John 4

Video Lessons with Transcript

John 4:1-26: The Samaritan Woman

Commentary

4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 

  1. Note that the Bible explicitly clarifies that Jesus was not baptizing people.  Even though it was a part of his ministry, he didn’t personally do the baptizing.  He only oversaw the process.
  2. Why didn’t Jesus baptize?
    1. Some suggest that Jesus was more concerned with inspiring faith over baptizing each individual person, so he left the follow-up to the disciples.
    2. Some suggest Jesus prioritized inspiring faith over personally baptizing, leaving the act to disciples, though there’s not textual support for this.
    3. A stronger reason for Jesus’s reluctance to personally baptism is that He is the one who is supposed to baptize with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5).  Since the Holy Spirit had not yet been given by Jesus, the fullness of Christ’s baptism was not available.  This was more akin to John’s baptism for repentance, which only involved water.
  3. “The reason why He baptized not Himself, had been already declared by John, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. (Luke 3:16) Now He had not yet given the Holy Spirit: it was therefore fitting that He should not baptize.” -John Chrysostom, Hom. xxxi. 1

3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

  1. Jesus’s rising fame created tension with the Pharisees.  Rather than allowing his ministry to the “anti-Pharisee” ministry, Jesus moved on to continue focusing on the truth that he needed to share, rather than just arguing in an increasingly hostile environment.   HE wasn’t afraid of the Pharisees.  He would engage with them again later, but he refused to allow himself to be reduced to their opposition.
  2. “He was showing an example to them who were to believe in Him (that any one servant of God sins not if he retire into another place, when he sees, it may be, the rage of his persecutors, or of them that seek to bring his soul into evil; but if a servant of God did this he might appear to commit sin, had not the Lord led the way in doing it), that good Master did this to teach us, not because He feared it.” -Augustine of Hippo, Tractate 15 on John

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 

  1. Jesus traveled from Judea to Galilee and “had to” go through Samaria. While the route made geographical sense (Samaria lies near Israel’s borders; Galilee is an outlying enclave), most Jews would have found a way around it.  There was severe tension between the Jews and the Samaritans.
  2. Sources of Tension between Israelites and Samaritans
    1. Similarity can create friction; groups that live in the same area with competing claims and identities often clash more easily than groups that are obviously different.
    2. Competing Religious Claims:
      1. Both the Jews and the Samaritans claimed to be true worshipers of God and the true Israel, considering the other’s claim illegitimate.
      2. The Samaritans only accepted the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) as Scripture, denying later prophetic books, which increased conflict with the Jews who affirmed other books as divinely inspired.
    3. Competing Identity Claims
      1. Samaritans said they were the true Israelites because they stayed in the land during the Assyrian exile.  Others were forced to leave because of the Assyrian policies, but the Samaritans found a way to stay and shepherd the area.
      2. The Israelites that returned after the exile saw the Samaritans as people who had compromised themselves by intermarrying and adopting Assyrian culture to appeal to the dominant culture, losing their real identity while others suffered exile for their faith. 

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.

  1. “Jacob’s well was there,”
    1. Jacob’s well is not particularly famous.  There is nothing mentioned in Scripture about it.  Its importance comes from its owner, not any event that happened at it.  
    2. A modern equivalent might be something like “George Washington’s cornfield.”  Assuming such a place exists somewhere, nothing noteworthy happened there, but it’s notable because of the owner.
    3. “And what more proper place than Jacob’s well, for exposing the unlawful husband, i. e. the perverse law? For the Samaritan woman is meant to figure to us a soul, that has subjected itself to a hind of law of its own, not the divine law. And our Saviour wishes to marry her to a lawful husband, i. e. Himself; the Word of truth which was to rise from the dead, and never again to die.” -Origen, tom. xiii. c. 8
  2. “It was about noon.”
    1. In first century Israel, women typically drew water in the morning to avoid heat and to catch up with one another at the well.
    2. The Samaritan woman arriving at noon likely indicates that she’s avoiding others.  As Jesus unfolds her story in the coming verses, it becomes increasingly obvious that she may be a social outcast and subject of gossip.

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 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.[a])

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.”

  1. “Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
    1. Jesus spoke directly to her, which broke social norms on several levels.  Firstly, Jews didn’t associate with Samaritans.  Secondly, men didn’t tend to speak to women alone without a husband, father or brother present to witness the propriety of the interaction.
    2. He asks her for a drink—a deliberate request for a favor.  Sociologists say that this is a good way to build rapport in a new environment.  By asking for help, you show that you see value in the other person and are vulnerable, which prevents you from appearing as some sort of social threat.
  2. “living water”
    1. Jesus offers “living water,” a phrase carrying dual meanings in Greek: flowing, fresh water (spring/river) and spiritually vivifying water pointing to eternal life.
    2. English translations prefer “living water” to preserve the spiritual resonance; the woman initially interprets it as literal fresh water, focusing on convenience (not having to return to draw 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.”

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.”

  1. Transition from physical thirst to spiritual thirst
    1. Jesus contrasts water that only provides for earthly needs (“whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again”) with the spiritual benefit of the water he gives, which becomes “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
    2. He reveals awareness of her personal life: she has had five husbands and lives with a man who is not her husband. She’s been seeking fulfillment in relationships with men.  Not only has it not gone well, but it hasn’t quenched the thirst for meaning in her life.
    3. In the Jesus revolution of the 1970s, many young people that had sought their fulfillment in drugs or hippie counterculture found lasting fulfillment in Jesus.

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 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.”

    1. “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain…”
      1. The woman shifts the whole conversation towards “religious” questions, shifting the tone from an honest conversation about her life to theoretical doctrinal debates.
      2. “From the truth which was becoming inconveniently personal she flew to that natural resort of the carnal mind, namely, to religions discourse upon points of outward observance”. -Spurgeon, Verse Expositions of the Bible
  • “true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth”
    1. Jesus reframes the issue away from ethnicity, tradition, and location: “A time is coming…when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”
    2. He isn’t vague on doctrine.  He acknowledges “salvation is from the Jews” but moves towards that bigger picture that he’s inviting her to participate in where people “worship the Father in spirit and in truth,” because “God is spirit.”
    3. Ethnic lineage and traditional sites are not the path to God; the Holy Spirit’s indwelling and truth-seeking are essential. He invites her to abandon religious formalism and be honest about what she really needs.  He knows her thirst and how she longs for God in her life.

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.”

  1. Conversion doesn’t come from superior religious theory being explained well or being so nice for so long that someone just goes with it.  Conversion comes from a person encountering Jesus and knowing his power and his person directly.
  2. This encounter gives us some key principles for evangelism.
    1. Talk to someone, even if it’s uncomfortable or seemingly strange.
    2. Build and honest rapport by letting yourself be vulnerable and seeing their gifts.
    3. Connect things that people know to what they don’t know yet.
    4. Lovingly help people see what they’re looking for can be found in Jesus.
    5. Avoid getting trapped in debates over little things.  Emphasize the big picture of what God is doing.
    6. Introduce people to Jesus personally.  His power is sufficient.

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?”

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?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

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.”

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

43 After the two days he left for Galilee. 44 (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.