A VALUED GIFT
The woman came to the well with shame on her mind. She was avoiding human contact, but the stranger at the well was probably little more than an inconvenience. How often at the supermarket, gas station, or even in church do we pass by people loaded down with guilt. They find themselves having to pursue life’s necessities, hoping to avoid anyone who knows their real needs. Dreading judgment and rejection, they live in fear. And yet, when shown real concern, when gently confronted, these same people find great relief in unburdening themselves. When you greet someone with “How are you?” do you stop long enough to show him or her that you really want to know? Simple caring is a gift valued infinitely more than it costs to give.
Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” Again, this statement reveals Jesus’ true humanity; he was really thirsty. And since Jesus did not have any container, he asked the woman for a drink. Even though such a request startled her (4:9), it drew her into a conversation with Jesus.
4:8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) This parenthetical statement serves to inform the reader that Jesus was alone with this woman. Jesus could not ask his disciples to help him get water, for they had gone into Sychar to buy food. Their intention, of course, was to share this food with Jesus (4:31). Thus, we see Jesus, weary from his journey, depending on others for food and drink.
4:9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” The Samaritan woman was very surprised—first, that a Jew would even speak to a Samaritan; second, that a Jewish male would speak to a Samaritan woman (she also had a bad reputation and this was a public place); third, that a Jew would drink from a Samaritan’s cup. The surprise is explained by the Gospel writer who clues us in on the relationship between Jews and Samaritans: (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) This explanatory sentence is also rendered “For Jews do not associate with Samaritans” (niv). The Greek word translated “associate” literally means “to share the use of.” Some commentators, therefore, think John was saying that Jews and Samaritans would not share the same utensils or facilities. This interpretation is reflected in the tev: “Jews will not use the same dishes that Samaritans use.” The Jewish ceremonial laws described not only certain people as ceremonially unclean, but also anything they touched. In strict religious terms, many Jews of Jesus’ time considered the Samaritans to be permanently unclean.
NO PREJUDICES ALLOWED
This woman (1) was a Samaritan, a member of the hated mixed race, (2) was known to be living in sin, and (3) was in a public place. No respectable Jewish man would talk to a woman under such circumstances. But Jesus did. The attitude of the Jews toward the Samaritans in Jesus’ day is not unlike that which has been frequently displayed in America by whites toward blacks. In the past, whites have not allowed blacks to share the same public facilities with them. For Jesus to ask for a drink of water from a utensil belonging to a Samaritan woman was to go against the accepted prejudices of the time.
The gospel is for every person, no matter what his or her race, social position, religious orientation, or past sins. We must be prepared to share this gospel at any time and in any place. We must also be prepared to deal with those who may be accustomed to being ill-treated and who are not sure of our motives. Jesus crossed all barriers to share the gospel, and we who follow him must do no less—even if misunderstood.
4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman was ignorant of God’s gift—the gift of life, represented by “living water”—and she did not know the giver, Jesus the Messiah. Jesus makes an extraordinary offer to this stranger—living water that would quench her thirst forever.
4:11 “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?” Jesus’ remark concerning “living water” produced several practical questions in the mind of the Samaritan woman. Like Nicodemus, she did not immediately sense the depth of Jesus’ words. Obviously, she thought, if this “living water” was in some way the water at the bottom of this spring-fed well, Jesus was in no position to offer it because he had no container for drawing it. The woman assumed that Jesus would not want to use her jar because of the strong prejudice (see 4:9). She began to wonder if Jesus had access to some source of water other than Jacob’s well. Yet she could clearly see that he had no container with which to get or store this “living water.” So she began to probe the identity of the stranger.
4:12 “Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” What caused this response? Perhaps the woman sensed in Jesus’ words a possible dishonoring of the well provided by their great ancestor, Jacob. Or perhaps the woman was beginning to have some inkling of who Jesus was claiming to be. He certainly accepted her in a way that must have challenged her thinking.
LIVING WATER
What did Jesus mean by “living water?” In the Old Testament, many verses speak of thirsting after God. In promising to bring living water that could forever quench a person’s thirst for God, Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah. Only the Messiah could give this gift that satisfies the soul’s desire. (All verses are quoted from niv.)
Psalm 36:8–9
“They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
Psalm 42:1–2
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
Isaiah 55:1
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the water; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”
Jeremiah 2:13
“My people have committed two sins; they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Jeremiah 17:13
“O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.”
4:13 “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.” People need water daily because thirst will always return. The water from Jacob’s well would indeed satisfy the woman’s thirst, but only temporarily. She would always need to return for more water. So also are all the other “drinks” of life—they never satisfy. Some of them even create more thirst. The human needs for love, food, sex, security, and approval, even when met, do not give complete satisfaction. Attempts to find full satisfaction will lead only to disappointment and despair. The Samaritan woman would have to admit that she was not satisfied, for she had had five husbands, and the man she now lived with was not her husband.
ARE YOU SATISFIED?
Spiritual functions often parallel physical functions. Our bodies hunger and thirst; so do our souls. But our souls need spiritual food and water. The woman confused the two kinds of water, perhaps because no one had ever told her about her spiritual hunger and thirst before. We would not think of depriving our bodies of food and water when they hunger or thirst. Why then should we deprive our souls? The living Word, Jesus Christ, and the written Word, the Bible, can satisfy our hungry and thirsty souls.
4:14 “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.” The water Jesus offers quenches spiritual thirst so completely that those who drink will never be thirsty again. Jesus’ “water” continually satisfies the desire for God’s presence because “the water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The gift that Jesus gives—a spring gushing up to eternal life—suggests the availability, accessibility, and abundance of the divine life for believers. The expression to eternal life probably means “resulting in eternal life.”
The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world …. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and pose an obstacle to our return to God; a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bath or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.
C. S. Lewis
TROUBLED WATERS
Many people who claim to be Christians admit they feel unhappy and dissatisfied over the same problems mentioned by nonbelievers. Feelings of low self-esteem, lack of love, loneliness, and struggles over sex, money, work, and position in life are often as severe with believers as with unbelievers. Are differences between Christians and non-Christians merely on the surface or even imaginary? Did Jesus overstate his claim? Questions like these come from interpreting Jesus’ words as the Samaritan woman did—expecting that physical thirst and all other life-related needs will be satisfied by Jesus’ “living water.” But that is not what Jesus promised. He offered freedom within life, not freedom from life! Later he told his disciples in no uncertain terms: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (16:33 niv). Believers will experience many of the same difficulties encountered by unbelievers, but the presence of Jesus in our lives should make a significant difference in the way we respond. Living water gives us spiritual power to face the challenges of living, not escape from them.
4:15 “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” The woman’s response reveals that she took Jesus’ words literally. The woman must have been thrilled to think that this man could give her water that really quenches thirst and would not have to be drawn from a well. Obtaining water was hard work—requiring trips to the well twice a day and carrying heavy jars full of water home.
LIFE AFTER LIVING WATERS
The woman mistakenly believed that if she received the water Jesus offered, she would not have to return to the well each day. She was interested in Jesus’ message because she thought it could make her life easier. But if that were always the case, people would accept Christ’s message for the wrong reasons. Jesus did not come to take away challenges, but to change us on the inside and to empower us to deal with problems from God’s perspective. Indications that living water is flowing within us come from the reality of our new life in Jesus, our awareness of the Spirit within, a sense of direction to life, the specific guidance we receive from God’s Word, opportunities to love and serve others, and the comforting knowledge that we are surrounded by other believers also on the way to heaven.
4:16–18 “Go, call your husband, and come back.” In response to Jesus’ offer of living water, the woman expressed her desire. She still did not understand the nature of the water, but she was open to something that promised to change her life. Jesus abruptly shifted the subject from his living water to her style of living. The woman perceived her need for living water at one level; Jesus knew that her need was far deeper, so he turned the conversation to reveal his knowledge of her personal life—and her sin of adultery. Jesus wanted to make this woman see her sin and her need for forgiveness and then offer her the living water—salvation. She must have realized that this was not a man who could be fooled, for she answered transparently, “I have no husband.” The woman spoke the truth without any explanation.
Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband;’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.” Although he confronted the woman’s sinful life, Jesus managed to affirm her truthfulness. He did not accuse or excuse; he simply described her life so that she could draw some clear conclusions about the mess in which she was living. The conclusions we reach without knowing the facts will usually err in one of two directions: We will accuse others and raise their defenses, or we will excuse others and enable their denial. We see in Jesus’ communication with this woman that faced with an accepting confrontation, people will often respond positively. When we speak to others about themselves, we must limit our words to what we know.
4:19 “I can see that you are a prophet.” In saying this, the woman acknowledged the truthfulness of Jesus’ remarks about her life. At the same time, she recognized that he must be a prophet who had the power to “see” the hidden past as well as the future. The theme of people “seeing” Jesus appears several times in John (especially in chapter 9). The persons Jesus encountered saw him many different ways, but he consistently directed their attention to recognize him for who he really was—their Savior.
Many commentators have pointed out that the woman may have been purposely attempting to avert any further disclosure of her personal, sinful life by shifting the conversation to religion. Notice how Jesus responded to her change of direction. He was not presenting a system or a gospel outline; he was having a conversation with someone who needed the living water. Jesus made no attempt to turn the discussion back to her life-style; rather, he entered into a dialogue about the true place of worship. Jesus kept the woman’s interest by demonstrating his willingness to let her direct the discussion.
4:20 “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” The unspoken question is, If you are a prophet, who’s right? The Samaritans had set up a place for worship on Mount Gerizim, basing their authority to do so on Deuteronomy 11:26–29; 27:1–8; the Jews had followed David in making Jerusalem the center of Jewish worship. The split had come in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra 4:1–2; Nehemiah 4:1–2) when the Samaritans had offered to help rebuild the temple in Jerusalem but had been rebuffed. So there was an ongoing debate between the two groups as to who was correct. The Scriptures authenticated Jerusalem as the place of worship (Deuteronomy 12:5; 2 Chronicles 6:6; 7:12; Psalm 78:67–68); thus, the Jews were correct and the Samaritans in error. The Samaritan woman wanted to hear what a Jewish prophet had to say about this.
4:21 “A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” Both the Jews and the Samaritans were convinced the correct way to worship God depended on a particular geographical location. But Jesus pointed to a new realm—not at Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem, but in the Spirit of God. He also knew that the temple in Jerusalem soon would be destroyed. The first readers of John would have known this as a historical fact because it would have already happened!
WORSHIP-FULL
Do you depend on a physical building or a specific setting for the proper worship environment? God is Spirit and cannot be confined to a building. The location of worship is not nearly as important as the attitude of the worshipers. The specific conditions that enhance worship tend to be quite individual and should not be legislated. By emphasizing where we worship, we may neglect the substance of our worship where we are.
4:22 “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.” The Samaritans worshiped, but their system of worship was incomplete and flawed because it had no clear object. Because the Samaritans only used the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy) as their Scriptures, they did not know what the rest of the Old Testament taught about worship. The Jews, with whom Jesus explicitly identified himself here, did know whom they worshiped, for they had the full revelation in the Old Testament Scriptures. These Scriptures revealed that salvation is from the Jews, for the Messiah would come from the Jewish race (Genesis 12:3).
Jesus’ answer to the woman’s religious problem is strikingly similar to Paul’s approach with the Athenians (Acts 17:16–34). In both cases, the gospel was explained, not as a criticism of the desire and need to worship, but as the revelation of the nature of true worship. It’s as if, in both cases, the message is: “You are demonstrating a good quality in desiring to worship, but your worship is misdirected; the perfect object to be worshiped, the Messiah, has come.” The living water that comes from Christ and is ever present in the believer makes the idea of continual worship a possibility. Worship becomes, at least in part, the enjoyment of our relationship with Christ wherever we are at any moment.
4:23 “But the hour is coming, and is now here.” The new worship is now here among Jesus’ followers (including both Jews and Samaritans who are united in Christ), although the end of worship in the temple or on Mount Gerizim is still future—is coming. Jesus announced that a new time had come, a time in which “the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” True worshipers are to be recognized by the way they worship. After making the place of worship and order of worship secondary to our spiritual relationship with God, Jesus defined real worship. According to him, worship would take on two new aspects: It would be in spirit and in truth (see also 4:24).
The expression in spirit refers to the human spirit—the immaterial, inner being in each person, the God-breathed entity that corresponds to the nature of God himself, who is Spirit. Using the terms of Jesus’ conversation, worship involves the person’s awareness of that personal “spring of living water” that God has planted in him or her. God indwells believers—that is where true worship takes place. Our body can be anywhere, yet worship occurs as our attention and praise are turned toward God. We need to consciously focus on God when we are in a house of worship because we easily assume that our presence in church is all that we need in order to worship. We can usually remember how long the worship service lasted, but can we remember exactly when we actually worshiped the Lord?
The phrase in truth means “in a true way” or “with genuineness.” This would speak to all people—Jews, Samaritans, and even Gentiles; all need to worship God by recognizing God’s character and nature as well as our common need for him. We worship in truth because we worship what is true.
WORSHIPING IN TRUTH
If we are not worshiping “in spirit,” our worship will be dry and lifeless. Worship not done “in truth” becomes deceitful or irrelevant. “In spirit” reminds us who we are worshiping. “In truth” exposes the required genuineness of those doing the worshiping. To paraphrase Jesus, “True worshipers worship truthfully.” By contrast, fleshly or false worship would be: pretending to be someone or something we are not; displaying prejudice toward others who are also made in God’s image; practicing self-righteousness by denying our constant need for God’s mercy and grace; worshiping in ignorance or superstition without knowing the reality for ourselves; blindly worshiping out of habit with no heartfelt devotion.
4:24 “God is spirit.” In the Greek text, the word spirit comes first for emphasis: “Spirit is what God is.” Here is a simple yet sublime definition of the nature of God. He is spirit. God is not a physical being limited to place and time as we are. He is present everywhere, and he can be worshiped anywhere, anytime.
WHAT GOD ISN’T
As spirit, God relates to us without the limitations that we possess:
• He is never tired.
• He is never distant.
• He is never distracted.
• He is not limited by time and space.
• He can be present in all people.
• He cannot be destroyed or overpowered.
In Christ, God experienced all our weaknesses firsthand. He knows them, but they do not control him. Someday we will leave our present limitations behind and be fully in God’s spiritual presence. Worship includes saying to God, “Thank you for understanding where I am; I can hardly wait to be where you are!”
Anyone who wants to worship God must worship in spirit. There is no other way to truly worship God. Of course, a person cannot do this if his or her spirit has not been reborn by God’s Spirit (3:6, 8). Worship is to spiritual rebirth what growing up is to physical birth. Our life of worship begins when we are born by God’s Spirit.
ON HIS TERMS
When Jesus taught that worship must be “in spirit,” he was emphasizing the proper relationship with God. We approach him on his terms, not ours. But his terms are for our benefit. If God were to invade our world openly with his glory and holiness, we would be overwhelmed. Instead, God has chosen to reveal himself generally through his creation, specifically through the prophets and writers of the Bible, and fully (though humanly) in his Son, Jesus. We worship in submission to what God has revealed of himself. Worship includes our praise to God for the ways that he has revealed himself, our confession for the sins he has allowed us to see, our thanksgiving for all he has done for us, and our requests to learn more. True spiritual worship must have God at its center.
4:25 “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Talk of a new kind of worship must have reminded the Samaritan woman about the coming of the Messiah. Her comment was only loosely related to what Jesus had just said. She probably uttered it with a sigh, revealing her uncertainty about an unknown future. The Samaritans believed in the coming of “the Prophet” predicted by Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15–18), whom they called “the Restorer.” The Samaritans may have also heard of the coming Messiah from John the Baptist who had been baptizing in northern Samaria (3:23). They, as with the Jews, probably did not consider “the Prophet” and “the Messiah” to be the same person. Either way, both groups were expecting someone who would be a political liberator. They could not accept the idea that the long-awaited one would be a suffering servant before he would become the conquering king.
The woman had already perceived that Jesus was a prophet (4:19); his comments made her wish for the coming Prophet who would explain everything.
ANSWER MAN
The discussion had reached a point at which the Samaritan voiced her hope that someone would eventually be able to settle all her questions and problems. Sooner or later, in a conversation on life, people will reveal their hope. They will tell us what they rely on when worldly answers fail. At those times, we certainly should reveal our hope. Peter reminds us to “quietly trust yourself to Christ your Lord, and if anybody asks why you believe as you do, be ready to tell him, and do it in a gentle and respectful way” (1 Peter 3:15 tlb). Unlike Jesus, we cannot claim to be the Answer, but if we believe in Jesus, we can claim to know the Answer. When someone says, “Someday I’ll figure it all out,” we ought to respond, “I know someone who has the answers today!”
4:26 “I who speak to you am He.” Literally, “I am [he], the one speaking to you.” Although Jesus avoided telling the Jews directly that he was the Christ (see 10:24ff.), he told this Samaritan woman that he, the one who sat there with her on the well, was the promised Messiah.
JESUS TELLS ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL HARVEST / 4:27–38 / 28
The sudden arrival of the disciples interrupted the conversation. Jesus seems to have made no effort to continue the exchange. He had placed himself before the woman as the one she was expecting. What the woman would have said in response to Jesus’ revelation is unknown. But what she did is clear. She immediately went and told her neighbors that she had just encountered a unique and wonderful person whom they should also meet. She knew little about Jesus, but she knew him. The news she shared about the stranger at the well raised great curiosity among the townspeople.
Meanwhile, Jesus spoke to his disciples about the importance of being able to look at the world from God’s perspective, seeing people as a spiritual harvest to be reaped for God. Jesus reminded his disciples of his mission to do the will of God and accomplish his work; in so doing he encouraged their participation.
4:27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. Jesus had broken two cultural taboos: (1) Jews did not speak with Samaritans, and (2) a male did not normally speak with a female stranger. Jesus’ behavior amazed his disciples; yet they did not query him concerning his motives, for they must have come to realize that all of his motives were good. Anyone else would have been called to account.
4:28 Leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town. Beyond displaying the woman’s excited state of mind, this action has several significant explanations: On the one hand, it speaks of the woman leaving behind her water jar representing her thirst for true life and satisfaction; on the other hand, it also reveals her intention to return. The water jar was a valuable and practical household object. But as useful as it was to get water from the well, it was useless for obtaining the water of life. However, she had just met someone who promised living water and who had displayed intimate knowledge of her life and profound understanding of spiritual truths. We can’t be sure how much she understood of what Jesus had told her, but she was convinced that everyone in town ought to hear what he had to say.
Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.
Author of Hebrews
4:29–30 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” In essence, the Samaritan woman was saying that Jesus could have told her everything about her life, for in telling her about her relationships with various men, he revealed his knowledge about her history. She made no promises about what Jesus might know about everyone else, but she appealed to their curiosity. What was it about this stranger that could make a woman who had every reason to be ashamed of her life now speak publicly about her experience of transparency before him? Her invitation proved irresistible.
The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman.
Elisabeth Elliot
Bruce B. Barton, John, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1993), 79–89.
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