Bible Study Notes - Gospel of John 4:1-26 - Part I

Bible Study Notes – Gospel of John 4:1-26 – Part I

We continue our study of the Gospel of John, “Encountering Jesus.”  The great apostle of love writes this gospel to share the human side of Almighty God whom Jesus personifies during His earthly journey.  In Jesus, we glimpse the essence of God’s unconditional love.  Jesus declares the “Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.”  In Jesus, God identifies directly with our daily challenges.  As we study John, we will focus upon Jesus’ teachings and the life changing encounters of the people who meet him.

This week’s passage is a very familiar text which records the encounter of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.  When we study a passage about which we have heard many sermons and studied often in Sunday School or Weekly Bible Study and Prayer Meeting, we fall prey to the tendency and temptation of concluding there is no greater or further revelation on this text.  Consequently, I ask you to pray immediately and ask the Holy Spirit to share a fresh revelation of the Word of God with you as you open your mind and heart to Him.  Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal new, fresh and penetrating insights which you can apply to our own life as you strive for greater maturity as a disciple.

Usually, people approach this text by emphasizing the acuteness with which Jesus identifies the hidden sin of the Samaritan woman.  She conveniently withholds her five past marriages and current arrangement of living together with a man to whom she is not married.  Notwithstanding these very personal moral and ethical challenges she has, she steadfastly defends her religious convictions.  She straightforwardly rebuffs Jesus’ approach and teaching about Almighty God.  This woman perseveres in an emerging debate about the nature, promises and character of God. 

Parenthetically, the Samaritan woman is more than chagrined at Jesus’ request for a drink of water from her.  The Samaritans and Jews intensely despised each other because of centuries of petrified hatred.  In 722 BCE, the Assyrians sacked the Jewish people and nearly destroyed their culture, language, literature and religion.  Afterwards, some Jews taken in captivity intermarried with the Assyrians; their offspring became the Samaritans.  The Jews who forcefully resisted this assimilation and acculturation disdained their relatives who acquiesced out of fear, convenience and hopelessness.  Pejoratively, the “pure” Jews characterized the Samaritans as “half breeds” who abandoned their heritage, culture, legacy and inheritance as detailed by the covenantal promises of Almighty God.  On the contrary, the Samaritans as partial descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob straightforwardly demanded the promises of these covenants as they exist for any of the patriarchs’ posterity.  In time, these racial, ethnic and cultural differences morph into major theological, political and social controversies.  The enduring hatred between the Samaritans and Jews provide the context of this encounter at well. 

I suggest this encounter centers more upon authentic worship of God than anything else.  The Samaritan woman’s character deficiencies are significant yet secondary.  As the Johannine evangelist stipulates later in the Gospel, moral and ethical obedience are natural outgrowths of a genuine relationship with God.  John’s perspective further recommends religion as a means of a right relationship with God but not a viable or worthy substitute.  This woman fails to see any contradiction between her lifestyle and her beliefs.  She seemingly assumes her “reasonable” religious beliefs surmount her lack of integrity.  Jesus does not condemn her.  Rather, He challenges her concepts about genuine worship of God.  In this exchange, John records the Lord’s pivotal teaching about “true worship of God” which combines Spirit and truth.  I bemoan the prevalent declaration of many celebrities, “I am spiritual and not religious.”  Whereas I am yet to hear a clear discourse detailing the finer points of distinction between these two adjectives, I find it interesting that most people who utilize this phrase have lifestyles reminiscent of the Samaritan woman.  One actress who recently uttered this phrase has been married five times before reaching forty-five years of age.  Does being spiritual rather than religious exempt a person from moral obligations?  Nevertheless, Jesus’ inquiry to the Samaritan woman posits the necessity of lifestyle integrity and doctrinal correctness.  Essentially, He declares God wants people to follow and worship Him who do so with their heart, mind, soul and strength.  In adhering to this “Great Commandment,” we demonstrate our love for Almighty God with a lifestyle of integrity of word and deed.

Consider the following ideas and questions as you study this passage.

• The first verse of this text notes the Pharisee’s concern about Jesus’ rising popularity.  The evangelist notes Jesus’ disciples were gaining more adherents and conducting more baptisms than John the Baptizer.  Earlier in the gospel, John forcefully stated “I must decrease so He can increase.”  Although John is Jesus’ elder cousin, he subordinates his ministry to Jesus in obedience to divine revelation and fulfillment of prophecy.
• Sensing the growing opposition and hatred of the religious rulers, Jesus leaves Judea and retreats to his home turf of Galilee.    As he travels, Jesus goes through Samaria, a place where he would not ordinarily receive hospitable greetings as one hundred percent full-bloodied Jew. 
• In the town of Sychar, Samaria, near a plot of ground Jacob, the father of the twelve Israelite patriarchs, had given to Joseph, Jesus stops for water, rest and refreshment.  Adjacent to Jacob’s well, held as a sacred religious place for the Samaritan people, at approximately noon time, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman.
• Her presence is very odd at this time of day.  Normally, the women of surrounding communities went to this well just after sunrise to catch water for cooking and other daily uses.  This woman’s isolation coerces us to question her motives for being present at a public well in the middle of that day knowing she would encounter multiple men.  What are her motives?
• Interestingly, her paths cross with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Left alone by His disciples who travel to a neighboring town to buy food, Jesus is the man this woman encounters notwithstanding her motives.  He asks her for a drink as she approaches the well to draw water.  Perhaps, she considers this question to be a “pick up line.” 
• Nevertheless, this woman rebuffs Jesus’ question with an inquiry her own.  Knowing the disdain with which Jews held Samaritans, she asks Jesus what leads him to ask her for a drink.  The prejudice against Samaritans by Jews was so great that the latter group would not even use dishes which the former group had utilized.  This practice is reminiscent of the intractable racial prejudice of the American South during the century of segregation following the Civil War.
• In the commanding tenth verse, Jesus answers her with a peculiar reply.  If she knew the gift of God and who really asked for the water, she would quickly reverse roles and ask Him for a drink and in turn receive living water.  Let’s assume the place of the Samaritan woman.  Imagine her reaction to such an odd statement.  Initially, she hesitates because of the longstanding, historical ethnic strife between their respective people.  Allowing her possible ulterior motives given the inconsistency of her timing and loneliness, she finds Jesus’ request for water most interesting as he forthrightly asks although his appearance reveals He is a Jew.  Beyond her amazement about his straightforward and immediate request, she now receives a very perturbing reply which actually questions her understanding of her religion.
• The apostle John, author of the gospel, uses the words of Jesus’ reply in the tenth verse to remind the reader of His divinity.  Further, Jesus is the Messiah for whom both Samaritans and Jews had been waiting for centuries.  The evangelist challenges us to consider how we view Jesus.  How do we define Him? 
• In the eleventh verse, the Samaritan woman inquires practically about Jesus’ lack of a dipper, ladle or bucket with which to draw living water.  Conceivably, many persons upon encountering Jesus ask about the incongruence between His teaching, preaching and healing with modern science and technology.  They would like to exercise faith but they experience difficulty in reconciling the gospel with the scientific method, psychology and other branches of the social and behavioral sciences.  Can the gospel of Jesus Christ continually perform the personal miracle of transformation and renewal when we are able to attempt self-actualization?  Where is this miracle potion and how do we get it?  The woman asks where she can obtain living water. 
• She then asks Jesus if he is greater than Jacob who imparted the Law to his sons.  This question reveals the Samaritan woman’s religious beliefs.  As someone of partial Israelite heritage, she claims Jacob and his forebears as her spiritual ancestors.