THE GOSPELS: LESSON 15:
JESUS AND THE WOMAN AT THE WELL, PART 1
TEXT: JOHN 4: 1 - 42
After John’s last testimony that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah, Jesus and his disciples are headed back to Galilee. Going through Samaria, they stop at Jacob’s Well, an important historical (and practical) landmark. While there, Jesus has an important encounter with a Samaritan woman.
VERSE 1 - 4: JESUS LEAVES JUDEA BECAUSE OF PRESSURE FROM THE PHARISEES.
Verse 1: The Pharisees knew Jesus had already baptized more converts than John.
Verse 2: Actually Jesus did not baptize, his disciples did, obviously at Jesus’ instruction and by his authority. Please note than from the very first, baptism was a part of Jesus’ message. Baptism was part of the “gospel of the kingdom” which Jesus had come to deliver to mankind.
Verse 3: Because of the potential for unwelcome pressure and persecution from the Pharisees, Jesus and his disciples decided to return to Galilee.
Verse 4: Unless you wanted to take the eastern highway, to get to Galilee from Judea, you had to go through Samaria. Consult your map.
VERSES 5 - 9: JESUS ENCOUNTERS A SAMARITAN WOMAN AT JACOB’S WELL.
Verse 5: Jesus drew near to a city named Shechem. Here it is nicknamed Sychar, from the Hebrew shekar, which means either a strong intoxicating drink or a drunkard. In the Talmud, Shechem is called shekar Sichem, “drunken Shechem,” for the inhabitants of that city were notorious for their drunkenness.
Shechem had an important place in Israel’s history:
1. It was at Shechem that Abraham built the first altar after arriving in Canaan (Gen. 12: 6, 7).
2. Jacob settled at Shechem, built an altar there, and dug a well there (Gen. 33: 19, 20).
3. To Shechem Joshua gathered all Israel "before God," and delivered to them his second parting address (Josh. 24: 1 - 15).
4. Shechem became one of the cities of refuge, the central city of refuge for Western Palestine (Josh. 20:7).
5. In Shechem the bones of Joseph were buried (Josh. 24: 32).
6. Rehoboam was appointed king in Shechem (1 Kings 12: 1, 19).
It is said that Shechem was a beautiful place, perhaps the only beautiful spot in all of central Palestine. It lay at the foot of Mount Gerizim, which is considered a sacred mountain to this day.
Verse 6: Jesus came to Jacob’s well and sat down, being weary with travel. It was the sixth hour of the day: noon. This makes me wonder where he had been. The proposed site of Salim south of Scythopolis (we talked of this last lesson) was too far away for them to have reached Jacob’s Well in six hours (about thirty miles away), so I believe that Aenon was actually upstream from where the Jabbok River empties into the Jordan, about 15 miles from Jacob’s Well. However, I have no firm evidence to support this contention, except how well it would fit all the particulars of the narrative. Why did Jesus and his disciples come this way? Jacob’s Well was not on the main road, but on a smaller side road. It seems that Jesus, having foreknowledge of what would happen, came to Jacob’s Well specifically to address the woman he meets there.
Verses 7, 8: A Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw water and Jesus asks her for a drink. Not an uncommon request, except for the fact that she was a Samaritan, and Jews normally had no direct dealings with Samaritans, whom they considered to be Gentiles. See Matt. 10: 5; John 4: 9 and 27. I like what John Gill, the great commentator says about this woman:
“. . . it is an amazing instance of grace, that a woman, a Samaritan woman, a lewd and infamous one, should be a chosen vessel of salvation, should be the object of divine favour, and be effectually called by the grace of God; . . . she was the happy means of conveying the knowledge of the Saviour to many of her neighbours . . .”
Jesus was there at the well alone, for his disciples had gone into Shechem to buy food (meat).
WHO WERE (ARE) THE SAMARITANS?
In 720 BC, Sargon, king of Assyria, carried the original Jewish inhabitants of the Ephraimite hill country of central Palestine into captivity. About 50 years later, another Assyrian king, Esarhaddon, sent people from Babylon and other areas into Israel and settled them in the old cities of the Ephraimites. These pagan people eventually intermarried with Jews and converted (sort of) to the Jewish faith.
In 536 BC, when Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Israel and rebuild Jerusalem, the Samaritans (as the mixed-race people of Ephraim are now called) were forbidden to take part in the reconstruction. They went to Mount Gerazim and built their own temple, which was destroyed in about 130 BC.
By Jesus’ day, the “pure” Jews considered the Samaritans nothing but “bastard Gentiles” and refused all but the most perfunctory contact with them. The Samaritans, on their part, considered themselves the “true remnant” of Israel and kept a very conscientious practice of the pre-captivity Jewish religion in order. They had their own copy of the Penteteuch, which they called simply, “the Law,” and had their own peculiar written language which survives to this day. The Samaritans responded early on to the gospel. There are still about 300 Samaritans who still live in Shechem and still keep a very ancient form of Judaism, which includes animal sacrifice. They claim that only the first five books of Moses (the Penteteuch) are inspired by God, so they reject all other writings, both Old and New Testament.
Verse 9: reflecting the long tensions between their people, the Samaritan woman asks a perfectly good question of this Jewish man: Why are you (a Jew) talking to me (a Samaritan)??
VERSES 10 - 15: MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT THE LIVING WATER.
Verse 10: Jesus makes it clear that this woman does not know with whom she is dealing. If she did she would have asked for some “living water.” While Jesus has already moved his discussion into the spiritual realm, the Samaritan woman is still focused in on the physical world.
Verses 11, 12: The woman, suffering under her misunderstanding, gives all the reasons why Jesus CAN’T give her any water: the well is too deep and he hasn’t any bucket; even Jacob – our GREAT father – couldn’t pull off a trick like that.
Verses 13 - 15: regular water versus “living water.” After hearing Jesus, she puts out her challenge: “Give me some of this ‘living water’ so I never have to come to this crummy well again and tote water back!”
Are we wiser that this woman? Just what is Jesus’ living water????? Obviously it is the message of salvation which can come only through Jesus and the “Gospel of the Kingdom.”
VERSES 16 - 26: JESUS REVEALS HIS TRUE IDENTITY
Verse 16: Jesus starts at the crux of the woman’s problem – her adulterous living arrangements. His request for her to get her husband is a rhetorical one, of course.
Verse 17 - 19: The nature of her lifestyle, which no normal stranger could possibly have known, are disclosed: she is shacking up with a live-in stud (as Dr. Laura would say). They are not married. How could Jesus know this? Only one way – he must be a prophet, one of God’s men. Her dirty little secret was only known to her and God – or so she thought!
Verse 20: Notice how she adroitly changes the subject: “But you Jews don’t even seem to know that Gerizim, not Zion, is the Holy mountain of God! Can such a one dare to judge me?”
Verses 21 - 24: Here we have the primal shift in perspective that marks the difference between the Old and New Covenants: The Old Covenant required physical places, things, trappings. The New Covenant is universal and spiritual, and therefore the ultimate truth. God is SPIRIT, hence his true worshipers must worship him in SPIRIT and TRUTH. This great truth cannot be overemphasized: our worship must have two aspects: spirituality (as opposed to ritual) and truth (as opposed to traditions) or it is VAIN.
Why did Jesus begin this conversation? To teach a great spiritual truth. Anything in our worship that does not have a spiritual aspect to it is not acceptable, or is not necessary.
Let’s consider the physical accouterments of our worship:
–The building. Can we be saved if we don’t have a “church building?” Of course.
–The song books. Necessary for salvation? Of course not.
–The pews, altars, & silver communion trays? Not necessary.
–Faith and truth? Necessary!
–Spiritual awareness? Necessary!
–The Holy Spirit? Necessary!
Verses 25, 26: Jesus reveals the ultimate truth: I am the Messiah! Jesus had to be open and plain with this woman, for the Samaritans “worship what [they] do not understand.”
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