John 4a: Jesus and the woman from Samaria
Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman
John 4
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptising more disciples than John
2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptised, but his disciples.
3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria.
5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’
8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[1])
10 Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’
11 ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?’
13 Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’
15 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’
16 He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’
17 ‘I have no husband,’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband.
18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.’
19 ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet.
20 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’
21 ‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.
24 God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’
25 The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’
26 Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you – I am he.’
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no-one asked, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
29 ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?’
30 They came out of the town and made their way towards him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’
32 But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you know nothing about.’
33 Then his disciples said to each other, ‘Could someone have brought him food?’
34 ‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
35 Don’t you have a saying, “It’s still four months until harvest”? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
37 Thus the saying “One sows and another reaps” is true.
38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.’
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I’ve ever done.’
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.
41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’
Hello everyone, I am kiki. Chinese name of our second phase of the program is “读经大讲堂”. The English name is “Bible study”.
We will adopt a relaxed also enjoyable learning mode to take you into a new learning world. Each time I will make a personal summary and analysis from the perspective of a learner, and then Sister Ingrid will help me conduct in-depth learning and problem discussions with everybody.
I hope that such an interesting and interactive process can bring new knowledge experience to you all. The following is my interview with my sister on related issues. Today is the seventh lecture on the Gospel of John 。Everyone is welcome to leave a message in the comment area for discussion!
My summary of John seventh time study:
This paragraph from sister shared with me is about Jesus, who was tired from his journey and sat down by a well in the town of Sychar in Samaria.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus asked her for a drink. The woman was surprised because Jews do not associate with Samaritans .
Jesus told her that if she knew the gift of God and who it was that asks her for a drink, she would have asked him and he would have given her living water.
That woman did not understand what Jesus meant by living water, so Jesus explained that everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water he gives them will never thirst.
Indeed, the water he gives them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
So she wanted this living water and wouldn’t have to keep coming back to the well to draw water.
Jesus told her to go call her husband also come back.
She replied that she had no husband, and Jesus told her that she was right when she said she had no husband.
He then revealed that she had five husbands, and the man she now had was not her husband.
And she also realized that Jesus was a prophet and brought up the topic of worship.
She noted that their ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but the Jews claimed that the place where they must worship was in Jerusalem.
Jesus replied that a time is coming when true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.
Just then, Jesus’ disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman.
Meanwhile, she left her water jar and went back to the town, telling the people there that she had met a man who told her everything she had ever done.
Many of the Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony.
When the Samaritans came to Jesus, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.
Because of his words, many more people became believers.
They said to that woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.”
Now let Ingrid Sister make a summary of my Bible study.
Sister’s comment from my studying summary:
Sister, you wrote a very good summary of this bible text, there is nothing to add. You illustrated the story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria very well in our summary.
Question list based on John 4 items:
Okay.Base on above bible study content, now let me ask sister some related questions.
Sister，How did the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well challenge social norms of that time?
Were people from different clans not allowed to contact each other at that time?
First of all, men did not talk to women they did not know or who did not belong to their family.
The second social law Jesus broke was talking to a person from Samaria. The jewish people hated the Samarians because of their history with them.
Origninally there were 12 jewish tribes which lived in the promised land. But because of the unfaithfullness and idolatry of Salomon, the kingdom was divided in two parts, the nothern part and the southern one.
In the kingdom of the south, there were good and bad kings, in the nothern only bad ones.
So the southern kingdom was punished by being 70 years slaves in Babylon and they returned and build the temple and Jerusalem up again, the nothern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians and they never came back again.
The Assyrians brought strange people to this land to live in and they had problems there. So they noticed, that they had to worship the God of Israel to be able to stay there.
At the end they had a mixed religions and the Jewish hated them for living in the other part which belonged in the origin to Israel too.
What significance does Jesus’ offer of “living water” hold in the context of his conversation with the Samaritan woman?
It was obvious, that that woman was looking for fullfillness in her live in having relationship with a man. But if we look for our happiness in another person, the relationship is very fragile and easy to break up, because it is too much for the other person, when he or she has to give you what you don t find in yourself.
The living water, that Jesus offers is something for our soul. That our soul is calm and well feeded with the peace of God and does not longer thirst after having relationship with others or taking other things that the devil offer us to calm the thirst in our soul.
Our soul is created to have fellowship with God and if we don t have this fellowship with him, we always feel, that there is missing something and everyone of us has his own strategy where to look for it, but outside of God and Jesus who offers the living water as a solution of this thirst, we will never find.
How did Jesus address the woman’s personal history in a way that led her to recognize him as a prophet?
She was surprised, because Jesus knew about all her past. Certainly he touched one point that she felt a lot of shame about, but he did not fingerpoint her, he offered to solve the problem.
I once mentioned that my colleague believed that Jesus as a prophet had told him that he needed to quit his job and become a pastor.
Does Jesus think that each of us should give up our lives and serve Him wholeheartedly?
We all shall serve the Lord Jesus and it is not always necessary to have a ministry. We already serve him, by praying, by worshipping and by spending time with him.
But in the gran commission Jesus gave us the work, to go out in all the world to all nation, to teach them, baptize them and to make diciples.
So we shall evangelize according of the commandment of the Lord, but it is not always necessary to give up the job, you can serve the Lord where you are.
But some people hear the voice of God, that they shall be a pastor and serve in a full-time-ministry. And that is important, too. If they would not obey, we would not have pastors.
What message did Jesus convey to his disciples through his response about food and the harvest when they urged him to eat?
When the disiples came back, they wanted Jesus to eat, because they knew that he is tired and hungry.
But Jesus had a priority: He first wanted to terminate the conversation with the woman and the people of Samaria, which was the will of his father.
Personal needs as eating were his second priority.
How did the Samaritans in the town come to believe in Jesus based on the initial encounter with the woman at the well?
She told them, that he knew all about her. Certainly she was because of her lifestyle a well known person in the town.
So the people were surprised, that Jesus knew all about her but talked with her anyway and there must have been very much joy in her face because she left the jar at the well, so people became curious about knowing this Jesus who changed her life.
What does the response of the Samaritans who came to Jesus after hearing the woman’s testimony reveal about the power of personal testimony in spreading faith?
We can talk a lot about scripture and religious doctrines as the woman at the well wanted to do when she asked about the place of worship.
But when lives has changed through the power of Jesus, when sad and burdened persons become joyful and happy again and see a meaning in their life, we see, that there is more than scripture, there is life.
How did Jesus’ actions and words during his time with the Samaritans demonstrate his role as the “Saviour of the world” as mentioned by the people of the town?
First the people were curious about Jesus, because the woman told about him.
But when Jesus stayed with them two days and talked with them, they knew by their own experience, that he is the Messiah.
When we believe in Jesus, we always shall meet Jesus personally in prayer and bible reading. When we get it from a third person, it can be, that the message is not correct .
Today Jesus is not on earth, but he is at the right hand of the father in heaven and we can always go to him and pray for leading and understanding, when we take the Bible in our hands and search for revelation.
