John 4:1-30

To avoid conflict with John the Baptist’s disciples as well as more scrutiny from the Pharisees, Jesus decides to leave Judea and go to Galilee, “but He needed to through Samaria” (4:1-4). It is significant that John mentions Jesus traveling to Galilee by going through Samaria because most Jews avoided interaction with the Samaritans. There had been a long-standing conflict between the Jews and Samaritans which goes back hundreds of years, when the nation of Israel split following King Solomon’s rule, with the northern part eventually becoming known as Samaria (1 Kings 16:24). In 722BC, Assyria took thousands of Jews captive from Samaria and transported them out; however, some Jews were still left in Samaria, but many non-Jews moved to there and intermarried with them. So, the marriages between the Jews and non-Jews created a mixed race and when the Jews returned from captivity, a deep animosity existed between the returning Jews and what was now the Samaritan race. The Samaritans had also abandoned their religious heritage and established their own system of worship, in which they only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament, and their place of worship was now on Mt. Gerizim instead of at Jerusalem. For these reasons, great hatred existed between these two groups and they went to great lengths to stay away from each other.

Jesus chose to go through Samaria because He loved the people there, even though His own people despised them. Wearied from His journey, Jesus sits by a well where He meets a Samaritan woman and asks her for a drink of water (4:5-7). Recognizing the division which existed between Jews and Samaritans, the woman says, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (4:9). Jesus responds by saying, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (4:10). Even more shocking than this Jewish man, Jesus, speaking to this Samaritan woman was the fact that she was speaking to the Son of God, who was able to provide her with living water (eternal life). Water is needed in order to sustain physical life just as the gift of God, Jesus Christ, is needed to bring spiritual life. The woman did not understand Jesus’ illustration of living water and thought he was referring to drinking physical water which would permanently quench her thirst so she says, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” (4:11-12) The dialogue between Jesus and the woman continues, “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw’” (4:14-15).

The Samaritan woman still did not understand that Jesus was offering her living water which would bring forgiveness and eternal life, so He turns the conversation in order to expose her sinfulness and the necessity of repentance and belief to receive this living water. Jesus tells the woman to “Go, call your husband, and come here” (4:16). When the woman heard Jesus’ demand, she responded by saying, “I have no husband” (4:17). Since Jesus was God, He already knew her response but quickly pointed out that she actually had had five husbands and the one with whom she was now living was not her husband (4:18). The Samaritan woman was surprised by Jesus’ intimate knowledge of her life and says, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet” (4:19).

Instead of acknowledging her sin, the Samaritan woman begins an argument about the two distinct places of worship between the Jews and Samaritans (4:20); however, Jesus would not be sidetracked and rendered the places of worship as non-essential because both of them would eventually be destroyed (4:21). The place of worship was not as important as the One who was being worshiped. Jesus declared that the hour was coming (His death, burial, and resurrection) when the “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (4:23). What is the identity of the true worshipers? They would be the people who reject their own system of works for salvation and worship God the Father by coming to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. Although the Samaritan woman also believed in the Messiah (4:25), her picture was very different from the Messiah God had promised. The Samaritans expected a political and military leader who could deliver them from their problems, while the Messiah promised by God (Genesis 3:15) would deliver from sin. In a shocking revelation, Jesus declared Himself to the Samaritan woman as the promised Messiah (4:26).

After Jesus’ emphatic declaration to the woman, she “left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ‘Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’” (4:28-29) In response to the woman’s testimony, many from the city came to see if Jesus was really the Messiah (4:30).

Dear God, through Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman, You have given us an example of speaking with all people, regardless of nationality, regarding the salvation which has been offered to all through Jesus Christ. In love, may we confront their sin and point them to the forgiveness which has been freely given to all.