Living Water

The Samaritan Woman and the Background of John 4

You'll turn your Bibles with me, please, once again, to the Gospel of John, Chapter 4. Gospel of John, Chapter 4. Lord giving us direction and strength, we will continue our study through Papyrus 45. I mentioned earlier that we were sort of stretching the rules just a little bit, but I made the rules so it's okay.

There are only a small number of words on one small fragment from John, Chapter 4, and on the backside, John, Chapter 5, but that's good enough. We will be able to look at all of John 4 and all of John 5 as a result, as a part of our study through P45.

We began looking at John, Chapter 4, the story of the Samaritan woman. We already made some comments in regards to the background of the religious controversy that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans, a little bit about the history that took place.

I should note that there are, I ran across some sources this week that would dispute a couple of the items from my last presentation. For example, there were some that said that there were normal travel routes through Samaria for the Jews.

They referred to Josephus at this point. Now, whether that was the case in Jesus's day or had become a case later on, it's hard to say. There is also the very interesting fact that the phrase that we read last week, where the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans, it could be understood in that context.

When Jesus is talking with the woman about raising the water, the focus might be more upon the fact that they would not use the same instruments. They would not use the same things. In other words, if a Samaritan used a bucket to bring water up from the well, then a Jew would consider that to be unclean.

I did encounter some sources, for example, that indicated that the Samaritan woman was always considered to be unclean to the Jewish man. There are a lot of possibilities as to what we might call inter-religious tensions behind what is being said here.

I didn't mention last time, but I think we should. It is possible. We saw in John 9 -10 what seemed to be a purposeful contrast between the weak man, the man who was a beggar, the man who, from the powerful's perspective, was not blessed by God, the blind man, and his ability to have insight.

In chapter 10, we have the shepherds, who are supposed to be shepherds, but really aren't shepherds at all. They claim to have vision, but don't. There was a contrast in chapters 9 -10. Is it possible that we have a purposeful contrast on John's part in chapters 3 -4?

Here in chapter 4, you have the Samaritan woman, and in chapter 3, you have Nicodemus. You have someone who has power, someone who has training, someone who has religious authority, and yet, in essence, he is as clueless as a Samaritan woman who would have none of the advantages that he had.

So much so that he asks Jesus, do I have to enter into my mother's womb and be born a second time to understand what the new birth was all about? Could these be purposeful contrasts on John's part? Certainly writing at a later point in time, it does seem that John is the last of the Gospels to be written.

We can't prove that. It's theoretical. We don't know that, but the vast majority of folks, the vast majority of scholars would see it as the last to be written. Is it possible that knowing that these others exist, John is able to draw from his intimate knowledge of Jesus' conversations, especially in chapters 3 and 4, where these are private conversations.

The disciples aren't there when Jesus is talking with Nicodemus. They're not there when he's talking with the woman at the well either. In fact, as to number of words and number of exchanges back and forth, this is probably one of the longest conversations that Jesus has with someone recorded for us in Scripture.

It's a Samaritan woman, which in and of itself I think is highly significant. But we see in these just how, to use a modern term that I'm not sure is overly acceptable, but how politically incorrect Jesus indeed could be.

Not incorrect as to God's law, but incorrect as to misapprehensions of God's law that could become codified in the traditions of men. Some of the background that we shared last time, just some comments about that.

Jesus and the Woman at the Well

But we had gotten to the point in the discussion where we had seen the woman coming out to the well. It was said to be the sixth hour. We talked about the fact that that would be dependent on whether you're looking at Jewish time or Roman time.

It was probably around noon. There's nobody else around. There's no indication that this conversation had to be done secretly and away from the crowds that were there. And many have observed that in all probability this would not be the time, noon time, would not be the time when you would want to be coming out to get water at the well, that you would do that.

At least it was a desert climb like here. So if you can imagine what it's like at noon when the sun is directly overhead. I remember once I was at the office and I had forgotten that I had made an appointment with a plumber at the house who had a leak in one of the outside things.

And I forgot all about it. It was back when I had a motorcycle and it was in July. It had been over 110 for like four or five days in a row. And the last thing you want to do is ride a motorcycle at noon in Phoenix when it may be, I think that day was 114, so okay, 114 air temperature.

But as you well know, standing on, if you have to stop at a stoplight, standing on the asphalt, it's not 114 degrees. It's much hotter than that. And you put a, I think it was an 800cc engine rumbling right there and you're above that.

It was, it hurt. It absolutely hurt to breathe the air. It hurt to feel the sun on your skin. That's not a good time to be out and that's not when people would generally go to get water to fill their pots to take into their homes for cooking or for drinking or anything like that.

They would do that in the mornings and the evenings. So here comes a woman and she's coming at a time that many people have read into a particular meaning and that is she's doing this because this was the best time for her to do this.

Because as we know, there are going to be things revealed about her that are not going to be overly favorable. When the man that she currently has is like number five in a line and that would probably mean that amongst the women of the city that she has a reputation.

And it's not a good reputation and there's, she has been undoubtedly shunned by those that would normally be the individuals. You would see groups of women coming out rather than just a single woman. And so here comes this woman and so she has everything against her as far as the world is concerned and as far as finding anything in this Jewish man sitting there at this well.

She is a social outcast amongst her people. She is of the wrong religion and she is a woman. And so there is a lot that is going to be a problem here and Jesus overcomes all of these things. And so when Jesus says give me to drink, we already saw that there seems to be some surprise in the response of the woman.

Jews don't have anything to do, they're not going to be working together with Samaritans or possibly utilizing the same instruments as the Samaritans, whatever it might be. Jesus does not allow any of these man-made hindrances to get in the way and it's fascinating that he does not approach this situation in the way that many of us would.

And I'm not saying that we have to pretend to be like Jesus in the sense that we ignore the context in which we are living, ignore the language that we're speaking, all these other things. But what is fascinating is that despite all the things that are standing in the way, I mean it would be really easy for most of us to look at this situation and go, this isn't a good time.

This isn't a good time, I mean we're here alone and I'm a Jewish man and I'm a rabbi and she's a Samaritan woman and what are the disciples going to think? I mean at some point in this conversation, and we would imagine that the conversation went a little bit longer than what we have recorded here because you can read it in a matter of a couple of minutes pretty easily.

But let's say the conversation went on, because she does say later on, he told me everything I'd ever done. That's not, we don't have that recorded for us, so let's assume more was said, this is just a summary statement.

At some point, I've not been there, but my understanding is that the well is situated in such a way that you can see the city and you'd be able to see people approaching the well from a fairly decent distance.

So Jesus would have seen this woman coming long before she got to him and in the same way Jesus probably saw the disciples coming and they would have seen him at a distance and seen him in conversation with someone and as they drew closer, Peter is that a woman?

Is the rabbi talking to a local woman? I don't know, and so he probably would have seen them coming, would have known that they would have had questions. It would have been so easy to go, this isn't the right time, this isn't the right time.

Jesus doesn't bow to any of those pressures. Not only that, he refuses to get sidetracked in the religious controversies. He will address them, but always simply to get back to who he is. We can learn from that that one of the most powerful messages that we have to proclaim to anyone is one that we frequently forget.

That is, we very often get sidetracked into all sorts of side issues and maybe even good and appropriate moral issues of our day, but what people need to know is who Jesus is. You may think that if you're talking to someone in Western culture, in the United States, they know who Jesus is, but the fact of the matter is that's not the case.

They may think Jesus is a baby in a manger. They may think Jesus is just a religious figure upon a cross. The idea of his being Lord, his being the source of peace with God, him being the one, the only one who can bring you eternal life, who can be the one to bring the Holy Spirit into your life so that from within you will come streams of living water, all these things.

No, they're not aware of those things. They've probably been given false information about all of that. How are they going to know unless they have someone to tell them? Jesus enters directly into the conversation because when she asks, how are you supposed to?

She shows surprise. In fact, it's not the most auspicious start to the conversation. Again, we might be discouraged when you have someone respond to you in a negative way or maybe even in a snide fashion.

Jesus does not allow any of this to get in the way. He responds in verse 10 and speaks to her and says, if you had known, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who is speaking to you, give me to drink, you would have asked him and he would have given to you living water.

Now, it is very easy for us, once again, to miss some of the plays on words that John intends us to see because when we think of living water, well, we've heard of churches named Living Water Church or something like that.

We automatically make the spiritual application from the person will flow streams of living water. We're thinking about the spirit of God and things like that. You need to understand, this well was an unusual well because normally you would dig a well because you did not have running water conveniently nearby to utilize.

This was a well that was kept fresh by running water underground. So it was a well which would normally not be called living water. Living water was a common term amongst the people that referred to fresh running water.

We think that's the type of terminology we utilize because we each have to pay that bill each month to have our living water. At this time of the year, you can get in your shower, crank it all the way over to cold and still get hot in the process.

We all know how that works, right? Oh yeah, don't worry. We're going to have to start using the hot water again in a couple of months, but at least for now, we don't even have to. My hot water might be broken.

I don't know because I'm not using it at the moment. It's irrelevant, but we have that living water in the sense of running water. This was a modern convenience. Yeah, they did have it in Rome for a while, but it's a pretty much modern convenience.

There was a double meaning here. Give to you living water. Yeah, she'd understand living water in a What do you mean living water? But there is that extra, there's that spiritual meaning that he wants to be able to open up to her and to cause her to understand what it is that he is really discussing, what it is he is really talking about at this point.

She said to him, sir, and we don't need to necessarily read too much into her use of kurios here. She hasn't yet come to know who he is, and so it is a title of respect. You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.

Where then do you get that living water? She's thinking, as Nicodemus thought on a natural level, living water is better than still water. It is better than, it wouldn't be dead water, but living water as in running water.

He has nothing with him, so how could you give to her something that when you've just asked her to give you to drink? This seems confusing to her, but she recognizes that there is at least something to what he is saying because she says, you are not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle.

Now the Samaritans, the Samaritans have what's called the Samaritan Pentateuch, the books of Moses, but they did not have the rest of what we call the Tanakh, the Torah, the Nevi 'im, the Ketuvim, the Law, the Prophets, the Writings, and so they had a limited canon of scripture, but these stories would be part of what both of these communities would share together in common.

And so there is somewhat, possibly, in the background here, some level of argument, assumption of Jewish intentions and Jewish beliefs versus Samaritan, et cetera, et cetera, and a connection, the idea of connecting Jacob and his promises down to the Samaritans rather than to the Jews.

We'll talk a little bit more about that later on when the issue of where to worship God comes up. Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water, spreeing up to eternal life.

Now again, the words seem straightforward and easy for us, but that's because we've already read, well, we've read all of John, and even if we hadn't read all of John, if you've read the first three chapters and you've listened to the conversation with Nicodemus and the explanation that comes afterwards, you'd have a context that this woman does not have.

And so it's easy to, just as we had to be careful in listening to Mary and Martha, and they had much more light than this woman would have had, and yet still did not quite grasp what was being said. We have to recognize that these words, yes, we should get out of them all that we can.

They are rich with meaning, but at the same time, the response of confusion should be understandable to us. Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, and that's quite true. This was a given.

Every woman who brought that large pitcher, can you imagine if we have that wonderful water cooler in the next room? It's great. In fact, thinking of all this water, some of you right now are probably getting just a little bit thirsty.

And it is good water. And if you get there early enough, it's cold water. Oh yeah, you come in from that parking lot in that blinding Arizona heat. And it's wonderful to drink that cool, cold water, isn't it?

You're all saying, you've got ten minutes to finish this sermon. Or we're all getting up and leaving, and we're not going out the back door either. If you get here early, it's nice and cool, oh it's wonderful.

But you know what? If you didn't have the folks around here, you know, I used to have to do this, and we still do it. All of you have done it. Warren's done it so many times. He can do it with one finger.

I've seen him, he's so good at it, he can just do it without spilling a drop. It's amazing. But generally us poor folks, I've lived in a house over there. Didn't live there for long, but I was there once many, many moons ago.

I had hair and big glasses back then, and some of you can remember that. But you've got a job to do, because it's got to keep getting filled up. You've got to keep putting it. Can you imagine if you had to, if one of the jobs of the caretakers was to take that big pitcher of water, and twice a day you had to go walking up to, well up to the Circle K up at Camelback and 12th Street.

And you had to fill it up, and you put it on your shoulder, and you had to walk it back. That's what they had to do. And so they well knew the fact that you could drink fully of that water, but you know what?

You're going to have to do it again. You've got to fill that pitcher up, because this water doesn't satisfy forever. You're going to get thirsty again. And that happens to us. We drink of that nice cool water, and you know what?

By the time we leave, we want to have some more. Want to have some more. Of course, everyone who drinks this water will thirst again. Ma 'am, I'm not talking about this water. It doesn't mean he didn't want a drink of that water, because he had been walking probably for six hours this time, and he was tired, and he was thirsty.

And he wanted to drink water. But he wants her to go past that level, past what is obvious to her, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water, spreeing up to eternal life.

And so this, just like in John chapter 6, this is anticipating some of the categories that we're going to see elsewhere. Are you noticing, and I've emphasized this in Sunday school, emphasized it when we've preached from John chapter 6, John chapter 8, 10, 11.

John takes all these different threads, and he weaves them together so that in each story, a certain thread may be more or less prominent, but it's still there. It's a part of the fabric. It lends its particular beautiful color to the scene that is being woven at that time.

And here you have this idea of thirsting and the satisfaction of thirsting, and yet it is a spiritual thirst that is in view, and it can only be satisfied in one way, and that satisfaction comes through Christ.

He is the unique one who can provide that satisfaction, that water, but even then, and it's not as prominent as it's going to become in John 14 and 16, but we know when we talk about the water of life, and it becomes in him a well of water, spreeing up to eternal life, that what's going to come out in that later on is going to be the role of the Spirit who is sent by the Father and the Son as the means by which the Father and Son make their abode within believers.

You might think that I've just lost my balance on it, or maybe it's just that I can't express it with enough clarity, but there is a tremendous beauty, there is a tremendous satisfaction in seeing this character of Scripture where you see these truths woven together, and you see how John's take on it will play off against Paul's different way of expressing a same truth, and then you find James giving another hue of color to it.

The longer I teach and preach and study the Word of God, and I have to meet with so many people who are struggling with their faith in Scripture and their faith in the inspiration of the Word of God, we live in a culture that is absolutely toxic to Christian faith.

It's toxic to belief in the Word of God. I mean, it's like, you know, I was a biology major, which means I had to take things like organic chemistry, barely survived that, and stuff like that in college, and that means we had to play with acid.

And man, I'm going to tell you something, those were called labs, they were normally in the afternoons, they were frequently hours long, they were a little scary. I mean, you had to wear special protective stuff, and goggles, and sometimes face masks, and sometimes we were working with 12 molar HCL, anybody, does that mean anything, got some science folks out there, has nothing to do with teeth, by the way, just in case you're wondering, 12 molar has, no, nothing to do with that at all, but we're talking stuff that if you drop that on your skin, you're going to be in a world of hurt.

And you could drop that type of acid on something, and wow, explosive reactions, and just eating through incredibly strong materials, and stuff like that. Our culture is like 12 molar HCL acid against a continuing steady belief in the inspiration of scripture as God's speaking to us.

And I'm just simply saying to you that when we see things like this, to me, as someone who has to give answers all the time, someone who's been teaching and preaching this material for a number of decades now that deals with the text on a very deep level, standing back from it, yeah, it's important to get down into the words, into the grammar, and we're looking at manuscripts, for crying out loud, but when you step back and you see the color that is given to a truth in Hebrews, and how it complements what you see in Paul, and then you find it in John, and this beautiful fabric, and the consistency that's there, because so much of the argumentation against the inspiration of scripture, well, it's just not consistent in itself, and it contradicts itself over here, it contradicts itself over there, and it's such a shallow argument, but very few ever enter into the text deeply enough to really see, it's just beautiful, it truly is, and I guess it's just a personal thing, but when people ask, well, in light of all that you've heard, and the constant attacks and stuff, what helps to sustain your faith?

It is seeing the beauty of the consistency of scripture itself, it truly, truly is, and maybe words just aren't sufficient to express it, but when I see things like this, I bring them up, as you well know, and attempt to encourage you along those lines, and so we see in these words, this water that I will give him will become in him a well of water spreeing up to eternal life, so he's the source of eternal life, this is going to be connected later on with the work of the Holy Spirit in a person's life, could this woman have understood any of this at this point, that's, obviously, Jesus is giving to her tremendous light, this is probably a summary, there is probably more explanation provided, at least, if not at this point, at a point later on, because we're not given a whole lot of information about what happens after this, other than a revival breaks out amongst the Samaritans, which is a wonderful thing.

The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw. So once again, we are tempted to go, oh, come on, lady, don't you get what he's getting at here, but we can't do that.

It is not Jesus's intention that upon her hearing two sentences, she's going to abandon all of her prejudices and all of her darkness that she has lived in, and come to a full understanding instantaneously, but the sort of dismissive language that she's used earlier is no longer there.

She says, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw. It was probably quite the hike, and it would be bad enough with the empty jar coming out, it probably was a real bummer with the full jar going back, it seemed much longer, though it would be downhill, which would be a little bit easier at that particular point in time.

Jesus knows what needs to be dealt with, and so he says to her, go, call your husband and come here. Now it's real easy for us to say, ah, he's just trying to bring out, and he is trying to bring out what needs to be said, but it was a natural statement.

It was a natural statement. What was unnatural was the conversation beforehand. This would be a natural thing. We've established somewhat of a conversation here, so it would be best for you to bring your husband and come here.

But of course, Jesus knows more than that. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Well, that was only partially true, because Jesus says to her, you have correctly said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband.

This you have said truly. Now clearly we have here prophetic knowledge, divine understanding of what this woman's life has been, and this would not be the life of a harlot. She wouldn't be doing very well in that business if this were the case.

This is the life of a woman who seemingly makes really bad decisions over and over and over and over again, but not in the sense, she's not identified as a harlot, as one who is actually seeking to make money through prostitution.

Instead, this is why the other women in the village stay away from her. It would be obvious if she were a harlot. But in this situation, you have someone who clearly engages in sexual immorality, but looking for a relationship, and yet not finding that relationship, moving from one individual to another.

And obviously the other women in the, it's not that big of a city, are going to find a woman like that, because they know, they may not know how many, and in fact, it may be that she thought she had hidden from others how many men she had been with in this way.

But he knows, and he knows exactly, and she knows that he knows exactly. And that may be how she can say later on, everything I've done, he knew, he knew everything I've done. Because if you have accurate knowledge of something that intensely personal, that may have communicated to her, this idea, that he had full knowledge of everything.

It is fascinating that Jesus takes this approach, because the vast majority of modern wisdom would be, don't go there for anything. Don't touch this subject with a ten foot pole. In our day, sexual satisfaction and sexual liberty is the greatest good of mankind.

Nothing can be allowed to limit that. That is, I mean, we are seeing this now, just this past week, did we not see in yet another situation where on the highest levels of government, we have those on the left, and I have given off, by the way, I no longer call them liberals.

That's what I grew up with. That's not an appropriate term. Liberals actually think that you should have the right to believe things other than what they do. These are leftists, these are totalitarians, and these are individuals who are applying religious tests, saying, basically, that if you do not hold to their worldview, that you should not be allowed to serve in public, and what is frequently coming up here is this idea that you must affirm that the ultimate human freedom is unbridled sexual satisfaction of any kind.

There are still a few areas where it's like, but we know that logically and rationally, there's really no longer any basis. The world's understanding of man as a mere animal cannot provide any type of objective moral basis for saying, that's right, this is wrong, we as human beings create an image of God, are supposed to be able to control these things and channel these things, and there's good here, and the good is due to this, that, and the other thing.

It's like, no, since it's all focused upon me, and since there is no God that determines any type of reality, then I as an individual get to determine what pleases me, and what pleases me, that I get to do, and if you dare deny that, you're filled with hate, you're a bigot, and you should be silenced, and your internet programs should be shut down, and your access should be shut down, and eventually you should be re-educated forcefully.

We've seen this before, and fortunately it wasn't all that long ago in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, but people's historical knowledge is extremely short. Jesus goes directly to the reality that if this woman does in fact at least have exposure to God's law as it was explained in the books of Moses, then she knows.

She knows that what she's doing and how she is living is in opposition to God's truth, and this was not a magic trick on Jesus' part. This wasn't just a little trick to get her attention. It got her attention, but you'll notice, and we're not going to get to it today, but you'll notice in her response, all it does, it gets her attention and gets her into a religious debate mode.

But it does, she wants to debate where we should worship, because that was a major issue, and it may, as we'll discuss this evening, that may have been a defense mechanism. Believe it or not, people have actually used religion as a defense mechanism against conviction for sin.

Not the first time. Not the first time, happens a lot. But Jesus isn't doing this as some type of a magic trick. When he presents himself to people as the source of eternal life, have you noticed something?

Here in John chapter 4, he says, I can give you water that springs up to eternal life, but let's talk about your sin. John chapter 8. What happens in John chapter 8? The people hear Jesus arguing with the Pharisees, and they, that guy sounds pretty smart.

He's got some incredible claims and words about himself. I think I'm going to believe in him. What does Jesus do? If you continue my word, then you're my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Set me free? I'm offended. How dare you say I need to be set free? In none of these instances, you get to John chapter 6. What does he do in John chapter 6? No one can believe in me unless the Father sent me draws him, I'll raise him up on the last day.

Why? We can't, we don't have that autonomous power in and of ourselves? Each time, Jesus does what modern theological education tells you not to do. He goes ahead and he addresses that stumbling block, that issue of sin and the need of repentance.

Oh, he doesn't necessarily use the term. In fact, the term repentance isn't one of John's favorite words, but the concept is plainly there. Concept is plainly there. That's what he's calling for. And he's exposing sin.

If you want to, there's so many people, I like these words about eternal life, that's nice. But you have to cut out the rest of what Jesus says to avoid the fact that he then says eternal life, yes, important, let's talk about your sin.

Let's talk about your sin. And so, Jesus is direct with the woman. He exposes the fact that she is living in a way that she knows before God. It's not just because the women in the society reject her.

She knows there's a reason why they do. She knows in her heart she is not living right before God. There are many people in our day, they like the parts of the gospel where Jesus talks about eternal life and never thirsting again and never hungering again.

But those words are always addressed to those who recognize that that thirsting and that hungering is not just the satisfaction of my desires. This thirsting and this hungering is a desire for God's way, God's righteousness, God's truth.

So, many today want Jesus to satisfy in the way they've been taught by society, I'm the most important thing in the world, fulfill my needs. Jesus isn't a self-needs fulfiller. The water that he provides, the food that leads to eternal life is for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Not for those who hunger and thirst for self-satisfaction. And we do not help anyone when we present that wimpy Jesus who is defined by our desires rather than the Jesus of scripture. That is the Lord who calls us to recognize who he is.

We will see this evening, Lord willing, how the woman tries to deflect what he says and how Jesus turns that around and how eventually she accepts that conviction and what the Lord does as we continue looking at John chapter 4.

Let's pray together. Our gracious heavenly Father, we do thank you once again for these words and we thank you for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who spoke to this woman and gives to us wisdom and insight as to how we should address the world today.

Lord, we know that the context and situation of the ancient world was different than today but mankind hasn't changed. And the need of knowing who Jesus is has not changed either. Lord, help us to understand your truth.

Help us to make application. Give us opportunity to speak your truth to a dying world around us even this coming week. We pray in Christ's name, amen.