Jesus and the woman at the well
John 4: 1-42
The story of the nameless Samaritan woman at the well, recorded only in the Gospel of John, is a revealing one, full of many truths and powerful lessons for us today. This story follows on the heels of the account of Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and prominent member of the Jewish Sanhedrin (John 3:1–21). And in John 4:4–42 we read about Jesus’ conversation with a lone Samaritan woman who had come to get water from a well (known as Jacob’s well) located near the city of Sychar in Samaria.
This was an extraordinary woman. She was a Samaritan, a race of people that the Jews utterly despised as having no claim on their God. The story of the woman at the well teaches us that God loves us in spite of our bankrupt lives. God values us enough to actively seek us, to wel-come us to intimacy, and to rejoice in our worship.
There are many other valuable truths we glean from this story. We learn that:
1) Only through Jesus can we obtain and receive eternal life: “Jesus answered, ‘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; cf. John 14:6).
2) Jesus’ ministering to those outcasts of the Jewish society (the Samaritans) reveals that all people are valuable to God and that Jesus desires that we demonstrate love to everyone . . . including even our enemies (John 4:7–9; Matthew 5:44).
3) Jesus is the Messiah (John 4:25–26; 1:41; Matthew 27:22; Luke 2:11).
4) Those who worship God, worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24; Psalm 145:18).
5) Our testimony about Jesus is a powerful tool in leading others to believe in Him: “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They 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”’ (John 4:39–42).
Additionally, we learn from Jesus’ dialogue with the woman at the well three absolute truths about salvation:
1) Salvation comes only to those who recognize their desperate need for the spiritual life they do not have. Living water can be obtained only by those who recognize that they are spiritually thirsty.
2) Salvation comes only to those who confess and repent of their sin and desire forgiveness.
3) Salvation comes only to those who take hold of Jesus as their Messiah. The absolute truth is that salvation is found in no one else (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
Our study is on our Lord’s dealing with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman in the third and fourth chapters of the Gospel of John. The similarities in these two encounters are few, while the contrasts are numerous. In both cases, our Lord is presenting Himself to individuals as the promised Messiah of Israel.
Nicodemus was a man, the Samaritan was a woman. Nicodemus was an orthodox, conservative Jew, the woman a half-breed apostate from Judaism. Nicodemus was a prominent, highly-regarded leader, perhaps one of the best-known religious teachers of his day. The woman was well-known, too, but her reputation had to do with the number of men she had lived with. Nicodemus sought out his interview with the Messiah, while the woman ‘chanced’ to meet with Him.
So far, all the pluses seem to be in favor of Nicodemus. But we should not fail to point out some additional contrasts. Nicodemus was not reported to have been immediately converted, while the woman’s faith is evident. The conversation with Nicodemus had no impact on the lives of his peers. Indeed, Jesus had to leave Judea because of the Pharisees (John 4:1-3). But the woman brought back nearly the whole town with her testimony, and Jesus was invited to stay on (4:39-42). While Jesus spoke of Himself to the Jews in veiled terms (cf. John 2:18-22), He gave one of the clearest statements of His identity to this woman (4:26). The Jews had already begun to reject Him, but the Samaritans received Him as the Savior of the world (4:42).
Let us look, then, to this account of the conversion of a Samaritan city, for lessons from the Master in sharing our faith, even across tremendous cultural barriers
The Conversion of the Samaritan Woman
(John 4:1-26)
The occasion for our Lord’s encounter is a bit unusual. Our Lord was passing through Samaria, retreating from Judea to Galilee. The reason for our Lord’s departure was His untimely popularity. The Pharisees were attempting to capitalize on the greater popularity of the ministry of Jesus than of John. They sought to promote a rift. Rather than take advantage of His popularity our Lord ran from it, for it was untimely, and would tend to undermine His ministry rather than underscore it.
Much has been made of John’s statement that Jesus must travel through Samaria. Technically, it was not a necessity at all, and culturally, it was not customary to do so. If you will look at a map, you will see that Samaria lies between Galilee on the north and Judea to the south. The shortest distance between points is obviously a straight line, which would mean passing through Samaria to get from Judea to Galilee. But because of the animosity which existed between these two peoples, scrupulous Jews chose to avoid passing through Samaria by traveling around it to the east, crossing the Jordan and passing through the friendlier territories of Peraea and Decapolis.
In what sense then was Jesus compelled to pass through Samaria? In part, our Lord may have done so to express His contempt for the narrow bigotry of some of the Jews of His day. Certainly from the divine perspective, He did so in order to bring many Samaritans to faith. But the Jewish historian, Josephus, used exactly the same expression in the sense of necessity for rapid travel. From the divine perspective our Lord must pass through Samaria in order to fulfill the purpose of God. From the human, it was the shortest and most sensible route. Racial prejudice and bigotry were no consideration at all to our Lord, who came as the Savior of the world, of Jews and Gentiles (cf. John 3:16; 4:42).
The journey from Judea to Sychar was a hot and dusty one. At the end of the journey our Lord was tired, thirsty, and hungry. His disciples left him sitting by a well dug by Jacob many years before while they went on into Sychar for provisions. Apparently, the time was about midday when the Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. The normal time for women to get water was either early morning or later in the afternoon, when it was cooler. The well was a place where women gathered to talk as they filled their water pots. We can’t say for sure why this woman came to the well at noon, we will look into this later. Probably she wanted to come when she would be alone. But she encounters this Jewish man, who has the audacity to ask her for a drink of water. Add to this that it wasn’t socially acceptable for a Jewish man, much less a rabbi, to speak to any woman in public. The rabbis thought that even Jewish women should not be taught the Scriptures.
The racial and cultural (not to mention the theological) barriers present at this encounter were insurmountable. When our Lord asked this woman for a drink of water, she was caught completely off guard, for in her own words, “… Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9).
That was putting it mildly. There had been bitter feelings between Jews and Samaritans for centuries. The Samaritans find their origin at the time of the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C. According to Assyrian figures, nearly 30,000 Israelites were deported, being replaced by heathen captives from all over the Assyrian empire (cf. 2 Kings 17:3f.). It was not long before the purity of the Israelites was defiled, not only racially, but spiritually.
Ultimately, Samaritan theology differed greatly from that of orthodox Judaism. The Samaritans accepted only the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) as inspired and authoritative. They rejected the Psalms, the prophets, and other books of the Old Testament. When the Babylonian exiles returned to the Holy Land, the Samaritans made efforts toward merger, but were rebuffed and rejected (and rightly so). As a result, open hostility sprung up from time to time. The Samaritans held that the center of worship was at Mt. Gerizim, while the Jews maintained that it was Jerusalem (cf. John 4:20). The Samaritans actually tampered with the Scriptures to substantiate their theology. Around 400 B.C., a Samaritan Temple was built on Mount Gerizim. Around 128 B.C., this temple was destroyed by the Jews and relations between these two peoples worsened. Such was the background to this conversation between Jesus and the woman. Evidence to the friction between the Jews and the Samaritans is easily found.
When Jesus asked for a drink, He boldly refused to fit the Jewish stereotype, an alternate reading states " for Jews never used the same vessels as the Samaritans. "
There will be a progressive revelation of Jesus during this discourse. Jesus had a discourse in John 3 with Nicodemus, a ruler of the people and a moral religious leader, who came to Him by night. By contrast, here we have a non-Jewish woman who comes in the middle of the day. We do not see the outcome in John 3 of Nicodemus’ response but here we do see her response. There’s the idea of a bit of a contrast. In terms of responsiveness, this woman actually turns out to be more responsive than Nicodemus was. There is a rather immediate response that takes place.
I want you to note that there are in fact four barriers that Jesus has to overcome even to speak to her.
First of all, there is the fact that it was improper in that day for a Rabbi to speak in public to a young woman. In fact, typically, even if you were married, you often wouldn’t even speak to your wife in public. Jesus, as a Rabbi, furthermore, should be more cautious about speaking to a woman, let alone a woman who was a Samaritan. There was the barrier of sex because the public discourse between a man and a woman, especially an unmarried man, would be prohibited or looked down upon.
Secondly there was the barrier of race.
Thirdly there was the barrier of lifestyle. In fact, that’s why she was coming in the middle of the day. Typically women would come to the well early in the morning or at dusk when it was cool. and it was a place of congregation. It’s a place where they would meet because you had to spend a lot of time collecting water There, women would discuss things with one another. It was a meeting point. Why was she coming in the heat of the day?
Finally there was the barrier of religion. There’s an expression of bewilderment because Jews and Samaritans don’t share things in common. The Jews did have some dealings with the Samaritans but the idea of sharing from the same bucket was totally contrary to that concept - "They did not even use the same dishes the Samaritans used" - alternate reading John 4:9
Coming back to our story - “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” See, as it is, I have asked you for physical water but if you knew who " I am" you would’ve asked Me for another kind of water".
The racial and cultural barriers, I believe, have been hurdled. The woman is now willing to con-verse, paving the way for further penetration with the Gospel. Notice that Jesus neither defended Jewish bigotry, nor did He explain how He differed with them. His actions spoke decisively enough. Concentration on such issues would not convert this woman.
The barrier to evangelism was now one of disinterest or apathy. The need was to make the Gospel both relevant to this woman as well as desirable. To do this, our Lord worked upon her sense of curiosity and physical need. He said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10).
This statement generated interest on two fronts.
First of all, who was He? There had been no formal introduction. Jesus haunts her sense of curiosity.
Second, what was He trying to offer? No doubt this woman had heard a lot of approaches be-fore, and yet it appeared that this Man was trying to give, not to get. What was His angle?
She chose to set aside the question of identity and to get to the bottom line. What was this ‘Living water’ that He spoke about? To a person living at that time, the expression ‘Living water’ referred to running water, such as that of a spring or stream, as opposed to that which had no movement. Jesus seemed to be offering water even superior to that of Jacob’s well. As Nicodemus had done, so she took the words of Jesus strictly literally.
Whatever Jesus meant, she thought, He could not be speaking of water from this well, for it was very deep and He had nothing with which to drawn from it (vs. 11).
John 4:12-14, “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and this cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” It’s a beautiful metaphor. It’s like an artesian well that springs up and it has no boundaries, no limits. It continues to spring from the inside to the out. This is a marvelous metaphor of the Spirit of God who is ultimately going to be given.
Jesus uses the phrase “living water” in two instances in the New Testament . The first instance is found in John chapter 4:10
Notice that He does not say that He is the living water, but that He would give living water to her, and when she received it, she would never thirst again. Of course, that does not tell us what the living water is For that, we must go to another passage of Scripture. In this case, Jesus is in the temple surrounded by a throng of worshipers. He suddenly cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37–39).
John 7:37 : “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” It seems to me that there are three wonderful things implied in the words “if anyone thirsts.”
By the way that’s an allusion as well to Ezekiel 47 where you see this water and it starts out as a little trickle coming out from the east of the temple and continuing as it heads east to get deeper and deeper until it becomes a torrential flow of water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, those of them who believed in Him were to receive for the Spirit was not yet given for Jesus was not yet glorified. This imagery of water is one of the symbols, one of the signs of the Spirit. What are some other characteristics or signs of the Holy Spirit? Wind, light, oil, dove-and a very obvious one- fire. All these are images of the Spirit of God. All of these reveal something that none of them singularly can do but corporately we see many facets of the work of the Spirit. .Jesus spoke of the work of the Spirit as "wind" in John 3 to Nicodemus and he did not understand it. So here we find the woman too does not understand the work of the Spirit as "Living Waters".
First is that the gift of the water is free. The condition you must meet is need. “If anyone thirst.” That’s the condition. And the action you must take is to drink. Receive the gift. There is no thought here of earning or meriting. Anyone who knows his own thirst is invited.
Second, the human soul has thirst. We know he is not talking about physical thirst. That’s clear. But what he is saying is that the soul has something like physical thirst. When you go without water your body gets thirsty. And the soul, when it goes without God, gets thirsty. Your body was made to live on water. Your soul was made to live on God.
This is the most important thing to know about yourself. You were made to live on God. You have a soul, a spirit. There is a you that is more than a body. And that you, if it does not drink from the greatness and wisdom and power and goodness and justice and holiness and love of God, will die of thirst.
Third, implied in the word “thirst” is that what Jesus offers is satisfying. The aim of all theology, all biblical learning, all preaching is to spread the satisfying banquet for you to eat with joy, and to protect the cooked food from poison. The aim of cooking is eating. The aim of digging wells and clearing springs is drinking. Everything Jesus came to do and teach is aimed at providing the soul with food and drink that satisfy forever.
That’s what I see in the word “thirst.” The water is free. The soul has a thirst. And Jesus aims to satisfy the soul forever.
Here Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the living water. The influence of the Spirit had always been given in the conversion and sanctification of the Old Testament saints and prophets, but the gift of the Spirit who would indwell believers had not yet been received (Acts 10:44–45). So, though many people say that Jesus is the living water, Jesus Himself intended the phrase to mean the Holy Spirit who dwells in believers and seals them for salvation (Ephesians 1:13–14). It is the ministry of the Spirit, flowing out of a heart redeemed by God, that blesses believers and, through them, brings life and light to the world.
You see, she was ignorant of three important facts back in verse 10.
(a) She was ignorant of who He was.
(b) She was ignorant of what He had to offer.
(c) She was ignorant of how she could receive it.
When you stop to think about it, that’s the gospel. Who is this Jesus? What does He have to offer? How do you receive Him? That’s the essence of the good news.
In verse 13 and 14, He was saying the water that people drink will not satisfy any more than bread will satisfy you forever. It’s only going to be something that will sustain you for a short time. Whoever continues to drink of the water or anything that the world has to offer will discover that that water will bring them to thirst again. The things of the world never completely satisfy. That’s part of the thinking in this gospel.
John 4:15, “The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” Do you see what she is saying? "I want to get this kind of water so I won’t constantly be thirsty and draw from this well . I want something quick and easy". She’s not fully understanding this. She’s thinking it’s some magical supply of ordinary water and she won’t have to visit the well anymore.
Suddenly in verses 16 to 19 the rules change. There’s going to be a need for a change in the way Jesus communicates to her. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Jesus penetrates her defenses with these words. John 4:16, “He said to her, ‘Go, call your husband and come here.”
John 4:17-19, “The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ She did not say" I am single" Jesus said to her, ‘You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”
The pathetic fact is that she had married five times indicates and she had gone through the legal process 5 times that she longed for fulfillment in her life and that she had sought it in-tensely.
The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.” She recognizes Him as a prophet because He is endowed with the knowledge to know her through and through. He manifests a remarkable understanding- not just the human nature in general but of her very heart. He can read her heart. Lets jump forward to verse 29 at what she says to her people, “Come see a man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Messiah or the Christ, is it?” The fact that He knows her past impresses her but it’s a little bit too close to home so she changes the conversation.
Our Lord cut through the cover-up by informing her that she was technically correct. She did not have a husband, but she had a lover, and he was not number one, but number 6.
For a long time I've believed, and even taught, that the Samaritan woman was an immoral degenerate woman. Why? Because Jesus reveals her history with men in John 4:18. She has had five husbands and she is not married to the man she is with now and also that she came to draw water at noon because she was a social outcast. But as scholars discover more about the social norms of first century marriage, I wonder if we have judged her prematurely?
But could there be other explanations for her marital past?
1) Could she have been widowed?
Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, lost her husband and two sons in a short span of time (Ruth 1:1-4). Life expectancy in biblical times was dramatically shorter than ours. Also, women often married at thirteen or fourteen, very often to older men, making widowhood common in the first century. And because women needed a male relative or husband to protect them, many widows remarried. She could easily have been widowed more than once.
2) Could she have been divorced?
If the woman was barren, more than one discontent husband might have divorced her. Jewish law in general reserved the right of divorce to the husband. It's far more likely that the five husbands may have divorced her because she was barren - Deut 24:1 (this law gives the husband the right to divorce the wife for any or no reason) - leaving her unprotected in a harsh culture. And after going through the legal process 5 times she may have been tired of it and now was in a "common law " situation with a sixth man.
As we look back into the customs of the day, we can devise a number of scenarios that explain why the woman at the well had five husbands and her current companion was not legally her husband. Additional evidence comes right out of the narrative.
Let us see the response of the people of the town to her testimony in John 4:28-30: "Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?' They came out of the town and made their way toward him." They believed her immediately! No doubting, even in a culture that did not allow women to give testimony in a trial. If she had been the town "bad girl" I doubt they would have listened, much less dropped what they were doing and set out to find Jesus. John even makes a point of telling us in 4:39 that "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed because of the woman's testimony." She was an evangelist, an unlikely role if her past had disqualified her.
Also, unlike the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11. Jesus never rebukes her or advises her to "go and sin no more". Instead in John 4: 35-38, Jesus uses this situation to teach his disciples that the harvest is ripe--now. He tells them that they will reap what others have sown, and that they can rejoice together over what God has done through them. I wonder if Jesus might have been referring to the woman at the well as the one who sowed.
This woman’s awareness of Whom she was speaking to continued to grow. He was a Jew, but far from typical. He claimed to be greater than Jacob. He spoke with divine insight.
This woman was deliberately changed the subject and brought the conversation around to the theological issue which divided Jews and Samaritans. Where was the central place of worship? Was it Mount Gerizim? (No doubt she pointed to the mountain with the ruins of their former temple in sight.) Or, was it at Jerusalem, where the Jews insisted?
John 4:20, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
John 4:21, “Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” It’s not a question of where you are go-ing to be worshiping. In fact He says neither temple had pure and undefiled worship. The time when pure and undefiled offerings were offered in the temple of God was only for a brief period in Israel’s history. Early on, as you remember, in the time of Solomon and later on there was corruption and it was often full with idolatry and corrupted by images that were actually brought into the temple because of these corrupt kings. The few good kings were there and many of them would try to make reforms-Josiah for example in cleaning out the temple. But even so, there was often people being pacified with high place worship where there was still a kind of a combination worship for the living God and idol worship. There were some moments under Hezekiah and Josiah where they had reformed but as a whole, the worship in the temple in Jerusalem had been corrupt.
She raised the issue of where people ought to worship. Jesus responds by saying, “That controversy can’t compare in importance to" how" you worship and "whom" you worship.” How " and" whom" are vastly more important than "where."
Verse 21 turns her attention from "where" to" how: “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.’” In other words, it is not the location that makes an act of worship authentic. Worship is not merely an external act that you can accomplish by going to a place however "holy" the people may think it is. Jesus said in (Matthew 15:8): “This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me.”
Worship is first and foremost an experience of the heart. Prayer without heart is vain. Songs without heart are vain. Confession and creeds and liturgies and sermons that don’t come from the heart are empty and worthless in God’s eyes. So Jesus says to the woman: Don’t get caught up on irrelevant controversies. "How" you worship is vastly more important than "where".
Then verse 22 introduces the question of" who" you worship. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” When all our efforts to be gentle and sensitive and respectful of another person’s religion are done, the time eventually comes when you have to say: worship based on the biblical pattern is true worship and yours which is not based on the Bible is false. That may often be thrown back in your face as a statement of arrogance. But it isn’t.
If there is truth, and you have bowed humbly before it, then to try to persuade another person to bow with you is not arrogance. It is love. The Samaritans rejected all the Old Testament except for their version of the books of Moses. Their knowledge of God was deficient and so their worship was deficient. Also reading 2 Kings 17: 24 -41 we find that "These nations are worshiping the LORD and at the same time serving their idols; their sons and grandsons do just as their fathers have done, to this very day. " verse 41 . So they had a corrupt version of God and also a corrupt version of worship. " you worship what you do not know." And to tell them so was as loving as telling a person with lung cancer to stop smoking.
So in verses 21 and 22 Jesus directs the woman’s attention away from the external question “where” to the internal question “how” and the theological question “who.” Worship must be vital and real from within and it must be based on a true perception of God. Now verse 23 sums this up with the key phrase “in spirit and truth”: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” The two words, spirit and truth, correspond to the how of worship. Worshiping in spirit is the opposite of worshiping in mere external ways. It’s the opposite of formalism and traditionalism. Worshiping in truth is the opposite of worship based on an inadequate view of God.
Together the words “spirit and truth” mean that real worship comes from the spirit within and is based on true views of God. Worship must have heart and worship must have head. Worship must engage your emotions and worship must engage your thoughts. Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full of unspiritual believers. Emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates flaky people who reject the discipline of rigorous thought. True worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine.
With the coming of Messiah, all of that was to change. No longer did man need to seek God’s presence in one place. God is not to be worshiped in a place, but in a person, Jesus Christ. God is seeking true worshipers, but those who wish to worship Him must do so in accordance with His essential nature.
God is spirit, and thus He must be worshiped in spirit. Spiritual worship is that which takes place in the spiritual realm. No one who has not trusted in Christ as Messiah can truly worship, for they are ‘devoid of the spirit,’ (Jude 19, cf. Romans 8:9). While religionists view worship in terms of ceremony, true worship is a matter of the spirit, prompted and produced by the Holy Spirit.
Further, worship must be within the confines of truth. The Samaritans worshiped in ignorance. They worshiped ‘that which they knew not’ (verse 22). Samaritan worship consistently deviated from the revealed truth of God. One particular truth upon which worship must be based was the fact that salvation was to come from the Jews. The Messiah was to be a Jew, not a Samaritan. It is never enough to be sincere. One can be sincere and eternally wrong. One must be in accord with truth as revealed in the Bible to be a real worshiper of God. To worship a god who does not conform to the truths of Scripture is to practice idolatry. Worship concentrates both upon truth (doctrine) and devotion prompted by the Holy Spirit.
Since God is the object of our worship, He and He alone has the right to determine how we are to worship Him. We read in Jeremiah 10:23, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps." We are not granted the option of directing our own ways in our worship. God is the One who we look to for guidance and direction in our lives.
Finally, the conversation arrived at the subject of the Messiah. The Samaritans, as well as the Jews, looked for a coming Messiah, although their expectations differed significantly from those of Judaism. This woman, too, looked for Messiah. When He came all these matters would be straightened out (verse 25). It is at this point that Jesus made one of His boldest and clearest claims to be Messiah. “Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He”’ (John 4:26).
Jesus, who concealed His identity as Messiah from the politically-oriented Jews, declares openly to this Samaritan woman, “I who speak to you am He.” Jesus said, “I who speak to you am.” Some argue that Jesus is not here referring to Himself in the language of Exodus 3:14, where God identifies Himself to Moses as “I am.” But John may intend for his readers to pick up on that reference, which is clearly behind Jesus’ declaration in John 8:58, “Before Abraham was born, I am.” As Jesus confounds the Pharisees (Matt. 22:42-45), the Messiah is both David’s son and David’s Lord. He is God.
The point is, we must believe in Jesus as the Bible reveals Him: He is the eternal God, creator of all that is, who took on human flesh and died as the supreme and final sacrifice for our sins. He is risen from the dead and exalted on high. To deny either His true deity or humanity is to believe in a false Christ.
Jesus told this woman that the Father is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Jesus was seeking this emotionally wounded woman so that she would become one who would worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
The reason Jesus refrained from bold claims to be Messiah in Israel was because of the wrong concept the nation had of Messiah’s activity. They looked for a political activist and revolutionary, not a sin-bearer. Here, away from Jewish fanaticism, Jesus was free to openly declare His identity.
The disciples arrived back at the well at the end of our Lord’s conversation with this woman, and they were absolutely amazed. We need to look carefully to grasp the true cause for their in-credulous surprise. It was not because of this woman’s reputation, for they did not know what our Lord did concerning her past. Nor was it because she was a Samaritan. Notice John’s record: “And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He had been speaking with a woman …” (John 4:27).
The Rabbis had some very strict traditions concerning women. A man was not even to speak to his own wife in public. One of their sayings went like this:
“A man shall not be alone with a woman in an inn, not even with his sister or his daughter, on account of what men may think. A man shall not talk with a woman in the street, not even with his wife, and especially not with another woman, on account of what men may say.”
What may have appeared on the surface to be merely a concern for keeping appearances above reproach, was, in my estimation, only a thinly-veiled disdain for woman in general (cf. fn. 15). Our Lord refused to follow the narrow-mindedness of the Rabbis and the disciples did not dare to question Him about it (verse 27).
While the woman was inviting the townsmen to come out to the well, the disciples were urging Jesus to partake of the food they had purchased in town. Our Lord took this opportunity to in-struct them about evangelism. The first lesson for the disciples was in the area of priorities. In a sense the disciples were merely mouthing again the first temptation of our Lord Jesus by Satan. They were more concerned about eating than evangelism. Our Lord reminded them that doing the will of God is more important than dining.
The reasons for this urgency in evangelism is two-fold.
First of all, the time is far spent. The disciples seemed to sense no great urgency. The expression ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’ (verse 35) was very likely a colloquial way of saying, “What’s the hurry; there’s plenty of time.” Also after sowing it takes four months to harvest time." Such a casual attitude was not acceptable to our Lord.
From verse 30 (‘they came out of the town’) we are informed that while this conversation be-tween Jesus and His disciples was taking place the crowds were making their way from Sychar to the well. I believe it is this our Lord referred to when He said, “… Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest” (John 4:35).
By this he meant for the disciples to see that there was no time for preparing a meal and eating it. Those hungry for the gospel, those ready for reaping, were arriving momentarily and God’s purpose to save is of far greater priority than that of eating a meal.
A second lesson in evangelism has to do with its nature. Those who were arriving at the well were those who were prepared to receive and respond. The work of Jesus and His disciples was that of reaping. It was the woman who had sown the seed, and the disciples would bring in the harvest. That is the nature of evangelism. It is team work, a cooperative effort
It is significant to observe that the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus seemingly resulted in no immediate results. Personally, I do not feel that even Nicodemus was immediately saved. If you and I would have been asked to predict which evangelistic effort would produce the most fruit, we would undoubtedly have put our money on Nicodemus. But it is the conversation with this woman that led to the conversion of a city.
Initially, it was the woman’s testimony that convinced the Samaritans that Jesus was Messiah. But her words were like the light of the moon when compared with the sunlight of direct expo-sure to Jesus and His teaching. While Jesus could not stay in Judea, the Samaritans urged Him to remain with them (verse 40). While the Jews were still standoffish, the Samaritans were convinced that, “this One is indeed the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).
John’s purposes for including this conversation and resulting evangelistic campaign seem quite clear. First of all this account greatly contributes to John’s purpose of establishing the deity of Christ (John 20:31). Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, and the ‘I AM’ of the Old Testament (verse 26). In addition, He revealed His omniscience by disclosing to this woman the most intimate details of her life. Only she and God knew how many men had been in her life. In this, the woman recognized that Jesus knew all about her (verse 29).
Further, John included this incident in the life of our Lord in order to give an additional exposure to the message of the gospel, presented in just a slightly different way. Just as Jesus gently brought this woman to the point of recognition of His deity and her ignorant worship, so you must come to this same conclusion and commitment to enter into God’s heaven.
Finally, I believe John included this conversion story in order to foreshadow what was going to take place later on in His ministry. In John 3 and 4 we have two presentations of the Gospel, back to back. The one conversation is with a representative of orthodox Judaism. It has no apparent immediate results and has no significant repercussions. The other is with a representative of the Gentiles rejected and despised by orthodox Jews. She is immediately converted and that leads to the salvation of a city.
Such was soon to be the case on a much greater scale. Orthodox Jewish leadership would be instrumental in rejecting Messiah and hanging Him upon a Roman cross. But the rejection of the Jews meant salvation for the Gentiles (cf. Romans 11:15, 28, 31-32). This event in Samaria was prophetic of things to come. The rejection of the Jews and the salvation of many Gentiles was evident, even at the earliest stages of our Lord’s ministry.
So how do we get into the kingdom of God ? How to we attain eternal life? How do we find spiritual satisfaction and contentment so that we will never be spiritually thirsty again?
Not by our physical birth [John 3:3-8].
Not by our religious heritage [ 4:19 -24].
Not by our physical location or the physical location of our worship [ 4:21 ]
Not by anything that is ‘flesh’ or generated by ‘flesh’ [3:6; 4:23 -24].
Our relationship with God must not and cannot be grounded in anything physical. God is spirit: he cannot and must not be worshiped on the basis of the physical. He can and must be worshiped only on the basis of ‘spirit’ and ‘truth’. This relationship with God which is called ‘worship’ in John 4, and entering the kingdom in John 3, is possible only to those who have been ‘born again’, those who have been revivified, given life, by the ‘living water’ and by the "wind" of the Holy Spirit and by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ- John 3:14
