WOMAN AT THE WELL
By Dr. David Jeremiah
John 4:1-30
In this lesson we witness the transformation of a person from immorality to immortality.
The uniqueness of Jesus Christ is that He was both God and man. His humanity allows Him to identify with the needs of the human race, and His deity allows Him to meet those needs. In every salvation encounter, His deity and humanity form the bridge to eternal life.
In the previous lesson, we learned about a man who met Jesus at the very peak of society's scale of respectability� Nicodemus. In this lesson, we go to the opposite end of the social spectrum and meet a woman who went from immorality to immortality. Her story is told in John 4:1-42, and because of its length we will not touch on every aspect of it in this lesson. But we will see the remarkable transformation that came to a woman who met Jesus at a time of great need in her life.
Jesus and His disciples were making a journey from Judea (the southern region of the Holy Land) to Galilee in the north. Normally, one would pass through the region of Samaria which was located between Judea and Galilee. But because of the Jews' animosity toward the Samaritan people, they would travel miles out of their way and go completely around Samaria on their way to Galilee. Samaria was unholvy ground to religious Jews, and they would not set foot upon it.
But Jesus took the disciples straight through Samaria on their way to Galilee. Verse five tells us that they came to the city of Sychar, which was called Shechem in the Old Testament. Genesis 33 tells us that Jacob had purchased a field near Shechem, and Joshua 24:32 says that Joseph was actually buried in the plot of ground Jacob had purchased. There was a well in Sychar known as Jacob's well, and it was in this hallowed place that Jesus met a Samaritan woman. Everything about this woman stood in stark contrast to the man, Nicodemus, who met Jesus earlier in Jerusalem: He was a man; she was a woman. He was a scholar; she was uneducated. He was highly moral; she was immoral. He was a favored Jew; she was a despised Samaritan. He was a politician; she had no community standing. He came by night; she met Jesus in the light of day. He knew who Jesus was; she had never heard of Him. He was wealthy; she was poor. He came seeking Jesus; she was sought by Jesus. Their great diversity reminds us that there is only one Savior for all of humanity, because all of humanity has the same need�to know God in a personal way.
JESUS COMES TO HER OUT OF HIS HUMANITY
As the story unfolds, Jesus' humanity becomes immediately evident. We Sometimes lose sight of the fact that Jesus was the Son of God as well as God the Son, 100 percent divine and 100 percent human at the same time. He arrived at Jacob's well and sat down because He was weary. He sent the disciples into the city to buy food because He was hungry. And He is about to ask for a drink of water because He is thirsty. Because of His humanity, we know that Jesus is able to identify with the human needs of those He came to save. As a result, we are able to go boldly before the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4-15-16). The mercy and grace we receive from God is the same mercy and grace the Samaritan woman was about to receive. Not only did He know her physical, human needs, but He knew her spiritual needs as well. Only one who is both human and divine can meet the full range of our needs.
In order for Jesus to minister to the Samaritan woman, He had to break through three different barriers that separated them. They were separated socially, morally, and racially.
He Broke Through a Social Barrier
In biblical days, men did not speak to women in public. So whn the disciples returned from buying food in Sychar, thev could not believe their eyes: Jesus was speaking with a woman at Jacob's well (verse 27). It wasn't that Jesus was talking to an immoral woman (they didn't know anything about her)�it was that He was talking to any woman. Jewish men did not talk to any women in public�not even their wives or sisters (they were, for some reason, allowed to speak to their daughters�possibly to correct or instruct them). Some Pharisees, in fact, refused to even look at a woman, and would close their eyes if they saw one coming in the distance. They were known as the bruised and bleeding Pharisees because they kept running into buildings and tripping over rocks!
There is no question that Christianity has elevated women to their proper role of dignity and recognition. And Jesus set the standard by His own example of treating the Samaritan woman with respect and honor�even in spite of what He knew of her background. lt is wrong in today's society for Christianity to be the scapegoat for all of our cultural ills. In many ancient cultures womanhood was held in contempt. The liberated place that women have found in Western cultures is due primarily to the biblical mandate that women are to be treated as equals with men before God. And this was true even in the Old Testament (see Proverbs 31:10-31). It was the misguided doctrines of the Pharisees and others which by the first century A.D. had created a social barrier between men and women in Israel. But Jesus broke through that barrier with the Samaritan woman.
He Broke Through A Moral Barrier
Jesus was a rabbi, and this woman was immoral. There should have been an immediate barrier between them in terms of their moral commitments. Though we'll see this more clearly later in the lesson, we need to note here that this was a woman who had had five husbands. In fact, at the time she met Jesus, she was living with a man who was not her husband. We don't know the details of any of these relationships, but it seems unlikely that she had been widowed five times, or had even gone through the process of divorce five times. The fact that she was living with a man apart from the bonds of marriage ('. . . the one whom you now have is not your husband . . . " verse 18) suggests that she had just moved from relationship to relationship in an immoral fashion.
So there was the holy Son of God, seated at Jacob's well, talking with a woman who had violated every moral code she could when it came to sexual behavior. But Jesus broke straight through that barrier. Why? Because He did not come to save those who were "holy," but those who were sinners. And He demonstrated that by offering salvation to one who was near, or at the low end of the "sinner" scale. In reality, we all are. We may not have done what the Samaritan woman did, but we have done enough to demonstrate that our depravity is total, and that we cannot make ourselves holy. Jesus came to offer His love and grace to us by breaking through the moral barrier that separates us from God�just as He did the Samaritan woman.
He Broke Through a Racial Barrier
In verse nine, we learn that "Jews have no dealings with Samaritans" � which was to put it mildly. In truth, the average Jew hated the Samaritans. The Samaritans were originally Jews who had intermarried with non-Jews sent in by the Assyrians to populate Israel after the majority of the population was carried into captivity in 722 B.C. Marrying outside the blood line of Judaism was strictly forbidden, and the Jews did not let the Samaritans forget it. The Samaritans established their own place of worship in Samaria and eventually developed their own religious practices, which set them apart from the Jews (e.g., they held only to the first five books of the Old Testament).
The Jews thought of the Samaritans as half-breeds, the offscouring of the earth. As already mentioned, the Jews would not even set foot on Samaritan soil, fearing spiritual defilement if they were to come in contact with soil upon which a Samaritan had walked. We have much racism in our world today, but none is any more severe than the racism practiced by Jews and Samaritans against one another. The two groups literally hated one another� and did it in the name of God. But Jesus went right past all that in His encounter with the Samaritan woman. When He met her, He did not meet a woman who was a Samaritan or a Jew. He didn't even really see a woman as opposed to a man, or an immoral person instead of a moral person. He simply saw a person in need of knowing the God who created her.
The barriers Jesus broke through in dealing with the Samaritan woman were all at the level of His, and her, humanity. Socially, morally, and racially He simply refused to let human convention block His access to her. Once He related to her as a fellow human being, however, He began to relate to her out of His deity.
JESUS COMES TO HER OUT OF HIS DEITY
In His conversation with the woman, Jesus begins to turn things in a spiritual direction. His conversations with people are models of both sensitivity and boldness, discernment and depth. Just as He took a physical event (birth) and used it to convey a spiritual reality (the spiritual, new birth), so He begins to do the same thing at the well of Jacob.
The woman saw the well as a gift from Jacob, but Jesus wanted to talk about the gift of God, eternal life. She was focused on the physical water that she drew from the well which kept her alive from day to day, but Jesus began to shift her attention to a different kind of water that would keep her alive forever. How could the water Jesus was talking about be greater than the water she had drawn for years from Jacob's well? She was obviously perplexed by His words, which was Jesus' intent. Only as she began to be uncomfortable and probe what Jesus was saying would she come to a knowledge of the truth.
In her discomfort, she switches the conversation to a religious theme�worship. And Jesus will respond to that theme as well in His discussion with her. It might seem unusual for this immoral woman to want to discuss spiritual matters such as worship. Yet it reminds us that there is a God-shaped part of every human being that longs to know God. There is a desire to worship the Creator of mankind in every culture on earth�a desire that is not removed by sin. Undoubtedly the way she had shuffled through men in her life was an indication of her longing for meaning and her search for a center around which to live. But obviously she had not yet found it. Many people spend their entire lives searching before finally turning to God and saying, "I turn to You, God. Please come and live in me." That is the only way to find the meaning in life that every person is searching for.
The Samaritan woman had to face some issues in her life, however, before she was able to reach out and take the living water that Jesus was offering her. She had to be confronted with her sin, be willing to confess her faith, and change her lifestyle.
He Confronted Her With Her Sin
The way Jesus confronted her with her sin was simple, yet direct and gentle. When she asked for the water Jesus was talking about, He asked her to go and call her husband so that he could enter into this lifechanging experience with her (verse 16). She answered Him in a form of double-speak, which we have grown accustomed to in our highly politicized culture: "I have no husband." She told the truth�sort of. The truth was that she didn't have a husband; she had five of them�and was living with a sixth man at the present. No one except God could have known this woman's background, and this truth hits home with the woman immediately: "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet" (verse 19). What an answer! She was probably shaking in her sandals with fear over a man who had never met her but knew her whole life story. However, she answered in a cool and calm fashion: "l perceive that You are a prophet."
When Jesus confronts her, she has some spiritual thoughts. God puts within this woman a hunger and a thirst for something beside that which she had experienced. And though doctrine and beliefs are not the answer to her sin problem, Jesus allows her to continue knowing that eventually the Messiah would become the center of the conversation. She said that one day the Messiah would comes and He said, "I who speak to you am He" (verse 26).
Two things that are prerequisites for anyone to be saved are now before her: The reality of her sin and the reality of a holy God.
She Confessed Her Belief
In shock, she turns from Jesus and goes into the city to tell what has happened to her. When she asks, "Could this be the Christ?" (verse 29), the sentence is structured in a way in the original Greek that expects an affirmative answer. ln other words, she believed it was the Christ who had just spoken to her. She was confessing to the rest of the village what she believed to be true (Romans 10:9-10).
How does a person become a Christian? By recognizing that they are sinful and incomplete and empty without Almighty God, and then by confessing that Jesus Christ is the One who came into the world to take away their sin. By doing so, they personally appropriate the salvation that God offers to all sinners.
She Changed Her Lifestyle
The priorities of this woman's life changed when she met Jesus. Whereas before, her life had centered around meeting her own needs, she suddenly became focused on sharing the good news with other people. Once the grace of God has impacted your life, it is difficult to keep it to yourself. These people to whom she went probably knew her well, her past life and the badges of shame she wore. But she didn't care. She had been changed and wanted to tell others what Jesus had done for her. Only an encounter with the divine Son of God can bring about that sort of instant change in one's lifestyle.
Jesus ministered to an up-and-outer in the person of Nicodemus, and now extends the same love and grace to a down-and-outer whose name didn't even get recorded in Scripture. There is only one Gospel, and it is for every person who doesn't know God. Whether you are like Nicodemus, or the woman of Samaria, or somewhere in between, the living water given only by Jesus will cause you to thirst no more.
Did you know...?
You can drink today from the well that is likely the one at which Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman. A popular spot on Holy Land tours, there is good reason to believe that the modern Jacob's Well" is indeed the very one at which Jesus sat resting from His journey. Bir Ya'aqus, the well is called, and it sits about one mile east of Tel Balatah, generally agreed tobhe the site of ancient Shechem. This is without doubt within the range of territory acquired by Jacob (Genesis 33:18). There is no biblical record of Jacob digging a well, but it would certainly not have been unusual for him to do so. Fortunately for us, we do not have to travel to the Holy Land to gain a drink of the living water Jesus gave the Samaritan woman!
www.turningpointonline.org
Copyright 2000 by Turning Point for God
All Rights Reserved