Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

NewLife Fellowship, Sept. 19, 2004

Our theme this month is “walking as Jesus walked.” Jesus is not only our Savior, he is also our role model, and we look to him for guidance on how to live. We don’t have to imitate everything he did, of course – part of what he did was due to the specific circumstances he was in, living as a Jew in Judea, living according to the laws that applied to Jews at that time, and being sent to minister to the Jews.

For example, he told people to offer sacrifices, he kept the festival of Hanukkah, and he did a few other Jewish things that we don’t have to do. He called twelve disciples and traveled around with them, and we don’t have to do that. He ate bread instead of rice, and drank wine instead of soda, wore robes instead of blue jeans. So some of the details are not necessary for us today, but still, the way that Jesus lived – and especially the attitudes that he had – are a great place for us to begin when we want to find out how God wants us to live.

So I’d like to look today at one episode in the life of Jesus that teaches us a number of things about how we should live today. It’s an interesting encounter between opposites – a conversation between a Jewish rabbi and a Samaritan woman. It was a clash of cultures, but Jesus set an example for us of how to deal with people in a different culture – and that is something that might apply to quite a few of us here, since we live in one of the most multicultural cities in the world.

The story is found in the Gospel of John, chapter 4. The chapter begins by telling us that Jesus was attracting more disciples than John the Baptist had, and after the Pharisees learned about this, Jesus decided to travel from Judea back to Galilee. John the Baptist had just been put in prison, and Jesus didn’t want to join him. He didn’t want to antagonize the Pharisees this early in his ministry, so he went somewhere else where he could continue his work without being thrown in prison.

Now, there were two ways to travel from Jerusalem to Galilee – the high road and the low road. The high road was the short road, but it went through Samaria, and since the Jews didn’t like the Samaritans, they usually took the low road, down to Jericho and up the Jordan River valley. But since Jesus wanted to avoid the Jewish leaders for now, he decided to travel through Samaria. So already we learn that Jesus was not a prejudiced as most Jews were – he was willing to go to foreign territory.  

And John tells us in verse 5, 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 the sixth hour – that is, about noon.

And verse 8 tells us that His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.  Now, as verse 9 tells us, most Jews would have nothing to do with Samaritans, so it is pretty remarkable that Jesus sent his disciples into town to do some grocery shopping. He had apparently already taught them that it was OK to buy food from the Samaritans.

Well anyway, as Jesus was enjoying some time out, verse 7, a Samaritan woman came to draw water.

Now, this was quite odd, considering it was about noon. Most people got their water in the morning, before it got hot. There are all sorts of reasons why somebody might come at noon, but the Bible doesn’t tell us what particular reason that she had. But she came, and Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” I don’t know if Jesus was thirsty, or if he was just starting a conversation. As verse 11 notes, he didn’t have anything to get water out of the well, so it was a pretty sensible request.

But as the woman notes in verse 9, it was a rather extraordinary request: The Samaritan woman 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.) It would be like a Jew today asking a Palestinian for a drink, or an upper-caste Indian asking one of the untouchables for a drink. The woman was surprised that Jesus would talk to her at all, and even more surprised that he would ask her for a drink and be willing to drink out of her container.

Now, not only was it unusual for a Jew to talk to a Samaritan, it was also unusual, as verse 27 notes, for a Jewish man to talk to a woman he didn’t know. One of the rabbis in the Jewish Talmud said, Do not talk much with women. A man who talks with women brings evil on himself and neglects the study of the Law and will eventually inherit Gehenna. Another rabbi said, If you teach a woman the Law, you might as well teach her obscenities.

Obviously, Jesus did not subscribe to this philosophy. He talked with women and taught women such as Mary and Martha. And here, he is going to teach a Samaritan woman some important truths – just as important as what Jesus taught Nicodemus in the previous chapter.

Jesus gave this Samaritan woman as much respect as he gave the Jewish religious leader. He taught them both; he was not a respecter of persons. But his attitude was really unusual for his day, and so the woman asked, How can you ask me for a drink? Why are you exempt from all the social rules that other Jews keep? Perhaps she even wondered if Jesus had something improper in mind.

And Jesus answered her in verse 10: “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.”

So Jesus raises the level of the conversation to spiritual things. Although the Jews and Samaritans had a lot of religious differences, Jesus felt free to discuss spiritual things with a Samaritan. It might be like us talking to a Muslim. Sure there are differences, but we can talk. In this case, we can claim that Jesus has what people need.

Now, Jesus is using a little play on words here, because the phrase “living water” usually meant “flowing water,” and even though well water was pretty good, most people preferred flowing water if they could get it. So Jesus has gone from asking for well water, to offering to give the woman flowing water – or at least that’s how the woman understood it at first.

Now, we of course know that Jesus is talking about water that gives eternal life, and that this “water” is a gift of God. But Jesus purposely phrased his words to make the woman wonder what he was talking about. Jesus gave her three things that she could have asked about: 1) what is the gift of God, 2) who is it who is asking for a drink, and 3) what is this living water?

And so the woman goes for option number 3 – she decides to ask about the living water. Verse 11: “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? And in verse 12 she hints at question number 2: Who do you think you are?: Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” 

Look, mister, she says, I live here. I know where all the sources of water are. So how can you, a stranger, offer to tell me where to find some better water? Are you saying that you are better than the patriarch Jacob? He couldn’t find any running water around here – just this well. Just who are you, and what is this living water you offer?

Verse 13: Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks [the water from this well] will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in [whoever drinks it] a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

So Jesus tells her what the water metaphor is all about: He’s not talking about ordinary water, but a source of eternal life. The person would have the source of life inside.

And, just as Nicodemus did, the woman takes the statement a literally, and gives it back to Jesus in verse 15. I don’t think that really believed that Jesus could give her water of eternal life, but by saying, OK, she is asking Jesus to explain himself: 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.” OK, mister, let me see what you are talking about.

So Jesus told her, verse 16, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

Wow, this is a sudden change of subject, isn’t it? Yes, it seems like it, but by asking this, Jesus is going to force the conversation back to the real question – Who is this man who can offer living water?

Jesus is going to show her that he knows what he is talking about. He is going to show her that his words about eternal life should be taken seriously because he has knowledge that demonstrates spiritual authority. So he asks the woman about her husband, even though he knows she doesn’t have any.

Jn 4:17 “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.”

So Jesus reveals something about her that an ordinary human could not possibly know. He knows her sexual history.

Now, we might think that the woman was a sleazy woman, but it was not necessarily so. For all we know, all five of her previous husbands died – and there was nothing in the Law of Moses that required a widow to get married before living with someone. Anyway, we don’t need to make a big deal about that, because Jesus didn’t. Jesus was not worried about her past – instead, he was offering her something for the future. He mentioned her past only to prove the point that he had a right to talk about the future.

 It must have been quite amazing to the woman. Verse 19: “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. The woman does not want to talk about herself – she wants to talk about Jesus. Who is this man? Once the woman understands who he is, then she will pay more attention to what he is saying about living water.

OK, you are a prophet, she says. Well then, if you are a source of spiritual truth, I want to find out who is right in the long-standing dispute between Jews and Samaritans about where we ought to worship. The Jewish Scriptures say Jerusalem, and the Samaritan Scriptures say Gerizim. So she brings it up in verse 20: Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Abraham and Jacob worshipped right here, and the patriarchs never worshipped in Jerusalem. So don’t we have the better claim to authenticity? If you have the supernatural knowledge to tell me about my past, then I am willing to listen to your answer about where we ought to worship.

21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. In other words, Jesus is saying that “where” is not really a very important question. It will very soon be irrelevant.

It is really a remarkable conversation — just as significant theologically as the conversation Jesus had in chapter 3 with Nicodemus. Jesus' conversation with a Jewish rabbi was on the same level as his conversation with this foreign woman. He is offering her living water and eternal life. She needed to straighten out some of her religious ideas, just like Nicodemus did, but Jesus is basically treating her on an equal level. He treated her respectfully, and unlike Nicodemus, she stayed involved in the conversation, and she responded in a better way.

Jesus addresses some of the Samaritan ideas in verse 22: You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet - he is drawing a contrast here - a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth – not on some mountain - for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

In other words, the Jews happen to be right, but it doesn’t matter much, because place doesn't really matter much. All these physical sacrifices and physical temples are not really important – what God wants is true worship – spiritual worship – worship in the heart, not in animal sacrifices. It doesn’t matter where you sacrifice your animals – what counts is if you really worship God.

Verse 24: God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” God does not have flesh and blood, and he does not live in temples that are made by human hands. What he is really concerned about is what happens in your spirit, in your innermost being. That’s what counts.

Well, the woman got a surprising answer to her religious question – and she doesn’t seem to know what to do with it. Jesus just said the whole argument between Samaritans and Jews was misguided, almost irrelevant.

So she changes the subject – verse 25:

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” She is thinking, I don't understand all this stuff, but I suppose it will all be straightened out when the Messiah comes. Then it is going to be clear as to who is right, and what we ought to do. But Jesus surprises her again:

Verse 26: Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

Now, Jesus didn’t normally claim to be the Messiah. When Peter said Jesus was the Messiah, he said that’s right, but usually, Jesus didn’t go around bringing this up. But he did here, for this Samaritan woman. He gave her the honor of a really straightforward announcement of who he was.

Jesus is saying, You can’t appeal to a higher authority. You can’t wait for a Messiah to come to tell you how to worship. You need to worship right now. You need to answer the question right now – and that is true for us, today, too. We either believe Jesus, or we don’t.

We can’t wait for a Messiah to come and straighten out our questions, because the Messiah has already come, and he is the real question that we need to answer. Is Jesus the Savior, or not?

Jesus tells the woman, Don't wait for a Messiah, because I am already here. I've already shown you that I have God's authority to tell you about your private life, I have God's authority to tell you about true worship, I have God's authority to tell you about living water and eternal life. Are you going to believe it, or not?

Verse 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?” This was not the first time that the disciples found Jesus doing something out of the ordinary, and they didn’t want to embarrass themselves, so they just kept quiet about it. So, the disciples come in, and the woman leaves.

Verse 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town… - She abandoned the purpose for which she came - she wasn't interested in physical water any more she went to town - and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?

This woman sets a good example as a disciple, and we can learn something from her. She was willing to tell people about Jesus, and she brought people so that they could find out for themselves. But what I want to look at today is the example that Jesus set for us. What lessons can we learn from the way that Jesus is acting?

First, I see that Jesus treated this woman with respect. A lot of people in society probably did not. But Jesus treated her with respect, despite the fact that social expectations were against him being in Samaria, talking to a Samaritan, and teaching a woman. But Jesus was willing to teach her, to treat her as a human being just as much as Nicodemus was. He doesn’t demean her, ridicule her past, or act like she couldn’t possibly understand spiritual truths. No, he treated her about the same as he did his own disciples.

Now, how might that apply to us today? Are there people of a certain ethnic group or gender you’d rather avoid? Well then, follow the example of Jesus, and break those social barriers! If you are a foreigner in this land, like Jesus was in Samaria, don’t let that stop you. Talk anyway. And if you see a visitor from another land, talk anyway. As Paul says in Romans, be willing to associate with anyone, whether high status or low status, whether rich or poor, whether sinner or saint. Treat them all with respect. 

Second, Jesus ...

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