Carey's Bible Study Notes
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woman at the well
life of christ: john 4.1-42
towards galilee: the woman at the well
introduction (4.1-3)
Although Jesus performed His first miracle in Galilee, much of His early ministry occurred in Judea, the southern part of Israel, especially in the areas around Jerusalem. His ministry soon began to eclipse the ministry of John the Baptist to such an extent that Jesus� disciples were baptizing people at a much faster rate than John and his disciples. Although this was to be expected in light of the fact that John had come to point people away from himself and towards Jesus, it nevertheless presented a crisis in Jesus� ministry. Not only did Jesus and John realize what was happening, the Jewish religious leaders likewise realized that this was happening. It apparently was beginning to arouse some hostility against Jesus on the part of the Jewish religious leaders because they were jealous that Jesus was drawing attention away from them to Himself. The fact also that He had cleansed the Temple just a little earlier did not make matters any better. Jesus realized that unless He withdrew, the Jewish religious leaders would attempt to snuff out His life prematurely. Since the hour of His death stood another 2-3 years off, He departs for Galilee. This does not mean that He will spend no time at all in Jerusalem (we are indebted to the Fourth Gospel for our knowledge about the amount of time He did spend in Jerusalem); it just means that the focus of His ministry shifts from Jerusalem to Galilee.
Another reason Jesus spends most of His time in Galilee rather than in Judea is the religious difference between the 2 regions. Jerusalem was the heart of the Jewish religion which placed a heavy emphasis on legalism; Galilee, on the other hand, was more free-spirited in its approach to Jerusalem. Even today the Jews say that if you want to play, you live in Tel Aviv, whereas if you want to pray, you live in Jerusalem. Jesus was not going to have much success in Jerusalem because of the city�s enslavement to legalism which contradicted the very essence of Jesus� message of love and grace. Galilee, on the other, was going to prove more much receptive to this message. (Why then does Jesus spend time in Jerusalem at all? If Jesus was going to fulfill God�s will for His life, His ministry to the Jewish people, then He would have to spend some time in Jerusalem because she was the heart of the Jewish people).
A third reason Jesus spends most of His time in Galilee rather than in Jerusalem is the make-up of the people in the 2 places. Jerusalem was composed primarily of Jews who concentrated primarily upon their legalistic approach to religion. Pilate himself visited Jerusalem only during the feast days when the threat of uprising was at its greatest. Galilee, on the other hand, while containing a large population of the Jewish people, also contained a large number of Gentiles. During Jesus� ministry in Galilee, He ministered to Gentiles like the centurion whose servant was deathly ill (Matt. 8: ) and the nobleman whose son was at the point of death (John 4: ). A ministry to the Gentiles was highly unlikely in Jerusalem; however, such a ministry was much more viable in Galilee. As the God who had entered into a special covenant with His people, it was necessary for Jesus to ministry to the Jews; however, Jesus is also the Creator of all mankind and, therefore, naturally wished to minister to Gentiles. The lion�s share of His ministry will focus on the Jews; however, ministering in Galilee will also afford Him the opportunity to minister to the Gentiles. This ministry to the Gentiles in Galilee anticipates the future ministry of the church to the Gentiles. If Christ had never ministered to the Gentiles, the early church probably would have never broken out from its Jewish parameters to reach out to the world of the Gentiles. Later when the Spirit led the early church to reach out to the Gentiles, she could look back at instances such as this one to justify such an outreach.
jesus, the living water (4.4-18)
John tells us that Jesus "had" to pass through Samaria in order to go to Galilee. First, Jesus did not necessarily have to go through Samaria from Judea in order to get to Galilee. In fact, most of the time the Jews made sure they did not go through Samaria. Instead they would go around Samaria in order to avoid contact with the Samaritan people. The hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans went back approximately 950 years from the time Jesus began His ministry. In 920 BC the people living in Samaria broke away from the kingdom of Judah founded by David because his grandson Rehoboam refused to lift the heavy burden of taxation off the people. The first king of Samaria (Israel) was Jeroboam who worried that the Samaritans might continue to go to Jerusalem to worship God and thereby renew their allegiance to the southern kingdom of Judah; therefore, he built shrines in Samaria at Bethel and Dan in order to replace the shrine in Jerusalem. This only made matters worse. For the next 200 years the Jews and the Samaritans were intermittently at war with each other. Later in 721 BC when the Assyrians conquered Samaria, the Assyrians deported half of the Samaritans to other parts of the Assyrian empire and forced those remaining to intermarry with those left behind. Samaria became a nation of half-breeds which disgusted the Jews. When the Jews returned from exile in the late 400�s BC and began to reconstruct the wall around Jerusalem, they spurned the Samaritans� offer for help. This created more bad blood. It became even worse though when the Jews refused to allow the Samaritans to worship in their newly rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. In retaliation, the Samaritans built their own rival temple on Mt. Gerizim. When the Greek monarch Antiochus Epiphanes IV oppressed the Jews, he found willing accomplices among the Samaritans. All this came to a head when John Hyrcanus, the king and high priest of the Jews, attacked and destroyed the temple on Mt. Gerizim in 128 BC. At the time of this story, only the remains of the temple were all that was left. These 2 peoples hated each other, and as a result, they avoided contact with each other as much as possible.
So why did Jesus "have" to go through Samaria? He wasn�t in a hurry which we can deduce from the fact that once He ministers to the Samaritans He decides to stay a few days longer with them. No, He had to pass through Samaria because it was the Father�s will. He "had" to go through Samaria because in the Samaritan city of Sychar lived a woman who needed His special touch.
Jesus and His disciples arrive on the outskirts of the city of Sychar and stop by a well of water which Jacob the Patriarch had given to his favorite son Joseph. The well had a seating area constructed around it upon which Jesus sat while His disciples went into town to purchase some food for the apostolic band. It was around 12 noon. At this point a woman comes from the city with her waterpot to fetch water. There are 3 interesting details about this incident. First, women normally went together in groups to fetch the water. They found getting the water a convenient excuse to get together and share any recent gossip with one another. Second, women normally came either in the morning or in the evening when it was cool; by no means would they come during the heat of the day. Third and most important of all, the city of Sychar had a well right in the middle of it. This well was a mile away from the city. So what was she doing come out to this well a mile away from the city, in the dead heat of the day, and all by herself? The answer will become self-evident as the story progresses.
When the woman arrives at the well, Jesus asks her to give Him some water to drink. Apparently the disciples had taken the water container with them to the city which He would have been able to use to draw water from the well. The woman expresses surprise at His request first because He was a Jew and she a Samaritan and second because He was a man and she a woman. John parenthetically remarks that Jews simply had no dealings with the Samaritans (for the reasons listed above).
Jesus though informs her that if she knew what God�s gift to her was and who Jesus was, she would have asked Jesus and He would have given her "living" water. At this point, Jesus and the woman speak on 2 different levels, she on a material level and He on a spiritual level. By "gift of God," Jesus is referring to the gift of eternal life which He God the Son had come to give the world. By "living" water, Jesus was referring to the gift of the Holy Spirit which He had come to give all people so that they could enjoy an abundant life, the very life that God Himself enjoys. She, on the other hand, interprets living water as being fresh, running water as opposed to the stagnant water found in wells. She finds it quite incongruous that Jesus could give such a gift because her great ancestor Jacob had given her people this well and would have given them a better source of water if it had existed. In her mind, the only way for Jesus to give such water would be for Him to be greater than Jacob which was self-evidently absurd.
Jesus pursues this conversation even further though by contrasting the water Jacob gave and the water He gives. The water Jacob gave quenches the thirst only momentarily; on the other hand, the water that Jesus gives shall quench a person�s thirst permanently. Does this mean that a Christian who receives Christ�s Holy Spirit will never thirst any more? Not really. All of us who are Christians can testify to the fact that at times we feel like we live in a desert land. The truth though is that we know where the source of this living water is and can readily turn to it at any moment to quench the thirst of the soul.
The woman is elated at the prospect of never having to come back to this well to draw water again, and so asks Jesus to give her this water. Since she refuses to operate on a spiritual level, Jesus forces her to come to grips with herself. He instructs her to go get her husband to which she replies she has no husband. Then Jesus shocks her by informing her that she is right, that she does not have a husband. Instead, He tells her that she has been married five times and now just lives with a man because apparently she has given up on marriage. This explains now why she is alone at the well.
Why does Jesus shock the woman with this information? In order to bring her to her senses. In order for a person to be able really to come to God, s/he has to break through the facades we operate out of. We pretend we�re one thing, and yet deep down inside we�re something else. Until we cut through all the bologna and really see ourselves as we truly are, we will never be able to come to God. God does not want to meet us at the superficial level in which most of us exist but at the real level which is the real us.
true worship in the kingdom of god (4.19-26)
At this point, most NT commentators claim that the woman tries to change the subject since it is too painful for her to discuss her marital situation. I don�t think that is true. I think that Jesus has really struck a nerve. She realizes that her life is really messed up and wants to do something to correct it. What she does next though is something most people do when they want to get right with God. They try to find out what they need to do in order to get right with God. "I need to start going to church more; I need to read my Bible more; I need to do some great thing in order for God to accept me, while all along God is just wanting me to deal with myself, confess my brokenness and come to Him as Lord and Savior so that He can heal me." For her the issue is where should she worship God. If she could get that issue settled, she could worship in the right place and be right with God. (I believe that this interpretation is correct because Jesus does not rebuke or correct her but instead actually honors her sincere question.) The woman claims that the fathers of the Israelites designated Mt. Gerizim just beside them as the only place to worship God, whereas the Jews claimed Jerusalem was. (The Samaritans� Hebrew OT actually deleted references to Jerusalem, replacing them with references to Mt. Gerizim.)
Jesus informs her that the issue of where to worship God was becoming irrelevant. The OT had stressed the outer forms of worship; however, the day was coming and was now here when all the OT had pointed to was being fulfilled in Jesus. All the outer rituals of sacrifice were going to be fulfilled with Jesus� great sacrifice. Meeting God at a certain temple was going to be replaced by meeting God in His greater Temple Jesus. The question then becomes how do I meet God in this Temple, especially in light of the fact that Jesus this Temple would one day ascend to the Father? The answer is by meeting Him in Spirit and in Truth.
At this point, many NT interpreters miss the point of what Jesus is saying because they look to places other than the Gospel of John to interpret this saying. In the Fourth Gospel, whenever Jesus speaks about truth, He is speaking about Himself: "I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life" (John 14:6). If you want to know the truth about God and how to relate to Him, you must come to Jesus. Furthermore, the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. Now we believe rightfully that the Spirit is a distinct Person from the Son; however, the Spirit testifies about Jesus and draws all men to Jesus to such a degree that we can say He is the Spirit of Christ (John 16:13,14; see also Rom. 8:9 where Paul calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ). All this is to say that the only way a person is going to be able to come to God is by means of the Spirit of Christ and by means of the truth about Jesus. Such a way to God is not by going to church more often or by offering more sacrifices on the altar. It requires nothing less than a right view on who Jesus is and a change of my life so that I can worship Him in a spiritual sense.
When Jesus finishes His teaching, the woman is so impressed with His teaching that she says His teaching makes her think of the coming of the Messiah whom the Samaritans believed would be a great teacher. In her view, the Messiah would probably be somebody like Jesus. Jesus replies that He is not somebody like the Messiah but that He is the Messiah.
Unfortunately at this point, our English translations fail to convey the full force of what Jesus says here. The English translations read: "I am He." The Greek literally says: "I Am." In one sense Jesus words do mean "I am He", that is, "I am the Messiah"; however, in light of all the other "I Am" passages in the Gospel of John, we should see in Jesus� response a veiled reference to His deity. In the episode of the burning bush, God identified Himself to Moses as "I Am"; by responding this way to the woman, Jesus is claiming that more than just the Messiah is here. God Himself is speaking with her.
jesus' conversation with the disciples (4.27-38)
At this point, Jesus� disciples return from the village with the food they have purchased. They are dumbfounded when they see Jesus speaking not simply with a Samaritan (which would have been bad enough itself by itself) but with a woman! While men themselves were not supposed to speak to women in public, including their wives, rabbis like Jesus were especially supposed to refrain from any contact with women in public! (Some Jews degraded women to such an extent that they refused to allow them to study the OT and even thanked God in their prayers that He had not made them a woman). Knowing though that Jesus was unorthodox (and usually right in all He did), they did not question Him. The woman then leaves and hurries to the village to tell the villagers what has just happened to her.
The disciples have returned with the food, and yet Jesus informs them that He is not hungry because He has already been eating. The disciples are puzzled over Jesus� words, wondering if anybody else has brought Him food to eat. Like the Samaritan woman, the disciples are operating on a purely physical, material level, whereas Jesus is speaking on a spiritual level about spiritual food, doing God�s will. Jesus� response reminds us of His response to Satan�s first temptation in the wilderness: "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God." Obeying God�s will, that is, doing His will is what gave Jesus spiritual nourishment. Witnessing to this Samaritan woman was what God�s will was for Jesus at this present time (remember the words "had to" at the beginning of this episode).
God�s will extended to the disciples also. God�s will for them was to reap the spiritual harvest which was about to come upon them with the arrival of the Samaritans from the village. Moreover, it was urgent that they begin to reap. Normally, when a person sows, he has to wait 4 months before the harvest is ripe for reaping. Now so with the sowing and reaping in the kingdom of God. The seed has just been sown and the harvest is already ripe! You reap when the harvest is ripe or else you may lose the harvest. When the harvest is ripe, it is urgent that you reap. Well, the harvest is ripe. The Samaritans are coming; so now reap!
the response of the samaritans (4.39-42)
While Jesus and the disciples have been discussing the nature of Jesus� ministry, the woman has been witnessing to people in the village about her encounter with Jesus. The only deduction she can make about this man is that He is the Messiah; otherwise, she doesn�t know how else He could have known all about her life. They actually accept her evaluation of Jesus as the Messiah and then follow her back to the well to meet Jesus for themselves. After conversing with Jesus, they are so impacted by Him that they ask Him to stay on with them a few more days, a request which Jesus grants. After He stays with them for some time, their faith in Him goes to a higher level. Previously they had believed in Jesus only because of the woman�s testimony. Now that they have encountered Jesus themselves, they know for themselves that He is the Savior of the world. Our testimony may introduce people to Jesus; however, only a personal encounter with Him can actually produce the kind of confession Christ wants from each of us.
Why the designation "Savior of the world?" Why not just call Him Messiah? I believe they call Him Savior because of the impact Jesus had made on the life of the Samaritan woman. The Jews had reduced the Messiah to being nothing more than a military figure who would destroy their enemies, the Romans; on the other hand, the Samaritans had reduced Him to being nothing more than a great teacher like Moses. Now that they have met Him for themselves, they�ve found Him to be the source of that well which springs up to eternal life and which saves people from their past and from themselves. The only way to describe Jesus� impact upon the woman is to call Him Savior. He had saved her from her shame, her past, and from her present sin.
Why though call Him Savior of the world? Why not just call Him the Savior of the Jews or Savior of God�s people including Samaritans? Because if Jesus was willing to save the Samaritan woman, then He is willing to save any and everybody. Paul makes that same conclusion because of the fact that God saved him. Paul claims that if God was wanting to save him the worst of all sinners, then God is wanting to save all mankind, including you and me (1 Tim. 1:15-16). We never have to worry if Christ wants to accept us. Anne Graham Lotz has said that if Jesus on the cross forgave those who put Him to death, then He would most surely save us also.