John 4:1-42

Read John 4:1-42 The Samaritan woman at the well

Verses 1-4

The first 3 verses tell us that Jesus left Judea, the region in the south that includes Jerusalem, and returned to Galilee, which is in the north.  The most direct way to walk from Judea to Galilee was through Samaria.  Jews who were particularly scrupulous about ritual purity might take a much longer route around Samaria to the east along the Jordan River, to avoid having to interact with the Samaritans.  But the Jewish Roman historian Josephus tells us that “it was the custom of the Galileans, when they came to the holy city [i.e., Jerusalem] at the festivals, to take their journeys through the country of the Samaritans” (Josephus, Book 20, Chapter 6, par. 1).  Jesus also traveled through Samaria in Luke 9:52-56 and 17:11-19 as well as here in John.

Verse 4 says that it was “necessary” for Jesus to pass through Samaria.  Perhaps this was “necessary” in the missionary sense that he needed to go there for this event to happen.

When the Assyrian Empire conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 or 721 BC, Assyria did what it did routinely in other lands: it took a large portion of the population captive (the wealthy, leaders, etc.), exiled them to other parts of the Empire, and replaced them with people from other lands.  The Israelites who remained eventually intermarried with the foreigners who were placed there.  Samaria had been the capital of the Northern Kingdom, and these people became known as the Samaritans.  The Jewish people who survived the later destruction of the southern kingdom of Judah were not subjected to such an intermingling.  They despised the Samaritans and called them “half-Jews.”

Jesus comes to Sychar, possibly the Old Testament city of Shechem, near Mt. Gerizim, where Jacob’s well was traditionally believed to have been.

Look at verses 5-10.

How is Jesus feeling as the story begins?

Jesus asks the woman for a drink.  Jewish men who were scrupulous about ritual purity would not have wanted something touched by a Samaritan woman.  Why do you think Jesus asks her for a drink?

In hindsight, we can see that she was the reason he was there.  He was not uncomfortable interacting with a foreign woman or a sinner.  He was not exclusionary and did not bind himself to Jewish purity laws.

The woman knows how extraordinary it is for a Jewish man to be willing to accept water from a Samaritan woman, and she says so in verse 9.  How does Jesus respond in verse 10?

Jesus gives her only a little bit of information – almost a teaser – and implies that she should seek more knowledge.  He is not forcing anything on her; he is inviting her to ask if she wants to know more.  How could we use that approach in cross-cultural or interreligious conversations?

What does Jesus mean by “living water” in verse 10?

The living water that is a “gift from God” could symbolize many things but is in particular the Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift of himself to us.

What does the woman think Jesus means by “living water”?

Living water would more commonly be associated with flowing water such as from a river, which is better than the stagnant water in a well.

Verses 11-15

The woman challenges Jesus: How can you get living water without a bucket?  She then makes an interesting shift in the conversation in verse 12, saying, “Are you greater than our father Jacob?  She has moved the conversation to a slightly “religious” topic, implying that Jesus can’t be greater than Jacob – the cherished ancestor of the Samaritans.  How does Jesus answer in verse 14?

John has already implied that Jesus is greater than Jacob back in John 1:51, where Jesus is presented as the ladder by which the angels ascend and descend between heaven and earth as symbolized in a dream Jacob had.  How does what Jesus says in verses 13-14 establish unequivocally that he is greater than Jacob?

What do you think Jesus means when he says that when people drink the water he gives, they will “never thirst” (verse 14)?  I’m a believer and I get thirsty ever hour.  What does Jesus mean?

What do you think Jesus means when he says that the water he gives will be “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (verse 14)?

Until verse 14, the woman has been confrontational, trying to maintain control of the conversation and not be drawn in.  But Jesus keeps saying things that put her off-balance.  She finally lets down her guard and shows her vulnerability in verse 15.  What does she say?

We also need to be honest and admit our need as a step in coming close to the Lord and receiving his living water.  Why is admitting our need a necessary part of coming to faith?

Verses 16-24

Why do you think Jesus now focuses on the woman’s marital situation?

People wonder how Jesus knows about her marital status.  Is it just his supernatural knowledge?  Some commentators think the fact that she is at the well at noon is significant: women would ordinarily go to get water in the morning, not in the heat of the day.  Her presence there might be a signal that she is not entirely welcome with the other women in the town, who would have come to the well in the morning.  That does not, however, explain how Jesus knew she had had 5 husbands.  This appears to be an example of Jesus showing supernatural knowledge.

How does Jesus’s reference to the woman’s husbands turn the conversation into a personal, spiritual discussion with him?

Jesus appears to be challenging her in an area of her life where she needs to do some self-examination.  How does God do that with us: Guide us to move from intellectual talk about religion to our own spiritual situation and our need to examine ourselves?

What is the value of that kind of self-examination – an examination of conscience – and how do you do it?

Some scholars see symbolism in the reference to the woman’s husbands.  In the Old Testament, wells were meeting places where men found wives: for example, Isaac (Gen. 24), Jacob (Gen. 29), and Moses (Ex. 2).  John has already referred to Jesus as being the divine bridegroom for his disciples (John 3:29).  How is this event symbolically a time where the Samaritans have the opportunity to receive Jesus as their divine bridegroom?

Some scholars also see another connection to the 5 husbands.  When the northern kingdom was destroyed, the Assyrians moved people from 5 other nations into the land that became known as Samaria, and those people brought their gods with them (2 Kings 17:24, 29).  The acceptance of Jesus symbolically severs the ties to those 5 prior “husbands” that Samaria had once lived with.

Up until verse 20, the woman has appeared to be understanding Jesus’s words only on a very literal level.  How does verse 20 show that she is now ready for a theological conversation?

At the time of Jesus, the Samaritans were monotheists (they believed in one God), and their faith went back to Abraham, just as the Jews’ faith did.  The believed only in the Torah – the first 5 books of the Old Testament, which was also true of the Jewish faction known as the Sadducees.  The key difference is that the Samaritans believed that God was to be worshiped on Mt. Gerizim in Samaria, not at Jerusalem in Judea.  They believed that they were the carriers of the true faith while the Jews had gotten off track when they built the Temple for God in Jerusalem.  (A small group of Samaritans still exists today – slightly less than 1,000 people in total – who still practice Samaritanism and worship on Mt. Gerizim.)

In verse 20, the woman notes that the Samaritans worship at Mt. Gerizim, while the Jews worship at Jerusalem.  This was one of the key disagreements between the two religions.  Her implied question is: Who is right?  How does Jesus respond in verses 21- 24?

In verses 23-24, Jesus says that the time is coming when people will no longer be confined to worshiping God in a particular place.  How will God be worshiped (verses 23-24)?

What does it mean to worship God in Spirit?

What does it mean to worship God in truth?

If the place isn’t the central criterion for worship, what is?

Worshiping in spirit and truth suggests an interior worship of God, within our own hearts and spirits rather than just in some external location.  Why is what is going on in our hearts so important for proper worship?

If someone asked you if you worship God in Spirit and truth, and if so, how – how would you respond?

Verses 25-26

In verse 25, the woman now turns to another key question: the coming of the Messiah.  Both the Samaritans and the Jews believed that a messiah or final prophet would come in the last days.  How does Jesus respond?

Jesus, says, “I am,” which is a form of the name God gives himself in the Old Testament (Yahweh).  The translators write “I am he” to fit standard English grammar conventions, but the word “he” isn’t there in the Greek.  Christians believe that when Jesus says, “I am,” he is implicitly stating that he is God.  So here, he is not only acknowledging his identity as the Messiah but asserting his divinity.

What is the significance of the fact that in John’s Gospel, the first person to whom Jesus identifies himself as the Messiah and the “I am” is a woman . . . and that she is a sinner, a foreigner, and a member of an ethnic group hated by the Jews?

Something important happens at this moment.  The woman moves from a theological discussion to a person, from knowing about God to knowing God.  How important is this step of entering into a relationship with God (not just knowledge about God), and how can we help people take this step?

We will continue to look at this passage in the next study of this series, so stay tuned.  But first:

Take a step back and consider this:

On the surface, there was no reason that Jesus “had to” (verse 4) pass through Samaria.  It was the normal way to get to Galilee.  If my normal route to church was via Main Street, I would not say that last week I “had to” take Main Street.  Scholars interpret John’s statement of necessity as an indication that in God’s plan there was a divine necessity: Jesus had a missionary reason to be in Samaria at that particular time.  As Jesus says in verse 35, this particular field was “ripe for the harvest.”

There are times when God prompts us, through a tug in our heart or an inspiration he impresses upon us, to take a step that opens the door to an opportunity.  Sometimes, those nudges push us outside of our normal routines.  But: Many times, those divine appointments are right there on the path we would have taken anyway, and the only difference is that this time, God is asking us to be sensitive to how the Holy Spirit wants to use us to make a difference in someone else’s life.

God does not force those divine opportunities on us.

• If we are too distracted by our focus on ourselves and the little challenges of life, and we don’t even sense God’s nudge, life goes on, and we don’t even realize that an opportunity to participate in the work of God was lost.

• Sometimes, we sense the nudge from God, second-guess ourselves, and miss our chance.  But perhaps we can learn from that experience how to be more trusting of God the next time.

• Sometimes, we seize the opportunity but then botch it by trying to force things to go our way instead of God’s way.  Again, those can become opportunities to learn how to be more continuously in tune with the movement of God’s Spirit in us.

• And sometimes, we respond, allow the Spirit to guide us, and see God do good things through us that we could not have imagined.  Those little victories of the spiritual life are transformative and can bring us great joy.  What seemed like just a time of living our ordinary lives turns into a graced and awe-inspiring experience of participating in the work of our God, who loves us and is intimately, though often subtly, involved in our lives.

To become more aware of those divine opportunities, as Jesus recognized the opportunity in a simple stop by a well, we need to cultivate our relationship with God and nurture our sensitivity to the promptings of his Spirit.

How can you grow in your sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, so that you can recognize when God is trying to turn an everyday action into a graced moment where he can bless someone through you?

May you grow more and more attuned to the Holy Spirit, so that you can let God speak through you when someone is ready to hear a word about God!