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Of course the net result of trying to provide a “human” based alternative to the ideas that God had blessed, was inevitably decay. It was not long before northern tribes were engaging in worship that had nothing to do with the God of Israel, and everything to do with the gods of sex. Promiscuity, then and now, has been the downfall of many a believer. The surrounding nations had seemingly awesome sexual practices wrapped up in their own ideas about worship. They often included orgies, and sanctioned prostitution. Going to “confess” in one of their temples usually meant paying the priest to have some “quality” time with the temple prostitutes. And minus birth control, this often resulted in babies, many, many, babies. Well, being the proprietor of a “worship” system that sells women to men, you don’t need too many boy babies, but you do keep the new crop of girl babies because they can grow up and become part of the revenue stream. So, what to do with the boy babies? Sacrifice to the gods of course, toss them in the fires of Molech, or Baal, or pick your fertility god that demands blood for his favor. And so, the northern tribes participated in the sexual promiscuity of the surrounding nations, and did nothing when the fruits of their encounters were tossed into the fires, or turned into a new generation of sex slaves. Isn’t life outside of God’s plans just grand? Not for the kids I would guess. And when life reached this point of depravity, God could just not take it anymore, and Israel would be invaded by a foreign nation.
Only after Israel repented, did the invasion cease. But it would not be long before, the lure of unlimited sex, replaced the memory of a foreign invasion, and the cycle would begin all over again. Most every historically wicked king, came from the northern tribes. Ahab and his queen Jezebel came from this place. So for the Jews in the south, who by the way, were not exactly squeaky clean themselves, when it came to sexual promiscuity, or walking away from the practices of God; the people of the north became known collectively as Samaritans. Samaritans were looked down upon. Samaritans were to be avoided at all costs. An upstanding Jew does not want to find himself having anything to do with “those people”. Samaritans had chosen to walk away from the light. Samaritans had chosen to blend themselves with the surrounding nations, thus polluting the bloodlines of Abraham. Samaritans were blatant about it. Samaritans were “lesser” Jews, and generally “lesser” people. It was against this historical and social context, that Christ travels directly in to the territory of the Samaritans.
What on earth could He have been thinking? His disciples were not priests or leaders, but they were not ignorant of what the appearance of traveling into Samaria on purpose would look like for their leader. They followed Christ where He went. Perhaps if He was traveling to Samaria, it was to give “those people” the long awaited judgment for the wickedness of their past. Samaritans had it coming after all. Perhaps before we chase out the Romans, we start with purifying those errant, stubborn, stiff necked wicked workers we know to be Samaritans. So if this was to be Jesus’ first trip to clean out the wickedness of the Samaritans, they would gladly go along and watch “those people” get what’s coming to them.
Christ found himself by a well that Jacob dug a long time ago (no small feat in times past). The discovery of water in a generally arid land is a pretty big deal. How do you know where to look? How do you know that the hole your digging would not just lead to more dirt? So when Jacob is blessed to find water, he changes the economy of the entire area. With water comes life. With water comes commerce and trade, and income. With water nearby, a city or community can begin. So it was where Jesus had found himself. His disciples were sent into the nearby city to purchase meat, as they were all hungry and tired from their journey there. I’m certain they were not too happy to have to go “deal” with the Samaritans to buy food. But better they should do it, than see their precious Master, tarnished by an encounter with “those people”. And off they went.
But as Jesus is sitting there, a local Samaritan woman approaches the well to draw water. At this time in history, women usually went to the well in groups, for social as well as practical purposes. You are less likely to be hassled or robbed in a group, and it’s a good chance to catch up on all the local gossip. But this woman came alone, likely because of “who” she was. Even within “those people”, the town slut, was to be avoided. Perhaps she knew better than to hang out with the other women that might see her as a threat. Perhaps she just ran out of water that day, and needed more. No matter the reason, she went to find water. For with water, life is possible.
In the Gospel of John chapter 4 and verse 7 Jesus says to her … “Give me to drink.” What!? Really?! A Jew is going to ask for water from a Samaritan woman, and inevitably drink from the same cup she uses. This is unheard of. “Those people” know what to expect from the Jews. They know who they are. And they know from personal experience, no self-respecting Jew, has anything to do with them if it can be avoided at all costs. But here is Jesus with no bucket, and no cup, asking water from a Samaritan woman, of her. In verse 9 she gets over her surprise and states the obvious … “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” What’s the matter Jesus, did you forget the rules? You guys don’t ask anything of us. You should know that, we do.
Jesus responds in verse 10 … “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” Here Jesus says something often overlooked, he prompts her that if she knew “the gift of God”. The gift of God is salvation from WHO we are. It is not the Samaritan in her, Jesus wishes to change. It is the bondage to sin He wishes to free her from. The gift of God is freedom from evil. That gift is on the table for this woman who stands before Him. Next He eludes to the idea, that “who” He is, is someone she would be thrilled to encounter. For Christ has something for her, that no other man could ever offer her; Christ is offering her “living water”. With water comes life. Christ is offering her a renewal from within. He is offering her a life free from the slavery of evil, and in its place a well spring of “living water” that will not run dry, expire, or go away. It is a guarantee of salvation, from “who” she is, not because of being a Samaritan, but because of being bound to sin, and self-service.
In verse 11 she replies … “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? [verse 12] Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?” She does not understand what He is referring to, and again is pointing out the obvious. You have nothing to draw with, and it is a miracle to find water anywhere out here. Could it be, you are able to do miracles, greater than finding a well in a desert? Jesus tries again in verse 13 saying … “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: [verse 14] But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Again he puts freedom from evil on the table for this woman, a gift of Salvation that will see her fully and finally saved from herself.
Again, she misses the point, but the idea that she would never have to come to this well again and draw water sounds appealing. At least then, she does not have deal with the other town’s women. She does not have to be the butt of their jokes, or try to keep her private social life hidden from view. After all, if one is to avoid a public stoning, one must be delicate and secretive about one’s indiscretions. So in verse 15 she responds … “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” Jesus responds to her again in a way she does not expect. In verse 16 He says … “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” The gift of salvation is not exclusively just for you either. Instead bring those who you love, your family, those you care about, and let’s have everyone enjoy what I am offering. Here is Jesus asking not only to deal with her, and frankly to give her a gift, for no apparent reason. Now here is Jesus inviting her to bring her family here and He will share this gift with everyone. Here is a Jew actually asking to deal with even more Samaritans. This is truly a unique encounter. But, technically she has no husband at the moment, so …
In verse 17 she states the facts … “I have no husband.” No need to discuss my past, and in my present, things are not where they should be, so she will keep this plain and simple. Jesus replies … “Thou hast well said, I have no husband: [verse 18] For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.” Busted! Despite the fact that I have never met this man, he knows my entire history. He knows things I have kept hidden from everyone. He knows things frankly there is no way He could know, without divine intervention. Therefore He must be a prophet. It has been a long while since there was a prophet in Israel. It has been a long while since there was someone who spoke for God, and relayed the messages of truth God needed to tell the people. Since she has obviously found one, let’s get right down to the most divisive question of the day, the one that has separated Jews from Samaritans from the beginning.
In verse 20 she asks … “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Upon this question, hangs the entire basis of separation from the Jews from her perspective. The sexual promiscuity is something both have been guilty of in the past, but the fundamental religious differences are enough to keep one group of believers referring to another group of believers as “those people” for eternity. How poignant that in the Christian world of today, we are no better than our Jewish spiritual forefathers. Because one group of believers who accept the salvation of Jesus Christ does not precisely agree with every other doctrine we hold sacred, each group of believers sees the other as “those people”. Each Christian denomination looks upon its contemporaries as spiritual Samaritans. Our doctrines have divided us, no less than this single question divided Jew from Samaritan. She simply wants to know from God through the mouth of this “prophet”, who is really right.
In verse 21 Jesus answers her … “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” Heresy! Had the Jewish leaders been standing nearby they would have likely stoned Jesus on the spot. How on earth could Jesus deny that Jerusalem was “the” place to worship God? The woman had to have been completely surprised by this answer, as Jesus did not state the historical Jewish position, nor did He concur with her forefathers. In effect, Jesus was saying, both groups had it wrong, and that soon something completely different was going to take place. Were Jesus here today, I wonder if His answers to our doctrinal differences would be any different – you both have it wrong. Christ was trying to tell this woman that the divisions between the Samaritans and Jews over the location of worship were meaningless. The “where” is less important than either of them think. The “who” matters more.
In verse 22 Jesus goes on to debunk the claims of her forefathers … “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. [verse 23] But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: …” Jesus is saying the claims of her forefathers had no basis in reality. The Jews knew what they worshipped for their system of worship pointed forward to salvation. But that is not the point. The real meat and potatoes is in verse 23, the hour is coming, and frankly is here, when “true” worshippers shall worship in spirit and in truth. What the Jews had missed was true worship. Doing it in the right place, was not as important as doing it in right way. Not just through the forms and rituals, but in the hearts and minds. This was the key to true worship that Jesus was trying to share with both Jew and Samaritan.
Jesus continues … “for the Father seeketh such to worship him. [verse 24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” It is the inside that counts. It is the heart and the mind, the will and the emotion, the desire, this is where real worship comes from. It comes from a renewed life, from a life that has been set free from the pain and bondage of evil. This is what the Father is longing to give to the world, and what results in true worship. How can we worship a God, who we have allowed to do NOTHING for us? Our gratitude for temporal blessings is pale and empty. It is not temporal blessings alone that God is longing to bestow on us, He is longing to show us what real freedom is like. He is longing to re-create the core of who we are, changing and restoring our desires to be what they should be, instead of what we have made of them. He longs to break our chains to self and the pain that comes from serving self, and show us the freedom of what it really means to truly love someone else. It is this freedom that makes us grateful. Our wealth, our health, our families are nothing next the freedom God offers to us from within. Only then can we truly appreciate how much we love our families, how great it is to be healthy, what a wonderful opportunity our wealth allows us to share with those in need. Before we are made free, we turn all these blessings inward, and treat God like a Santa-Clause, instead of a liberator. Jesus cuts through the non-sense of a form of religion and zeroes in on the heart.
At this point the Holy Spirit has now grasped hold of the heart and mind of the woman at the well. It does not matter to God that the Samaritan doctrine is not pure by Jewish standards. It does not matter to God, that this particular Samaritan is no saint, and has a checkered past, where her secret life of chains to sex has always kept her in bondage. God was not looking for perfection first, He was looking only for someone who would allow Him to fix the broken wreck of their lives, and offer them the perfection He so longs to give. This woman now, has embraced this longing, and has decided to open herself to her Lord. And so, the Holy Spirit is already hard at work within her, revealing to her, this is no ordinary prophet. He is something more. Should she dare bring it up? Should she dare reveal what she is thinking? Could this be the one who all of Israel and the world has so longed to see?
In verse 25 she hopes against hope and says … “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” No one has ever taught the doctrines of the heart that Jesus has just revealed to her. In a few sentences He has destroyed the division between Jew and Samaritan. He is willing to ask water of her, knowing full well who she is. He still wants to offer her a living water she can barely grasp the concept of. And now the Holy Spirit is prompting her as to who He really is. Jesus Himself responds … “I that speak unto thee am he.” Praise God. It is God who she has been talking to. She knows more about the Messiah than most of her Jewish contemporaries. She knows He is not just man, but God in human form. She has been conversing not with a mere prophet, but with the Son of God, who has personally promised to save her from herself. A one-on-one audience with the Son of God, who despite her sin, has promised to save her. He did not care that her doctrine was less than perfect. He did not care that her past was less than stellar. He only thinks to love her, and redeem her, and offer her a freedom from within that will never run dry, or expire. Here life is transformed. Here is living water enacted from within.
Water at the well is no longer important to either of them. The woman appears to have forgotten Christ’s original request, drops her pot, and runs to the city to share what has just been revealed to her. A transformed life CANNOT be silent. A transformed life MUST share immediately the awesome news of what has just happened. She needed no commission from the church to begin a formal class on how to witness to others. She needed no ordination to become a formal minister destined to reach the lives of others. Instead she drops what she is doing, and does the only thing that now fully consumes WHO she is. She runs to the town, to tell everyone who will listen, the news that the Messiah is here. Not just here on earth, but here in their town, at their well, waiting to offer every one of them, the same gift of transformation that now compels her to seek an audience with as many as will listen to her. She is no longer hiding from the shame of who she was, salvation is bigger than that. Salvation is more important than pride, or shame. It is life altering. And this is something the transformed life MUST share with others. It is too important to sit still, let others do it, or wait for approval on. It must be shared in real time with real people, right now, and right here. This is what it truly means to witness. It is to testify of a personal experience. If it has not happened to you yet, you have nothing to say yet. When it does, you will not be able to keep your mouth shut.
The passion of her testimony reveals the work of the Holy Spirit to those who she talks to, and it yields results. For her this is no numbers game about how many converts she can add to the rosters of a church. It is a reaction to a life altering experience which she is literally driven to share. Those who hear her words, and see her passion, are not complacent, but are curious. How could this person be so bold? How could this person be so changed, unashamed, and on spiritual fire? Her words could not be ignored, because they were more than theory and speculation, they were more than intellectual debate and thesis. They were based on a passion that comes from having a life altering transformation with the only Son of God. And in verse 30 are perhaps the most precious of results … “Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.” They acted. They listened and they acted.
Many Samaritans believed simply because of the words of this woman. Her testimony was so powerful it was compelling, authentic, and true. After speaking directly with Jesus they reach the same conclusion, and have him stay with them for two more days. Two more days of interrupted time with the God of the Universe, and the Savior of mankind; and in verse 41 it says … “And many more believed because of his own word; [verse 42] And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” Samaritans knew something the Jews had completely missed. Samaritans knew a truth the very disciples of Jesus had completely missed. Christ was not only the Savior of the Jews, He was the Savior of the world. He was there to save them too. Two days with Christ turned an entire field ripe for harvest, a harvest of souls for the kingdom. When He left that city, they did not all start heading off to Jerusalem to observe temple rituals. This was a doctrinal truth from the Jewish perspective. Instead they did something even more important; they worshipped in Spirit and in Truth. Messiah had come to Samaria, and did not walk away empty-handed.
It was more important to Christ to redeem a single lost Samaritan woman, than it was to worry about her doctrinal purity, or personal weaknesses. A belief in His ability to save her from herself, would reveal truth to her that neither Jew nor Samaritan had ever understood before that encounter. An understanding of scriptures could not save her, but an acceptance of Jesus would lead her to a deeper understanding that she could have previously never imagined. It is Jesus who saves us, not our doctrines, our education, or our ideas about truth interpreted from the scriptures. It is Jesus alone. This was the beauty of the gospel brought to “those people”. As it turned out “those people” were actually His people. He would save them like He saves us, despite what we think we know. It is our arrogance to think we know the whole of truth, and that only our interpretation could be correct or complete. It is Christ that reveals what is truly important. It is Christ that alone is truth.
But this encounter, not only had a profound effect on the Samaritan community. It also affected the disciples. In verse 27 John records … “upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the woman:” Here they had gone into town so that Christ would not have to sully Himself with dealing with Samaritan men, but they return to find Him speaking with a Samaritan woman no less. They were too timid to give voice to their prejudice, but they were thinking it. Deciding to just eat, they offer Him meat, but Jesus is no longer hungry. Instead He will try to teach His disciples that the redemptive work of God means more to Him than even His basic human needs. To do the will of God, is more invigorating, more rewarding, and more fulfilling than anything else on earth, even basic human functions. In verses 33 through 38, Jesus elevates the conversation by reminding his disciples they are to work the harvest of souls. From the eye of God, the fields were ripe and ready for harvest. Christ would sow the seeds, and they would work the fields later. What Jesus was saying to those who would follow Him, was … there is no such thing as “those people.”
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