March 11, 2014: John Chapter 4

The Gospel According to John Chapter 4

Originally posted Tuesday, April 8, 2008

General Comment: In this chapter we will read in the story of the Samaritan woman another example of misunderstanding. While Nicodemus misunderstood the idea of being born from above (of God) as the agency of eternal life, here the woman will misunderstand the gift of life as the Spirit which Jesus gives to all who believe. The key is how the term "living water" is understood: literally by the woman, spiritually by Jesus. In this context "water" can be used by John as a metaphor for Jesus' teaching and revelation of God or as the Spirit of God which Jesus will give. As in the Nicodemus story where the wind/spirit comes and goes as it pleases without human understanding, so does the movement of water in a spring or river. This is how baptism was understood: one is immersed in the flowing Spirit; as water is fundamental to biological life so the Spirit is fundamental to the spiritual life.

The story also provides added insight into the historic premise for an early Christian evangelistic mission to the Samaritans. We will read of that mission in the Book of Acts (Acts 8:4-25). There is no other evidence in the New Testament of Jesus' preaching in Samaria. In Luke 9:51-56 we read that the Samaritans rejected Jesus' attempt to pass through Samaria because, "He had set his face to go to Jerusalem." Jesus rebukes the disciples for their wish to rain fire from heaven upon the village. Also in Luke are two passages favorable to the Samaritans: the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:25-37) and the story of the ten lepers, one of whom was a Samaritan, the only one to return to Jesus and offer his praise to God (Lk. 17:11-19). It is entirely possible that Jesus did not share the common disdain for Samaria almost universally shown by Palestinian Judaism. In any case, It is understood that part of John's community had a Samaritan constituency converted to Christianity within the first two decades after Jesus death. 

John Chapter 4:1-42 The Samaritan Woman

The Pharisees heard of Jesus ministry of baptism. They had followed the priests and Levites in their response to John's emergence in the Jordan wilderness to determine whether or not he was just one more mad man raving in the desert about the wrath of God (vss. 1:24-27). Now there was another whose presence disturbed them. This one they knew well from his recent actions in the Temple precincts (vss. 2:13-16). Jesus was not interested in confrontations at this point in his ministry and headed north to return to Galilee by way of Samaria,

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Vs. 4

says Jesus "had" to go through Samaria. That is not geographically necessary and the typical route - to avoid Samaria, would be to head north along the Jordan valley into Galilee. The word "had" is similar to "must." It carries the nuance of the divine imperative which means the will of God is involved. This imperative is at work in the Prophets who speak truth to power no matter the cost. It is the same divine imperative which is all too frequently absent in modern Christianity.
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In the heat of the day, a tired and thirsty Jesus stops at Jacob's well a short distance from the village of Sychar (Schechem) and close to the foot of Mount Garazim, the holy mountain of the Samaritans. As he rests, sitting on the edge of the well, a woman from the town approaches to draw water and Jesus asks her to give him a drink. As an expression of the poor relationships between the two cultures involved, she is startled that Jesus, a Jew, would ask her for water from a vessel used by a Samaritan. Jesus takes advantage of the opening she has created and redefines the moment as one for giving rather than receiving. Were she aware of who he is and what gift God could offer she would have asked him (God) a long time ago and he would have offered "living water." She hears the words to mean "flowing water" as a continuous flowing spring. But Jacob's well is a cistern, not a spring. It merely collects the rain water. She is puzzled and asks Jesus where he can find that spring, ironically wondering aloud if he is greater than Jacob who gave the well, which he is but she does not yet know.

Jesus expands the "living water" metaphor. Drink the water from this cistern and you will soon be thirsty again. But drink from the "living water" he gives (God through Jesus) and you will never thirst again, for it is as a never ending spring of "jumping" water bringing eternal life. She still does not understand beyond the literal level of some magical water she can drink and never again be thirsty and have to draw from Jacob's well. 

Jesus changes directions to bring her to an understanding of who he is - he discusses theology with her. "Call your husband," he says. "I don't have one," she replies." Jesus tells her he knows she has had five husbands and the current one is not her husband.

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In vss. 17-18 John attributes God's omniscience to Jesus and so he knows her history. In other places Jesus knows what people are thinking and what is in their hearts. For John, and as the Word of God, Jesus hears what God says, does what he sees God doing and knows what God knows. Some scholars understand the five husbands (ba'als in Hebrew) to be the five foreign gods imported to Samaria when in 722 BCE the Assyrians resettled the area with idol worshippers from five other cities they had conquered. The "current" husband is the God of Israel which the Samaritans do not properly understand or worship since they refuse to worship in the Jerusalem Temple.
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Jesus now has her attention. She grasps a lower level of understanding Jesus. He is at least a Prophet! Her awakened interest (we Wesleyans would call that "prevenient grace") leads to a question: what is the relative saving efficacy of worshipping on the sacred mountain of Gerazim or in Jerusalem as demanded by the Jews  as an absolute requirement for the proper worship of God. Jesus now becomes the teacher. Where you worship is not what is important. It is how you worship. There will soon be an "hour" when neither place will be of any use in the sense of a Temple location where God can be found or worshipped. That hour is coming and is already here (in Jesus) when the true worshipper will need no Temple but will worship in the way God requires, in Spirit and in Truth (here they are synonymous). Just as God is Spirit so also those whom God seeks will worship in the Spirit (as those who "walk" in the Spirit). Jesus "hour" as we have seen, is the interconnected event of his suffering, death and resurrection.

The woman moves closer to her aim - to understand just who this Jesus is and if he is anything greater than a prophet. As a Samaritan she knows Taheb (the Samaritan Messiah) will come and teach everything they need to know about the Law. She is now exactly where Jesus has brought her - to the point of belief. In response to her expectation of and belief in a Messiah he simply has to say, "I AM: the one who is speaking to you."

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The Samaritan Messiah was not a "Son of David" nationalistic warrior Messiah. He was a teacher of the Law, considered to be in the model of the prophet that Moses had foretold God would send. In this sense Jesus would seem to the woman to be like Taheb for he has been teaching her about worship and eternal life just as Taheb will. She equates the two and believes Jesus is the real Messiah who bears the divine name.

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Two events coincide in this story. The woman leaves her water jar on the well lid, runs to her village and shares with the townspeople everything she has just experienced. She invites them to come with her to meet this man she believes to be the Messiah. Her excitement is contagious enough to convince the people and so they all leave the town and head for the well to "see" for themselves.

As she was leaving the well Jesus' disciples arrive. They are shocked that Jesus would be speaking to a woman who was alone, without a male family member present. This simply wasn't in keeping with acceptable behavior. But they don't press the issue. They are more interested in having food and offer some to Jesus. He refuses and in the form of a riddle tells them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." In a response similar to Jesus' answer to Satan's temptation to turn the stones into bread, he reminds the disciples that he is sustained by doing the will of the one who sent him and to complete God's work (synonymous phrases).

Using the analogy of the harvest, Jesus calls their attention to the approaching crowd of Samaritans. Taking a cue from the grain fields near Schechem Jesus says, "Here is a field ripe for harvesting." In fact the harvest of fruit for eternal life (given in the present) is already happening. The harvest immediately follows the planting. Jesus has planted the seed through the Samaritan woman who spreads the word to others. The harvest is here and now. The disciples have not labored to bring this harvest about but now that it is here they can join in the labor.

The finale' provides a summary of the work Jesus has begun in Samaria through one woman he meets at the well. Through teaching and leading her to an understanding of who he is he has changed her into one who would share her discovery with others. Now the townspeople ask him to stay for a while and he does for two days. As a result they no longer have to rely on the testimony of the woman. They have heard for themselves and they believe. Their belief surpasses the elementary understanding of Jesus as Messiah. They have come to a complete faith: Jesus "is truly the savior of the world."

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John would not want us to miss the irony in the comparison of Nicodemus with a woman of Samaria and her fellow townspeople. Nicodemus is an educated leader of the Jews. Yet he cannot get past his shallow understanding of Jesus as a worker of signs no matter how Jesus tries to reveal the availability of God's gift of eternal life in the world. On the other hand a town full of Samaritan peasant farmers, at the leading of the testimony of one woman whose moral standing was less than stellar, can be moved to understand Jesus with the superlative title encompassing all others.

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John Chapter 4:43-45 Jesus Returns to Galilee

This scene has parallels in the Synoptic Gospels which John does not expand. The comment in vs. 44 that a prophet is without honor in his own country seems to contradict the welcome Jesus received from the Galileans in vs. 45. However, the passage serves as an introduction to the following story of Jesus healing the official's son. In vs. 48 Jesus expresses the same disillusion with the Galileans whose belief is as shallow as those in Judea who believe only on the basis of miracles. Such shallowness is not understood to bring Jesus much honor.

John Chapter 4:40-54

This healing story is very similar in form as that in which Jesus healed the Centurion's slave from a distance. The royal official likely is part of Herod Antipas' court. He hears that Jesus has arrived from Judea and, like others he had seen Jesus' work at Passover. He begs Jesus to come heal his son who is dying. Jesus repeats his criticism of those whose belief rests under the thin veneer of witnessing miracles. Jesus, of course, responds with compassion for the child whom he will not hold responsible for his father's inadequate belief.

The official believes in Jesus assurance, "Go, your son will live." Note there is no mention of the man's faith or lack of it. He at least had enough faith to trust Jesus' ability to heal if northing else. While the man is traveling home he is met by his servants who tell him his son has recovered, coincidentally at the same hour at which Jesus told the man the boy would live. The result changes the direction of the story which seemed to be leading the man no farther along in the matter of faith. Here the man is said to have believed along with his entire household. The language used in affirming their belief is more definite and seems to indicate that they came to a higher level of faith, one in which they understood that Jesus was not only a healer, but that he had brought life to the boy who was about to die.