3.8.2020 John 4:5-26 - Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
Come and Taste what the Water of Life Can Do!
Today’s Gospel lesson takes us on a small and individual mission of Jesus in Samaria. He was heading from Judea back to Galilee, to try and get away from the Pharisees for a while. But instead of going around Samaria, which most Jews tended to do, Jesus went through it. Verse 4 says that Jesus “had to go” there. John doesn’t say why the necessity, but I would venture to say that His desire to save this adulterous woman drove him to be at Jacob’s well at this certain time. He planned this meeting. They may have hustled to get there, and it tired him out.
It makes you think about how organized Jesus was in planning out His ministry, and how much control He really had over it all. Think of the way He had them obtain the donkey at Jesus’ triumphal entry. Jesus knew where they needed to go and who they needed to talk with. He knew what they would find and where they would find it. When they needed money to pay taxes, Jesus told them to go fishing and open the mouth of the first fish they caught - it would have a coin inside its mouth. Life seems like “time” and “chance,” but God always has a plan through it all. He works through all of the chaos, and wants everyone to be saved. He wanted this woman to be saved. He wants you to be saved too. You are a part of His mission.
It’s an amazing thing that Jesus made a special journey for this woman. She wouldn’t seem to be the best of prospects to go out of your way for. It was like she wanted to get in an argument, especially about religion, and she had her own ideas about what was right. She wanted to argue with Jesus about where they worshiped and who had the most authentic sites to worship on. She didn’t really care for the Jews, because she thought they were a bunch of snobs (and she was partly right on that one). She also had lived a very adulterous lifestyle, having been married and divorced multiple times and then living with a man who was not her husband either, so she was living in an adulterous relationship. Looking at this woman most people might think, “How could anyone get through to her? Who would want to?” Well, Jesus did.
This shows us God’s zeal and God’s love, His wisdom and His grace. There are always people that want to argue religion. They want to attack Christianity too, because of all of the hypocrisy out there, and maybe because of their own guilt or ignorance. They have a chip on their shoulders and they aren’t very pleasant to talk with. But that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want them. Shouldn’t we too? We shouldn’t necessarily just write them off because they are angry or contentious.
Jesus shocked her just by initiating a conversation with her. It wasn’t normal for Jews to speak to Samaritans, and men didn’t usually address women in their culture. But Jesus didn’t care about that. He wanted to save this woman. He just needed to find the right place to talk with her. This was the place. She was alone. They were both in need of water. He would try to use HIS need to fill HER need. What’s the worst thing that could happen? She would still be on the way to hell if Jesus said nothing and tried nothing.
If you can just get people to sit down and talk for awhile, sometimes you can get in these meaningful conversations with them. It starts with a smile, a “hi”, or an honest question. Ask them something. Have a coffee. Grab a bite to eat. Go out for a drink. Take some time to talk with people. If they’ve given up on church or religion, find out why. It doesn’t hurt to get in a conversation and find out where they’re at. You never know who God set you up to talk with ahead of time. I’m preaching this to myself as well. I don’t stop to talk with them as often as I could or should.
Jesus and the Samaritan woman were at Jacob’s well, one that was hundreds of years old. The Samaritans had some great historic sites in northern Israel. They had the original sites where the temple was before it moved to Jerusalem. They also had the two mountains where God pronounced blessings and curses after the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land. Who was to say that they couldn’t worship God in northern Israel, even though they didn’t have the Temple?
Jesus had something to say about that. He agreed that location was that important. Then He also said,
You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Notice how Jesus puts spirit and truth together. You can’t have the spirit of what God is saying to you without the truth. Jesus wasn’t being arrogant, but He said that the Jews worshiped what they know. They weren’t working on conjecture. They weren’t revolving their religion purely around historic sites. They were working and speaking from the divinely inspired Word of God. And here is what gave the Jews the ultimate advantage, SALVATION would come from the Jews. This is what all of revelation is about - pointing you to salvation - not to what mountain you have to worship on. As much as the woman wanted to hate on the Jews, they still had the truth and they still would have the Savior come through them.
Might you compare this to the arguments about religion today? Muslim or Christian? Eastern or Western? Catholic or Lutheran? High church or low church? WELS or Missouri? Big church or small? You have those who are leery of organized religion because they’ve been burned or lied to or hurt by the church. So they want to get in an argument when you mention religion. They want to focus on so many of the peripherals of religion. They want to mention all of the problems with church. They want to divorce from all of it and say, “I can worship God in the woods. I don’t need a church to be saved.” Yet you have to wonder, “How much of the actual Bible have they read? How much do they really know?” We don’t have to be arrogant about it. Yet when you KNOW what the Bible says, you don’t have to be embarrassed about it or quiet about it either.
Jesus cuts through all of the arguments and says, “we have the truth.” It wasn’t arrogant for him to make a distinction between the Samaritan religion and the Jewish religion. One had the truth and one didn’t. There is a definite truth. The purpose of the truth is to lead us to the One who saves us from the Liar: from Satan the father of lies. There is right and there is wrong. There are differences in religion and in denominations. There are some good reasons why we are separate from the Methodists, the Muslims, the Catholics and so many more. As much as some would want to overlook the differences, sometimes the differences matter because salvation is at stake. It matters how I view the Bible, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. These are things that contain Jesus: they convey to me my salvation. If you undermine those, you undermine salvation. That’s what Jesus was saying to this woman in a firm and yet loving way. “Don’t get wrapped up in the location. I’m not talking about how to get a free and easy meal here. There’s a distinction here. We are dealing with divine revelation here. We are dealing with salvation.”
If we don’t have a divine place to start from: a healthy respect and honor for the revealed will of God in the Word of God, how can we get anywhere? If God’s Word is nothing more than the opinion of men who were only writing on the whims of their culture, then what good is it? No. This is divine truth, revealed by God for all times and all people to live and learn from: to save the world from sin and death and the devil. This is the truth. We have to start here if we want to get anywhere.
And we also need to realize where we want to go with the conversation. We can’t just live and let live, because without repentance and faith in Jesus people will end up in hell. It’s worth the risk of getting in a conversation about religion, as contentious as it may be, when souls are at stake. We aren’t here just to agree with everyone. We don’t want everyone to like us. Nor are we here just to argue how one synod or denomination is better than another, or to pick apart every little thing about every religion. We simply want each and every person to see their own sin and their own need for a Savior from sin and death and hell, no matter what they claim to be or know. Sooner or later there must be a call to repentance, just as Jesus did with the woman in His own miraculous way.
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” I can’t read her heart, but it seems like she was saying, “Let’s just forget about it. Nobody really knows what is the truth. We will have to wait for someone greater than us to reveal it to us: we will need the Messiah to straighten out this mess.” And I find it interesting that up here in the north, in Samaria, they had a different view of the Messiah than the Jews did. Many of the Jews of Jesus’ day wanted the Messiah to save them from the Roman government. This woman had some sort of a faith in the Messiah to come. The Samaritans wanted the Messiah to be their TEACHER! They looked more to the PROPHETICAL side of the Messiah, where the Jews looked more to the KING in the Messiah. But neither of them really seemed to see the PRIEST of the Messiah - the One who would sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world.
Here Jesus gets to the heart of revelation. He wouldn’t let her get by with the “Nobody really knows” brush off. He wouldn’t let her smile and wave. She had to see the truth right then and there. “I who speak to you am he.” In the Greek the first thing He says is, “Ego eimi.” I am, the One speaking to you. This is the same word that God uses for Himself in the Old Testament, “I AM.” This is why Jesus came to the well that day, to reveal to this woman who her Messiah was, and to point her to HIMSELF as the Savior of the world.
Isn’t this what God wants us to do as well? He wants us to show people Jesus. Religion has rules and regulations. We have do’s and don’ts. We have rights and wrongs. There are plenty of differences between us and Catholics and Muslims and Mormons and every other religion in the world. But instead of getting in an argument about religion and rules and regulations, people need to see Jesus as their Messiah through it all. If their religion can’t or doesn’t show them Jesus, then there is a problem. He came to save us from our sins. If I don’t see Jesus here and find Jesus here, then how will I ever see the need to reach out to anyone?
This woman would have never been shown her sins or her Savior if Jesus hadn’t come to her. He was persistent with her. When she tried to sidetrack Him, He wouldn’t allow it. He explained to her, in a Messianic and persistent way, that He was the One. This was why Jesus went on this specific mission, to save this specific adulterous woman by the well: to call her to repentance and faith in Him. He wanted her to see that HE was the ONE, so that she could find peace and salvation in Him. He used a simple thing like water to give her free and living water in Himself. His mission was accomplished.
The Samaritan woman, who was caught in an adulterous relationship, ended up being a great missionary for Jesus on that day. She went to her fellow townspeople and told them all about Jesus, inviting them to come. She was as Jesus said. “Whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again. Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life.” She became full of life and excitement over what Jesus had done for her.
Think of what God did for Abram in the Old Testament lesson. He turned him from a hopeless old 75 year old into a hopeful patriarch and father of many nations. He changed Abram’s status and stature with His promises! Hasn’t God done the same with you? Hasn’t He persistently stuck with you, spoke to you, comforted you, forgiven you, and promised you salvation? We have those same promises of life and forgiveness and salvation in Jesus, the offspring of Abram.
Do you think you could be more persistent? More mission minded with people? Do you have a plan on how to share Jesus with people who don’t know Him? Do you know someone that you think would never make a good member of a church? Make a point of it to talk to THAT one. See what happens. You never know what the Gospel will do for someone.
Think of it. If you had the Holy Grail, a cup that someone could drink from to keep them alive forever on this earth, people might think this to be the greatest gift of all! But Jesus opens His mouth and says, “I am greater! I will give eternal life and salvation to all who drink of me!”
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. (Re 22:17) Amen.
