Unfinished: Week 2
Jesus, Jews and Samaritans
4 Now [Jesus] had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman (nameless) said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) —John 4:4-9
THREE IMPORTANT CONTRASTS in John 4:
1) Jews vs Samaritans
2) Nicodemus vs Samaritan Woman
3) Living vs Stagnant (Well) Water
NICODEMUS
- John 3
- Meet In Judea
- A Pharisee, an Insider/leader of Jews
- A Man
- Named, of importance
- Comes at Night
- Constrained by his religious system
- Struggles to Believe in the Moment
- Struggles with Jesus’ Identity as Son of God (3:16-3:17)
- Reluctant Witness
SAMARITAN WOMAN
- John 4
- Meet In Samaria (on way to Galilee)
- A Samaritan, a religious & political outsider
- A Woman
- Nameless,
- Comes at Noon, Full Daylight
- Engages with Jesus in dialogue, v20
- Believes Right Away, v15
- Hears Actual Name of God in v26: I AM
- Witnesses to Whole Town, vv39-42
Living vs Stagnant (Well) Water
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.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” —John 4:10-15**
Jesus Asks for a Response:
Jesus Spills Tea
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” —John 4:16-17
Old School Marriage
5 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
7 However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.” 8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” 9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.”10 That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled. —Deuteronomy 25:5-10
Samaritan Woman: Less Adulteress, More A Seeker of Truth
- 1) Jesus is Divine:
- Clear that Jesus’ knowledge of her was divine.
- 2) Jesus Knows Her:
- Jesus could speak about her identity.
- Knowing her history and current situation, Jesus signaled to her that he knew her.
- Jesus could speak about her identity.
- 3) She’s Presented as Inquisitive.
- 4) Jesus Doesn’t Label Her as Sinful
- Doesn’t say to “go and leave your life of sin,”
- as he tells the adulterous woman in John 8:11
- Engages her in conversation:
- Doesn’t say to “go and leave your life of sin,”
- 5) Spoiler Alert: People Listen to Her
- People listen to her testimony
- People Believe Jesus is the Messiah
- not because of the disciples’ preaching,
- She was a credible witness.
Who’s Revealing Whom
- Jesus is revealing
- Jesus is not revealing
- So our
Meeting Her Where She Is
Using Jacob’s Well to have a conversation about living water (himself),
Jesus
The Time Has Come
(Conversation transitions from husbands to Differences in Samaritan/Jewish Worship)
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming (prophetic language) when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman.
But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
—John 4:19-27
The Samaritan Woman Testifies and Invites
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (she’s uncertain, but willing)
30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” —John 4:28-30, 39-42
Certainty
Certainty is sometimes an
- Faith isn’t about having all the
- It’s about a willingness to be
- To allow God to
- To engage in
- And