Give me to drink, is too strong. His wording is a request. I know that because she says, “Why do you ask me for a drink?” Jesus is asking. He is appealing to her sense of kindness. It was the gentlest and most natural approach to take. Besides, he is probably thirsty. Her response is surprise and a little reproving. Men didn’t speak openly with women in those days, and especially Jewish men with Samaritan women. Jews didn’t eat or drink after Samaritans either. They considered them and their dishes unclean. It wasn’t conventional. But Jesus was certainly not a very conventional person. When a leper asked Jesus to heal him, Jesus touched him. Highly unconventional! And when Jesus met this woman with water at this well, he broke cultural rules and spoke to her. It worked. She returned the conversation. His appeal to her kindness got her attention and opened the door for the light to shine in.
Her question back to Jesus is a rebuff of sorts. She probably gave him a drink, but Jesus is interested in more than water from her. He wants her heart too. He now appeals to her curiosity.
John 4:10 Jesus 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? 12 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?"
I have to say, this woman seems comfortable talking to men. It has probably gotten her into trouble in the past. But look at Jesus words, then hers. If you knew... doesn’t that just beg for a response. Knew what? Two things: (1.) The gift of God and (2.) who it is who speaks to you. Do you get the idea that Jesus wants her to know him? And what is this thirsty traveler offering this woman? Living water? Her response is almost predictable. Who do you think you are? You think your greater than Jacob? Excuse me, but have you looked down this well? It’s deep. You’ve got nothing to get water with? Where are you going to get this “living water?”
At this point she’s fully engaged in the conversation. Like Eve, she’s taken the forbidden fruit, and now Jesus is there to win her from his clutches. He knows that if she only knew him she’d seek his gift of life. He is now about to offer her this life. He brushes off all her rebuff and continues. Again listen to his words as he appeals to her desire.
John 4:13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 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." 15 The 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."
Do you catch the irony here? Who started this conversation asking for a drink? Why? He was thirsty. Now who is offering a water that whoever drinks will never thirst? I get the idea that when this woman says what she says in verse 15, she’s not expecting to get what he is offering. If it’s anything like the way she has spoken before, she’s saying, “OK, I’ll call your bluff. Show me your cards.” Where’s the water? You say you’ve got water that will take care of my thirst? Let’s have it. I hate this trip out here to this well every day anyway.
Her response shows two things: 1. She hasn’t connected with the spiritual content of Jesus words yet. 2. She’s willing to see what this stranger has to offer.
She asked for living water. Jesus now begins to extend it to her. He does so with another appeal. This time it is an ironic appeal. On the surface Jesus is appealing to her ambition.
How bad does she want this living water. Jesus words: "Go, call your husband and come back."
Is it worth a 3 mile hike to town and back to get her husband?
But underneath lies the more important appeal to the awareness of her condition. She answers very briefly. 3 words in the original language. I have none. Jesus has touched a nerve and must expose the painful, sinful reality hidden in her life before she can drink of the living water she has asked for. Listen to how carefully Jesus handles this: 17b Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 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." Isn’t that great! How tender and gentle, yet how clear and complete. The lights just came on in the dirty house and there stands Jesus and the woman of the house. What can she say? Jesus was respectful, precise, surprisingly insightful. Wow! Her whole history is an open book to this man! She’s standing there. He’s standing there. It’s her turn to talk. Jesus let’s her have the floor. Now what? How do you follow that?
She doesn’t know his past. She’s got no ammunition to fire at him. She’s probably having difficulty knowing where to go with this. So she states the obvious and runs for cover to an impersonal religious controversy. Watch her words. John 4:19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." That’s a safe subject. It’s not about her or him directly, but about their religious beliefs about worship. It gives her an out and gives him a rabbit to chase while she picks up her water jar and makes her escape.
Folks, I’ve seen this a thousand times. Not many people want to discuss their moral failures and sins with someone who challenges them. It’s much safer to enter a religious contest with who’s right and who’s wrong about something less personal. This is a diversion of attention off of herself and onto a safe religious subject. You’re a prophet, so lets talk about religion. Let’s see, what about that mountain thing. You Jews say your mountain, our ancestors say this one. Let’s talk about that. I mean, until we have that straightened out, I can’t discuss anything else.
Look at how Jesus handles this: John 4:21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
What does Jesus stress? Not where you are but who you are. He doesn’t dismiss her question, but he doesn’t let it get them off the subject either. She turns the attention to worship, and Jesus focuses on the kind of person who worships and the kind of God they worship.
Spirit and truth... what is meant by those words. What would you understand if you were that woman? What kind of worshiper am I? Not what activities do I do in worship. But when it comes to honesty and spirituality, where do I stand with God. Of course, what we do in worship needs to line up with God’s word, but just as important if not more than that, what we are before Him in worship must be in spirit and truth.
Jesus isn’t teaching this woman a correct formal pattern of worship, he is confronting her with who she is and who God is. She brought up worship, Jesus is telling her what kind of worshiper God is looking for. This begs the question: are you that kind of worshiper? Jesus turns it from the kind of worship to the kind of worshiper you are. The right kind of worshiper knows who God is. The right kind of worshiper, the true kind, worships in truth.
These words of Jesus stir this woman’s heart and make her think of the Messiah. She knows that there is one coming from God who knows all the answers. In spite of her life of sin, and in spite of her ignorance of worship, she believes God will send the Messiah who knows all these things. And when he comes, she will listen to him and believe him.
Here’s her words: John 4:25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." That’s it!!! The words Jesus knew would come! He knew her heart was longing for the Christ. He had stirred those thoughts up. He had lifted her hopes to God’s own answer for her deepest needs. She knows a light is coming that will expose and explain all this. She believes that God will send the one with answers to all her confusion. What she doesn’t know is that this one to come is standing right before her very eyes!
Now it’s time! Now he says the words that blow her mind. Jesus does something here that is extremely rare in his ministry. He openly and clearly proclaims himself to be God’s Messiah, the Christ. John 4:26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
And who did he pick to declare this to?
I would love to have seen her face. Wouldn’t you? I imagine a blank stare, then a wide eyed astonishment of recognition of the truth. Her unspoken words are, “It is you!!! Suddenly, she’s not thirsty. And just as suddenly Jesus is not hungry.
This woman came to the well to get some water little knowing she would leave there without her jar, but overflowing.
What I love most about this story is learning what makes Jesus excited. He loves to fill us up with living water and watch it spill out on everyone around us. If you haven’t been spilling over, maybe you need to check to see what’s in your well. If Jesus didn’t put it there, you’ll be thirsty again and again. But when Jesus puts the water of life in you, it springs up to overflow.
