The Woman at the Well
The story of the woman at the well is one of the most compelling stories in the Bible. It shows God’s grace is given even to a lowly woman of another race. Perhaps, it is too well-known. It is easy to create simple points that will preach, but this story is a lot more complex than first seems. In fact, there is more than one story here. We see Christ’s witness to the woman at the well, but there is also a narrative about the disciples attempt to save Jesus from death to exposure. these intertwined stories can be united by the theme of witness, something which is prominent in the book of John. Not only are Christians to witness about Jesus, Jesus demonstrates how to witness about by setting the example in His evangelical approach to the Samaritan woman.
The occasion for this narrative is found in the words that Jesus was returning from Judaea to Galilee and that “He must needs go through Samaria.” We could look at this is necessary filler material to set up the encounter to explain why Jesus came to Samaria in the first place. But is is more than filler to give life to the narrative. One should look further into the reason this statement is made. A little search into Samaria in the Bible and bible encyclopedias would show that a Jew going through Samaria was most unusual. A “good Jew” did not go through Samaria to or from Galilee, even though it was much shorter. The Jew going to/ from Galilee and Jerusalem took a long detour. They would actually cross the Jordan river to bypass going through Samaria. A further search reveals why Jews did not go through Samaria. There was a long history of bitter hatred between them. They had once been one nation in the days of King David and his son Solomon. But after Solomon’s death, the nation was split into two kingdoms. Later, the northern kingdom was taken captive by Assyria because of their idolatry and other evils they commited. A few were allowed to return from Assyria and intermarried with the pagans. These people were called Samaritans. The southern kingdom of Judah later went into exile in Babylon for the same sins her sister had committed. Even though Cyrus allowed all the Jews to return to their land after 70 years, the vast majority remained, The one’s who returned were the most committed of the Jews. They left comfortable surroundings to trek across the desert to a burnt out ruin of Jerusalem. They were encouraged by the LORD through Haggai and Zachariah the prophets to rebuild, which happened at a glacial pace. More than a generation later under Ezra and Nehemiah, the walls of the city remained in ruin as well as much of the city. Some of the Samaritans offered to help rebuilt but were rebuffed by the Jews who felt that their mixed race and religion would infect the city and cause the Jews to go astray.
The rebuffed Samaritans built their own Temple in Mt. Gerizim where they could worship. But the Jews came and burnt the temple to th ground. One can see that there was mutual bad blood between them. There was religious as well as possible safety concerns for a Jew to go through Samaria. They wanted nothing to do with each other. They would not even share things like eating utensils. These details are necessary to the full understanding of the story.
The statement “must needs go” does not mean that Jesus was in a hurry to return to more friendly turf as the Pharisees and Sadducees in Judaea were at odds with Jesus. Nor was it because some of the disciples of John were jealous that someone whom John had baptized was making more disciples than him. There is no mention like a family emergency at home. Rather this “must go” is to be understood as a divine imperative. He had an appointment there in Samaria.
It was this call of the Father that He went though Samaria with his disciples. We should remember that Jesus had recently endured a 40 day fast of both food and water which would have weakened Jesus, physically speaking. He and His disciples got as far as Jacob’s well near a village named “Sychar.” There Jesus sat at the well. He was exhausted and thirsty. But there was no rope or bucket to draw water from. It was approaching the noonday heat which would have made his condition worse. The Greek uses what is called the “Perfect Tense” to describe Jesus’ weariness. The force of this is to say that Jesus was exhausted and the rest of sitting at the well was not improving His condition, but He grew worse. It was so bad that His disciples felt they needed to intervene, even to go to a Samaritan village to get food and drink. In light of what we just learned about the poor relations between Jews and Samaritans, it must have been a matter of life or death. They head off to “save” Jesus. They will return later.
Now for the second story. A Samaritan woman in the dreadful heat made her solitary journey to the well to draw water. This was most unusual as women would draw water from the well in the mornings and evenings when it was considerably cooler. The fact that this woman came at this time is a strong indication that she was an outcast who was not welcome in the company of other women from the village. She did not know this. but she would also have a divine appointment this day. She was engaged in a simple and ordinary task of life. Usually, the women were tasked to draw cand carry water back to the village which was heavy labor. Considering the needs for drinking water in the arid climate, there was a need for water for washing as well. Well water in the Middle East tended to be somewhat salty, not enough to make it undrinkable, but enough for a person to consume even more water to overcome the salt. It was better than the water from a cistern, but it was not nearly as good as fresh running water collected from the rain when it fell.
What happened in Biblical history around wells is important. Abraham’s servant found Rebekah at a well to be a wife for Isaac. It was just an ordinary day until this point. the same can be said for Jacob meeting his two wives at a well, probably the same one in Syria where Rebekah had been earlier. At another well in the Wilderness of Sinai, Moses met his wife. We know that Jacob gave this well we read of this morning to Joseph, who was, for better or worse, Jacob’s favorite son. It is interesting that Jacob’s name was later changed to Israel even though the name Jacob is used here.
So as the woman approached the well, she noticed something quite unusual. A man was there, and not just a man, but an outsider, a Jew. Jesus dressed as a Jew, and judging that his outer garment had tassels, a Jewish Rabbi. Jesus looked to be in considerable distress from thirst. When he says “Give me a drink”, it was a weak and desperate voice. He was in no condition to seize the bucket and rope from her, as though Jesus would have done it. But she didn’t know that. Here, a woman who had little influence in her community, being passed from man to man was actually in the position of power over a man, or so she thought. She had the rope and the bucket in her control. She would conclude that she had the power of life or death over him. This is seen by her bold answer. She reminded Jesus that He was a Jewish man and she a lowly Samaritan woman. Why should a Rabbi take a drink from a Samaritan bucket (utensil) from what she thought that was held in contempt by the Jews, and in her case, even by the Samaritan men and women of her village.
But, as it will show, Jesus was no ordinary Jew. The manmade rules and traditions of the Jews were not important here. He was here by divine appointment, a man who was despised by the Jewish establishment for the most part, just as rejected as this woman was in her society. He tells the woman that if she only knew who it was who asked for drink, she would instead ask Him for the better water, the living water.
The woman was incredulous. It was obvious to her that it was Jesus who needed to be saved. She reminded Him that she had the bucket and the rope to draw the water with. Jesus showed all the signs of heat exhaustion, and possibly, heatstroke. People who are desperately thirsty are prone to seeing mirages and other signs of being delusional. Surely, no more delusional situation has ever presented itself. Jesus is either who He says He is or He is a delusional madman. Here, we will learn the answer as the woman does. Yes! Jesus is greater than Jacob who gave this well to Joseph. She was expecting “no” for an answer. The grammatical structure of the question in Greek demands a negative answer. Jesus, whoever this woman thought, was a descendant of Jacob, and in the ancestral way of thinking, greater that his offspring. But Jesus is the one who says, “Before Abraham was, I AM”
Jesus no elaborates on what the water he was offering to the woman was. He compares it to the best water, the fresh flowing water. Fresh, living water is in earthly terms more satisfying than well water. But the one who drinks the cool, refreshing, rainwater will die someday. The best that even the best water can do is to preserve and prolong life. The person who drinks fresh water will thirst again, just not as soon. But Jesus claims that the water He offers springs up to eternal life. We realize that this water is spiritual in nature. We could perhaps think of the well water and its saltiness preserved things until the time that the true spiritual water which Jesus offers might be drunk. Even in the Samaritan tradition which held that only the first five books of the Bible was the Word of God served this function of preservation until Christ would come. The same can be said of the Jews. A new age is here.
The woman seems to be intrigued by Jesus as though she is starting to wake up. She asks Jesus to give her this water that she would not have to come to the well in the heat of the day for water. When we read her question, we might cynically think that she was not sincere in her question, that she was mocking Him. We approach Pilate’s question “What is truth?” Postmodern cynicism of truth was well and alive amongst the philosophers of Jesus’ day as it is for us today. But, what if, these questions are sincere inquiries as is both this woman and Pilate wanted to know more. (You can look up my message “Jesus Tries to Save Pilate.” which is in my sermon archive)
The idea of bearing witness to the truth is a central theme of the Gospel of John. John the Baptist is set forth as the ideal human witness to Jesus. Here, it is Jesus who bears witness to Himself. We need to follow His example of bearing truthful witness to Him. We should note that Jesus in His witness to Nicodemus addresses things that Nicodemus knew or should have known and compares spiritual truths to the ordinary matters of this life. Jesus will confront the woman with something she knew and would have no reason to think that a Jew from far away would know. He told her to call her husband. Many of the Jews thought a woman to be unworthy or incapable of understanding spiritual truth. Many times, they were excluded from the synagogue service or perhaps they could overhear from outside or the balcony. They were certainly not to disrupt the men in conducting the service. If they had questions, they could ask at home from their husband. We might understand that this was what Jesus the Jew was thinking. But we would be wrong to make this assumption.
The woman answers: “I have no husband,” which was a true statement. She would have no husband to ask. But she was probably making a matter-of-fact answer. She had no husband, which shows she was of the lowest social order. Jesus, not totally amazes the woman by agreeing with here statement with a big twist. Not only was she unwed, she was living with a man outside marriage after five failed marriages. How could Jesus have known that. Why would He be interested in what happened in a humble remote village. Certainly, it would seem that a teacher and prophet would have more important things to know. Even in today’s world, people want to hear gossip about the rich and famous. Our Internet and other media is full of such lurid details. We, of course, as Christians know the answer. God knows everything. So, if Jesus knows of all the details about her life, having never in the flesh meeting her, then what does this say about the person of Jesus.? In fact, He knows every detail there is, including things we would rather keep secret. There is a lot of things we want to hide scrutiny. This is why we like to be in the dark and keep the lurid details about our true self from the light. But nothing can be his from The Light of the World. We might put on a respectable outer persona. The sepulcher is whitewashed, but the inside of dead man’s bones. Our hope is that this God who sees all is merciful to us. Part of this mercy is to bring our own evil self to light. This is uncomfortable, but as with the exposure of the Samaritan Woman’s past led her to receiving the truth, so it is for us. This teaches us that Jesus did not use our past to condemn us. We were already in a state of condemnation. Rather, Jesus lights up our sins so that we might learn of Him, believe, and be saved. The gossip tabloids as well as much of modern media uses our past to destroy us. We must note the difference here.
The woman makes the conclusion “YOU are a prophet. We must remember that the Samaritans only held to the first 5 books written by Moses to be authoritative The did not hold to the equal authority of the other two divisions of the Jewish canon, the Prophets and the writings. They did hold Moses to be a prophet, and that this Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy prophesies that another prophet like unto Moses would come and teach the Samaritans all things. They called this expected teacher, “Taheeb.” If the Greek had used the definite article “the” it would have read: “You are THE Prophet!” But the lack of the article makes this ambiguous. Was she making a claim that Jesus was THAT prophet (Taheeb) or a prophet in general. The fact the emphatic us of the pronoun “You” tends to lead to the idea that she was referring to this Taheeb. Of, course, the woman was right, whether or not she fully understood what she had said.
Now she desires an answer from Jesus. Many could see this as a defensive mechanism. No one wants to dwell on an embarrassing revelation of one’s fault. What people do is to change the subject to divert attention. She knows that Jesus had found her out and is a (the) prophet. It would do no good to tell Jesus that she was really a good person at heart and some of the things she did to prove this. So, instead, she asks a theological question about the proper place one should worship. Was it in Mt. Gerizim like the Samaritans believed or Jerusalem where the Jews worshiped. Deuteronomy mentions that the Israelites would gather together at a place God would choose. The Jews (rightly) interpreted Jerusalem as the place which God had chosen for His representative dwelling place. We realize that this woman was far more aware than one would expect women in her age to be. Some, not all, Jews believed it was better to burn the Torah than to teach it to a woman. The New Testament does not affirm this prejudice, by the way. Mary and Elizabeth seemed quite prescient in their speech of the Scripture, for example. This Samaritan woman asks the question at the very heart of the division between the Jews and the Samaritans.
Jesus’ answer surprised the woman. she would have naturally expected a Jew to respond “Jerusalem, of course!” Jesus does affirm the Jewish position in the sense that salvation was of the Jews. But He also affirms that there was something more to worship than the place one should worship. Solomon, in the dedication of the first Temple in Jerusalem explains that the heaven of heavens cannot contain God’s presence, no less the Temple he had built. The presence between the cherubims was a symbolic presence, a special local manifestation of the God who is omnipresent. God is a Spirit and is everywhere. For a time, the special presence of the LORD was found in the tabernacle in the wilderness in the center of the camp of Israel. As a tabernacle it was pitched in one place for a time and then moved to another as the LORD willed. The difference with the Temple is that it did not move around. But the LORD is not limited to any building, and His worshipers are not either. The place of proper worship was in the heart, in spirit and truth. The presence of the LORD and worship is found everywhere where a believe bows in worship.
The woman shows some confusion at this point. The answer was too big for her to grasp. Here response to these great mysteries was like our saying “Farther along, we’’ know all about it. It was like Martha being confronted with the resurrection by Jesus at Lazarus’ tomb replies as though the resurrection was going to be in the sweet by and by. Jesus answer to Martha that He is the resurrection and the dead showed resurrection as a real and present reality. The Samaritan woman says that the someday whenever Messiah comes, he will explain this to us. We must take notice that the Samaritan woman said “Messiah” and not Taheeb. She seems to be affected by Jesus sayin that salvation was from the Jews.
The Jewish term “Messiah” only occurs twice in the New Testament, both in the Gospel of John. On every other occasion, the use of the Greek “Christos” is used. The other time in John 1 where we read “We have found the Messiah, the explanation “which is translated, “Christ” is added for John’s readers to relate to the term. John could consistently have used “Messiah”, seeing he explained the term, if this was important. But Messiah had connotations in the way it was used by the Jews to be some sort of political deliverer of the Jews in particular. By using Christ, the Bible tells us that Jesus is the Lord over all nations and seeks worshipers from this these nations.
The final thing we will cover this morning as we have already gone long is the statement of Jesus which is translated in the King James: “ I that speak to the am he” He does affirm that He is the one she is expecting. But the Greek says so much more. It says “I AM speaking to thee. We talk in the Gospel of John of seven I AM settings, bread of life, light of the world, the door, the way and the truth and the life. the resurrection, and the true vine. Greek does not need the pronoun ego to say the simple sentence “I AM”. To do so makes the statement emphatic. This emphatic I AM occurs in Exodus 3:14 is said by Yahweh at the burning bush. This use of the I AM by Jesus identifies Himself with Yahweh. But this isn’t the only time John uses I AM. He does in John 8 where He says “Before Abraham was, I AM. He also responds to the statement by the Jews in the Garden of Gethsemane that they were seeking for Jesus of Nazareth by saying “I AM. We should notice that in the first case, the Jews tried to stone Him and in the second, they fall backward, But here in this text, He has revealed who He is to sa Samaritan woman long before He did to Israel. Not only was He the Taheeb. Not only was He the Messiah, He was the LORD of heaven and earth. He did not appear to this woman at Jerusalem in the Temple. She would not have been allowed there anyway. He place of worship in Spirit and truth was right before her.
We said earlier that there was more than one story in this text. We have already said much this morning, and I don’t want to wear you down. We will pick up this message tonight.
We will close with the hymn: “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.”
