Jesus And The Samaritan Woman
JESUS AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN
JOHN 4:1-15
Jesus continues with us until we are prepared to stop running away and meet him face to face.
Jesus was anxious not to provoke a major clash with the Pharisees until “his hour had come.” He therefore left Judea to which he had made his challenge (almost “left it to its fate”) and went back to Galilee. Geographical necessity took him through Samaria, for this was the shortest route home, though Galilean pilgrims often took a long way round to avoid it. But, as so often in the life of Jesus, the action of divine providence could be seen also, for it gave him the opportunity to present to the sectarian Samaritans the true way to worship God. In his own human weariness and thirst he was able to offer them true satisfaction of all their needs.
The story illustrates, vividly and at some length, the way in which Jesus dealt with individuals (cf. also 9:1-41; 11:1-44). It has often been used as a pattern for personal evangelism. (For a fine exposition see Temple, Readings in St. John’s Gospel, ad loc.). Jesus meets a Samaritan woman on the level of felt and shared human need. He begins by asking her a favor, which caused considerable surprise. There was a barrier of race and of sex which would normally have prevented anything but a superior and scornful attitude by a Jewish rabbi to a Samaritan woman who may have been an outcast in her own community. The manner of our approach to others reveals how much we care for them as people.
The surprising thing did not, however, lie in this encounter but in the fact of his identity and the spiritual offer which he was making. But talk of living water is understood by her on the level (cf. 6:52; see also Jeremiah 2:13; Zechariah 14:8; Ezekiel 47:9). How can a tired stranger be greater than Jacob the ancestor of the race (cf. Abraham in 8:53)?
Jesus had to open up a completely new dimension. The rabbis sometimes used “water” as a figure of the Law, sometimes of the Spirit. Jesus speaks of the water of eternal life which satisfies people at the deepest spiritual level (6:35; 7:37f.).
Notes 4:5: “Sychar”—probably modern Ashar near Mount Ebal. “Jacob’s well” may still be seen. 4:9: probably read with NEB: “Jews and Samaritans, it should be noted, do not use vessels in common.”
Testimony
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold I freely give
The living water—thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in him.
Prayer “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst.”