John 4:1-45 The woman at the well
As usual, the religious people were more interested in numbers than in the message. John the Baptist and Jesus were absolutely on the same page calling the people to repent and believe. But sometimes prudence dictates discretion, which can mean withdrawing before misunderstanding can drown out the message.
The road north to Galilee meant walking through Samaria. The Samaritans were very looked down upon by the Jews. For Jesus to stop in Samaria and talk with a Samaritan woman was breaking a lot of social taboos.
Look at Genesis 24. This illustrates the social function of a well as a place where unmarried men and women could interact briefly. Asking a woman to give you a drink at the local well served much the same purpose that offering to buy a woman a drink does today. It was a chance to check each other out.
This Samaritan woman must have been surprised as anything to find a Jewish man at the well in the first place but for him to initiate conversation, well, it was too much. How many things she must have thought all at once but not one of those thoughts correctly sized up the situation.
Jesus doesn’t waste any time with pleasantries, He got right to the point, “If you knew”. But she didn’t know and couldn’t have asked for what she most needed because she didn’t know. Jesus tells her about grace and new life but it doesn’t compute until he demonstrates knowledge of her old life. He tells her about Living Water. John 7:37-39, Jeremiah 2:13, Jeremiah 17:13, Revelation 7:17.
Living water was just a way of referencing moving or fresh water as opposed to water in cisterns, jars or puddles. That Jesus is talking about something besides H2O only gradually becomes clear. She, with a little sass, asks if Jesus is greater than Jacob. The answer, of course, is yes and see how the woman’s understanding changes from meeting Jesus.
Jesus says, “eternal life”, but the woman is still grounded in the present circumstance. Jesus moves her away from thinking about the momentary need, water, and towards her greater need, relationship. She is at the well in the middle of the day because she has relationship problems. When Jesus details her secrets she is almost relieved to find out that his words don’t make sense but it’s ok because prophets aren’t supposed to make sense but sometimes they know things.
The woman asks a religious sounding but safely off-topic question just controversial enough to get her off the hook. Jesus doesn’t rise to the bait but with a surprising answer steers back to the topic of salvation. She tries to shrug off the topic by shifting to the Messiah but Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” This is the most clear declaration of being the Messiah that Jesus ever gives in the Gospels and it is given to a Samaritan woman. She is caught. There is no avoiding the claims of Christ. She must choose.
Now the disciples come back and see the scene. What could they say? They just offer Jesus some lunch. Have you ever been too interested/excited/engaged to bother with food? Jesus counted doing God’s will as much more absorbing than lunch. The whole village learns about Jesus by the report of the woman. With one conversation many are brought into the kingdom.
Jesus didn’t place any value on reputation, neither his or the woman’s. All Jesus cared about was her soul and the souls of that village. What did the disciples learn from Jesus’ example that day?
brotherpayne 