Saturday, December 08, 2012

John 4: 1-24 The Samaritan Woman at the Well

WORK IN PROGRESS This familiar story speaks to the radical inclusion of Jesus. It's necessary to understand that the Samaritans were very deeply hated by the Jews. Perhaps surprisingly the Samaritans are of Jewish descent, however the Israelites believed the Samaritans had become corrupted by worshiping other Gods in addition to YHWY and intermarrying with people of the surrounding nations. Recall that most of the Levitical laws were all about avoiding mixture of any kind, which "God hates." (I have to say that the words "God hates," which do in fact appear numerous times in the Old Testament, upsets me. It simply is not possible in my mind.) Jewish rabbis simply never spoke to Samaritans; doing so would/could make them unclean. On top of that, we find Jesus "preaching the Good News" to a woman. This too was outrageous at the time. Women were often treated as property, maybe one step up from the slaves. They too, were unclean on a monthly basis and not part of religious education. We'll see in a moment that she was also in sexual sin. I believe we can assume that Jesus and the Holy Spirit orchestrated this opportunity to boldly expand the understanding of God's love for ALL. ...and so we begin: 1 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. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he 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 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.” 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.” 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.” 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.” Resources: http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/the-fourfold-gospel/by-chapters/john/john-4.html 3. As we search, hunger, and thirst for more of God, REAL WORSHIP touches the area of the heart that is unfulfilled. Essentially, WORSHIP is not music, but rather the cry of the SON for the FATHER from the HEART (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6)! In TRUE WORSHIP, the HEART is ADDRESSED as to its CONDITION, and AWAKENED to its true PURPOSE! The woman at the well of Samaria (Jn. 4) had been married to FIVE husbands (an experience governed by the five natural senses), and was presently flirting with the SIXTH (all that MAN longs for, as in 1 Jn. 2:15-17). But when she met the SEVENTH MAN, the PERFECT MAN. She dropped her water pot and became a water pot, reached into Him, and then ran into the city, crying, “Come, see a Man…!”