John 4:5-42
4:5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob
had given to his son Joseph.
4:6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the
well. It was about noon.
4:7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a
drink."
4:8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)
4:9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of
me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)
4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is
saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you
living water."
4:11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where
do you get that living water?
4:12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons
and his flocks drank from it?"
4:13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
4:14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The
water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal
life."
4:15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be
thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."
4:16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back."
4:17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her,
"You are right in saying, 'I have no husband';
4:18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What
you have said is true!"
4:19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
4:20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people
must worship is in Jerusalem."
4:21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will
worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from
the Jews.
4:23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.
4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
4:25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called
Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us."
4:26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."
4:27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a
woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with
her?"
4:28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the
people,
4:29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the
Messiah, can he?"
4:30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
4:31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something."
4:32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."
4:33 So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him
something to eat?"
4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to
complete his work.
4:35 Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look
around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.
4:36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so
that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
4:37 For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.'
4:38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you
have entered into their labor."
4:39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony,
"He told me everything I have ever done."
4:40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he
stayed there two days.
4:41 And many more believed because of his word.
4:42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we
believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the
world."
Is there life after death ? That's what i intend to preach about on this text. I'm not
speaking about spiritual life after physical death but the kind of knocks one gets in life
that leave people feeling bereft and desperately shattered. I think the Samaritan Woman
shows us that through Jesus people can once again find life, happiness and fulfilment.
Rev. RR London
Jesus, "tired out from his journey", finds rest and belief in the woman and
stays for two days with her people. It seems as if the Samaritans were less
"work" for Jesus at a point when he needed some time away from the big crowds
etc.... The disciples, despite everything they have been told and taught, are still
puzzled by Jesus' words (eg vs 31-33). The woman is more spiritually astute and seems more
willing to accept what Jesus has told her.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I think it connects with Old Annie's
comment on the Discussion page regarding women's spirituality. The Samaritan woman
encountered Jesus at a heart level as well as an intellectual one. The disciples stayed in
their heads and just didn't "get it".
Just a few early thoughts,
SueCan
Is Jesus talking about something with actually strengthens the physical body? If Jesus
is proclaiming that something spiritual can replace our physical need for food, that is
pretty powerful. Is Jesus saying this?
other food and harvesting what someone else planted seems to all fit rather neatly. all
except for verse 22 which seems to break the rythm. It is a radical statement that the
temple and various religious institutions are obsolete.
Jews and Samaritans both awaited the Messiah, but they differed on the sacred
"place" of worship. Jesus statement that place was not the important thing would
have offended most people in both camps.
It is like saying the thing we are fighting this war over is really unimportant. Manzel
well supply... ...that is my title and what Jesus is saying... "...I am the well,
the ever-flowing stream, the supply of what will quench your thirst." Oh yes, what is
the thirst? we must, like the Samaritan woman, decide if it is just water or God's eternal
supply that we should really need.
I would like to add that Clarence Jordan, of the Cottonpatch Bible fame, tells us that
at the wedding at Cana, Jesus has the servants to take a taste for the steward. He tells
them to draw some for the steward. The Greek word is more forceful, "bucket up"
some to take to the steward. You don't use a bucket to "draw" from a jar, but
from the well! Jesus is the source, the well, not just a limited supply of the six jars!
Jesus is the supply!
I have reflected on this text for many years and it appears to me that the heart of it
is the call to worship in spirit and in truth.
We can only really worship when we accept the living water, the thing that truly
refreshes our soul:
God's knowledge of the very truth of our sinfulness, completely revealed, but without
judgement.
Only then is it possible to accept forgiveness and recieve the new life that it brings.
SS in PA
Since this Sunday is a communion Sunday, I think I will emphasize the encounter between
Jesus and this woman by calling my sermon "Breaking Bread, or Breaking Heads?"
Jews and Samaritans were at odds, men and women were not supposed to be together in
public, there are differing standards of acceptability (once married or celibate vs.
married 5 times, whether through frequent dismissals or levirate marriage), this mountain
or that mountain -- and the usual response to these differences was "breaking
heads" rather than "breaking bread," tearing apart rather than bringing
together. Yet Jesus sees the similarities, not the differences -- we thirst, we hunger, we
desire relationship, we fall short of the glory of God, and yet we are equally
creatures/children of God. Instead of only looking for the harvest of our own efforts,
look around and see the fruit of God's creation all around us!
OLAS
I've been thinking that a modern parallel to this Samaritan woman is someone who's been
through a series of "husbands", always ending up with a guy who abuses her. We
know that many women who are abused have gotten caught up in a cycle like that.
Being aware of some abusive situations in the homes of church members, I think I'll
take the opportuntity to talk about domestic abuse, including violence. Craddock points
out that this is the longest conversation between Jesus and someone else, recorded in the
New Testament. How does that inform our care of those who are undergoing abuse, or who are
living with the scars? What hope does this pericope offer to women -- or men -- who are
living in such an exile?
Does anyone have a URL for useful information on-line, about domestic abuse? I feel
especially led to address this topic. MTSOfan
We live in a world that is hungry and thirsting - thirsting for fulfillment,
satisfaction and self-actualization. The world is searching but coming back unfilled. We
go to the many wells of the world looking for sustenance only to find that our buckets are
not overflowing but empty. We look to food, finances and friends and we end up wanting. We
look to popularity, possessions, and politics and yet we find no contentment. We look to
the church, our careers, and our children and still we thirst. We try sex clubs, sports
arenas and sandwich shops and still we find no real joy. We go to the health club, the
hobby shop and the horoscope page only to end up lacking. We look to electronic devices,
entertainment industries and educational institutions to complete us but find they are
inadequate. You see, Mick Jaggar is not the only one who can’t get no satisfaction.
But the message from this passage is clear. No person has sunk so low, no individual is
so lost or so broken or so despised or so lonely or so thirsty that Jesus cannot and will
not provide sustanence and abundance of life.
You see, Jesus provides a quenching that no water can provide. He satisfies longings
and desires that no possessions can fulfill. When the world is searching for that thing
that will satisfy Jesus says, “those who drink of the water that I will give them
will never be thirsty” (John 4:14).
We can search and search for meaning and purpose but we will always come back wanting
unless we enter into a personal relationship with the living God who provides the living
water.
The great theologian Saint Augustine prayed, “Lord Thou hast made me for Thyself.
Therefore my heart is restless till it finds rest in Thee.” Victor Frankl, the
Austrian psychologist wrote, “Each of us has a God-shaped hole in our hearts that
only a personal relationship with God can fill.”
Pastor John in CT
There is so much searching -- longing-- for meaning in our society. The popular culture
touches on it here and there. A book about how you can live to be really old, another on
meditation and the use of crystals, a JC Penney ad that lets you know that real
fulfillment is found in leaving the kids with dad and shopping -- I have longed to say,
"You are looking for the living water! I know where you can get it." I think
that's what I want to say, even to those of us in church: don't forget -- here is that
living water, the other stuff is just stuff, and like the woman at well, we keep going
back for it because it doesn't quench our thirst.
HW in HI
Greetings to all. I wish to share some findings that may be of interest. 1. According
to Jewiash custom, when one drinks together, represents a short term frindship, a close
acquaintance type of thing, and we all have met on our journey, someone who has made an
inpression on us for a short time. To eat a meal, break bread together, symbolizes or
represents a desire or a connection that unites two or more persons for eternity. We do
not regertitate our food, we use it for nourishment to continue our journeys. 2. This
woman confronts this man Jesus over water, and before it is all ovwer with, he stays to
break bread with them for two days. 3. When this woman met Jesus, she came to know
herself, her God, and revealed her discovery to her neighbors, and they came to know God
through her.
I feel when we set aside our prejudices of the 'woman' and confront a wounded person
(without prejudice), a Christ who gently confronts sin, and heals, forgives, producing a
living witness for the Kingdom, this becomes another example of the work of reconciliation
God has called each of us to do. Think about it ...... Dave in La.
About Jacob's Well and whether it is a cistern or a "living" well.... A
website dedicated to the well, with pictures, states the following:
The well bottom has varied in depth through the centuries, from 240 feet in A.D. 670 to
67 feet in A.D. 1881. It was "very deep" in Jesus' day (John 4:11). Our guide
feeds out what he says are 125 feet of rope before the bucket touches water, then begins
the arduous task of raising the bucket back to the surface. Several of us gather around
and drink from a common brass cup. This well, from which Jesus once asked a drink, is fed
by underground springs, and its water is fresh and cool. Because the water is moving and
not from a cistern, the ancients called it "living water" -- a term to which
Jesus gave a new and special meaning.
Blessings, Eric in KS
I'm always excited to see a George MacDonald quote! Especially one I don't remember
encountering before. Thanks, Eric. I plan to let it open the service and set the mood.
Incidently, I didn't find much inspiration in HIGH NOON. At least, so far, the only
relevence I can think of is the use noonday in a dry setting to highlight the intensity of
an encounter that could've been avoided (by splitting town or staying in doors like
everybody else, or, in Jesus's case, walking around Samaria). Coincidently, the Sheriff
played by Gary Cooper has just gotten married. And completely off the subject: I hadn't
seen this since I was a kid and what struck me this time was the role of religion in this
exploration of the ethics of killing. And especially the impotent preacher, quite useless
in this town crisis.
pHil
I really come late at this! I am starting with the "Dennis the Menace" comic
strip where he calls out that he wants a glass of water. When his dad brings it, he takes
a sip and spits it out and says, "That is bathroom water! I wanted kitchen
water!"
God wants us to have the BEST water, the living water! Do any of us want to drink stale
water? Would we drink water left in a glass on the table from yesterday? Jesus is fresh,
new as living water each day!
I give my pets fresh water several times a day. Doesn't God refresh us too? He does not
want us to become stagnant, and yet, that is what happens to many Christians! We need to
come to the well of living water and drink deeply, often. The Charge
Another thought for the sermon (if anyone is still reading this eleventh hour before
preaching time) is how many are like the disciples who prefer not to take the road through
Samarita...including many pastors wanting safe, predictable appointments. Yet, it's in the
Samaritas of life that we encounter the One Who offers eternal life. Peace, Francis
Sorry to have to ask this but I am at the end of rope! Well not at the exact end. Does
anyone know what hymn the words "Sing hosanna sing hosanna sing hosanna to the King
of Kings" belongs to?Nancy-WI
I stumbled upon this site in a search for a map showing the location of Sychar. I can't
help but find all of the old testament stories fulfilled in Christ, and this little
segment is no different. John the Baptist has just identified Jesus as the one on who to
believe in order to have everlasting life, and then Jesus leaves Judaea (and the Pharisees
who realize that he is baptizing more than John) and on his journey through Samaria comes
to Sychar, which is either the same place as Shechem or else nearby. Shechem is where
Joshua challenged Israel to fear and serve the Lord and then tells them they can't serve
the Lord for he is holy. The Pharisees are proud of their service to God. Jesus goes to
the very place where Joshua had challenged them to serve the Lord. He is showing the
fulfillment of the challenge at Shechem in His own person. Our efforts are vain. In Him
alone is there life.
