About Jesus - The Woman At the Well - August 29, 2021

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About Jesus - The Woman At the Well - August 29, 2021

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John 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, 2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) 3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. 4 And he must needs go through Samaria. 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? 28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. 31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. 32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? 34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his own word; 42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
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In response to the request of Jesus for a drink of water, the woman at the well showed her astonishment with her words “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” The conversation between Jesus and this woman is better understood in the context of some history.

After the death of Solomon in the tenth century B.C, the kingdom of Israel was divided. The northern kingdom continued to be known as Israel while the southern kingdom (the territory of which included Jerusalem) was largely of the tribe of Judah so was called Judah. There doesn’t seem to be any reference to members of the tribe of Judah as “Jews” until after the division of the kingdom but the book of Esther uses that word to describe them.

The Samaritans were related to the Israelites and lived in the southern part of the northern kingdom. When the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in the eighth century B.C, many of the citizens of the northern kingdom were taken captive and resettled in lands to the north and east but the Samaritans continued to live in the area around Shechem and Mt. Gerizim (north of the area that came to be known as Judah/Judea).

In the sixth century B.C, the southern kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians and many of its citizens taken captive to Babylon. In 539 B.C, King Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and, in 539 B.C, the Persian king, Cyrus the Great, conquered Babylon. Subsequently, the Persians not only allowed the citizens of Judah to return to their homeland but the Persians provided funds for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. The Samaritans asked to help rebuild the temple but were refused. The Samaritans built a temple on Mt. Gerizim (it was destroyed by John Hyrcanus in the second century B.C.) but the refusal to let them help rebuild the temple at Jerusalem generated significant animosity between the Samaritans and the citizens of Judah, an animosity that continued until the conversation between Jesus and the woman at Jacob’s well. (See Ezra 4:1-3 and article “Samaritan” in Encyclopaedia Britannica.)

The Samaritans worshipped the God of Moses and subscribed to the instruction he had given through Moses but they had rejected the writings of the later Hebrew prophets and their religious practices had been corrupted by idolatry.

The Babylonian captivity had cured the citizens of Judah of their idolatry but they clung to the idea that their physical ancestry and their zealous religiosity gave them prior claim to God’s favor.

The woman at the well attempted to discuss with Jesus which of these religious systems was correct. She was undoubtedly acquainted with the prophecy by Moses as recorded in Deuteronomy 18:15 - “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;”

While making reference to the prophecy that the Messiah was to be of the lineage of Israel (Jacob), Jesus attempted to lift the woman’s thoughts above questions of ceremony and religious controversy. He replied “ But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

The woman said “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.”

Jesus responded “I that speak unto thee am he.”

With the exception of his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus had not spoken this plainly to members of the Sanhedrin. Their pride of station and religious observance prevented them from being able to understand the profound truth he now revealed to the woman at the well.

The woman was in such a hurry to tell others who Jesus was that she forgot to draw water for him and even forgot to take her waterpot with her. When she got to the nearby town, she told everyone she could “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”

Meanwhile, the disciples of Jesus returned to the well with the food they had purchased. Jesus said “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” As the people appeared with the woman on their way to the well, Jesus continued his lesson to his disciples. “And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.”

Many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified “He told me all that ever I did.” So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

The Pharisees were looking for a messiah as arrogant as themselves who would benefit themselves, even at the expense of the people they despised as idolaters.

By their words, the Samaritans demonstrated that they were looking for a Messiah to benefit the whole world. The Lord had promised Abraham “...in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;” Genesis 22:18. In his final words to his sons, Israel (Jacob) had referred to the Messiah. “...unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” (Genesis 49:10)

His mingling with the Samaritans was one of many ways that Jesus disregarded the customs of the Levites - the Pharisees in particular - but it was one of the ways Jesus taught his disciples to treat with kindness and sympathy every child of God - even people who were despised by their own countrymen.