John 4:1-18 - The Source of Living Waters

Please turn in your Bibles to John chapter 4, verses 1-18. You can find that on page 1056 of the pew Bibles.

This is the well-known interaction between Jesus and the woman at the well. Their conversation is a little long, so we'll take this in two sermons. Today is part 1. Next week is Easter, and I'm planning a different sermon text. But in two weeks we'll get to part 2.

As I read, think about the differences between Nicodemus and the woman at the well. Jesus had met Nicodemus earlier in chapter 3. Remember, he was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish council and a teacher of Israel. And now in chapter 4, Jesus meets a very different person in a very different setting.

Reading John 4:1-18

Prayer

In my high school and college days, I enjoyed multi-day wilderness trips. You know, you hike a few miles, then camp, then hike another few miles, and camp again, and you do that for several days. For some reason, it doesn't really sound fun anymore!

I'll never forget the very first trip I went on. It started out pretty rough. It was very hot. We were mostly hiking in the shade, but we had 30-40 pound backpacks and so we were sweating. What made it worse is that we got lost on the first day. We didn't really know what we were doing, and then we got turned around. And then, we ran out of water. We had brought extra water because of the heat, but we drank it all by mid-day - we didn’t know what rationing meant. Furthermore, the streams and lakes had an unusually high level of parasites that summer, and so we couldn't drink from them.

And because we got lost, we didn't make it to our destination. Our planned destination had fresh water, but we were still some miles away when it got dark. So, we had to camp in the middle of a dense forest without water. I've never been more thirsty in my life.

We all know what it feels like to thirst.

Jesus had been thirsty from his travels. He was fully human just as much as he was fully divine. He shared in our common experiences like hunger and thirst and weariness.

But as we read, this story is about much more than just satisfying our physical thirst. No, Jesus uses the common experience of thirsting and drinking to convey a deeper truth - spiritual thirst and spiritual refreshment.

This Samaritan woman didn’t even know she was spiritually thirsty, but she would soon come to realize how thirsty she was... and where to find the source of life-giving water.

As we look at this text, we'll consider it in three basic points: The setting, the scene, and the summons.

1. The Setting - what is the cultural and religious background

2. The Scene - what happened in this conversation

3. The Summons - how are we summoned to respond.

By the way, my first outline had a bunch of "s" in my subpoints… like spring, satisfy, Sychar, sixth, sinner, source, surprising, soul, and savior. But it was a little too much, so I decided to spare you from that!

1. The Setting

Ok, #1, the setting. Before we work through this captivating narrative, it's important to understand some of the religious and cultural dynamics at play.

First, the Samaritans were deeply despised by the Jews. They were outcasts and they were considered unclean. There were a couple of reasons for this.

· #1 - Samaria was where the northern tribes of Israel had been. Back when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, some of the Assyrians settled in the land. And over time the Assyrians and the Israelites from the northern tribes intermarried. That was a problem because their religions got mixed together. The Samaritans claimed the same forefathers as the Jews in Judah, but their religious practice and beliefs had been corrupted. We'll consider this more in part 2 of this dialogue. I simply bring it up because the Samaritans were considered not worthy to associate with. In fact, in order to get from Jerusalem to Galilee, the fastest route was to go through Samaria. But, some Jews would go to great lengths to literally travel around Samaria to get to Galilee. It was that bad.

· #2 - This hatred of the Samaritans did not go away after Jesus walked the earth. In fact, it got worse. The Jewish historian Josephus records that around 51 AD, some Jewish pilgrims passing through Samaria were murdered. In response, several Samaritan villages were attacked by Jews. This killing went back and forth until the Romans had to step in. John wrote this Gospel account after those conflicts.

What I'm saying is that throughout the first century Jews deeply mistrusted or even despised the Samaritans.

One of the commentators that I like is Gary Burge. He describes the book of John like scenes in a play. It's helpful to think of it that way. A couple of weeks ago, the curtains opened and it was dark. Nicodemus had come to Jesus at night. Nicodemus, who was an upstanding member of the Jewish elite was searching for answers. And he learned that he needed to be born again. He needed the cleansing ministry that Jesus was offering. But then the curtain closes while he's still searching.

Now the curtain opens again, but this time it's the middle of the day. The 6th hour is about noon and the sun is shining. And there is Jesus again, but instead of Nicodemus, instead of this esteemed member of the Sanhedrin and a teacher of Israel, Jesus is speaking with an unclean Samaritan woman. Can you hear the gasps in the audience?

And it gets worse as the narrative unfolds. Not only was she a Samaritan, but we find out that she has had 5 husbands and was now living with a guy to whom she was not even married.

What a contrast to Nicodemus.

· He was a squeaky-clean Pharisee on the outside… who had yet to see his need for the transforming power of Christ for his darkened sinful heart.

· And then this woman, a spiritual and relational mess on the outside, yet, who would come to see her need and drink from the life-giving water of Christ.

By the way, I am not saying that Nicodemus never came to believe in Jesus. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that by the end of the book, it appears that his heart had changed.

And in regard to the Samaritan woman, we learn later in this chapter that she not only came to believe, but through her testimony, many other Samaritans believed. It was all very revealing.

You know, we're just a few chapters into John's Gospel, and several paradigms were being broken. John's Jewish audience had false perceptions about the Messiah. They also didn’t understand the true reasons for their religious practices. So, their paradigms needed to be shattered.

· The tables in the temple needed to be overturned. They needed to understand that Jesus fulfilled the temple promises.

· They also needed to understand that Jesus did not come to re-establish Israel's geo-political dominance. Rather, as chapter 3 says, he came that the world may be saved through him.

· Furthermore, they needed to know that being a Jewish leader did not mean you would enter the kingdom of God. Keeping the rules or knowing the law does not get you into the kingdom. No, you need to be born again of the cleansing ministry of Christ and in his Spirit.

They needed to learn all this.

And here in chapter 4 - They are learning that the cleansing ministry of Jesus is also for Samaritans. And not only that, but Jesus came to save sinners, like this woman. Really, they were all sinners, like us.… but many in the Jewish community didn’t understand that.

What I'm saying is that if you were a Jew in the first century and you were hearing this for the first time, your religious foundations were being shaken. They needed to be shaken.

So that's the setting… the cultural and religious backdrop.

2. The Scene

Which brings us to #2 - the scene. Let's consider what happened.

In the first century, travelling by foot from Jerusalem directly to Galilee would have taken 3-4 day. Jesus and his disciples travelled up the main road through Samaria… passing one village after another.

And they came to Sychar. We learn that it was historically significant. It's where Jacob and his family had lived before moving to Egypt. Jacob was their forefather whom God would rename as Israel. He had 12 sons, whose families would become the twelve tribes of Israel.

So, Jacob's well had been there for centuries. The well was near the field that Jacob had given his favorite son Joseph. This is Joseph who was given the multi-colored coat by his father and who was soon thereafter sold by his brothers as a slave.

It was noon. The sun was beating down. Jesus and his disciples had more ground to travel but they needed rest and food and water. Jesus stayed at the well while his disciples went to find food.

And as he sat there, a Samaritan woman approached. A common household chore for women at the time was filling the water jars. So it was not unusual for a woman to come to the well. However, what was unusual was the time of day. Usually filling water pots happened in the early morning or late afternoon when it was cooler. But given this woman's situation, either she was not welcome at other times, or she felt ashamed. And so, she came at mid-day.

And to her surprise, a Jewish man was there. Now, the customary thing to do would have been to quickly fill her water jars and head home.

But this man asked her a question. He asked her for a drink.

By the way, Jacob's well was deep. You can actually visit the well today. It's about 135 ft to the bottom. That's pretty deep! Jesus didn't have anything to lower down and draw up water and he was thirsty. So, it was a reasonable request.

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