John 4:7-14

JESUS AND THE LIVING WATER

Text 4:7-14

7

There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

8

For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy food.

9

The Samaritan woman therefore saith unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman? (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans).

10

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

11

The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: whence then hast thou that living water?

12

Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his sons, and his cattle?

13

Jesus answered and said unto her, Everyone that drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

14

but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.

Queries

a.

What called forth the woman's first question?

b.

What or Who is the gift of God?

c.

How does the living water become a well of water springing up into eternal life?

Paraphrase

Presently a woman of Samaria comes all alone to draw water. Jesus says to her, Give me a drink (for His disciples were gone away into the city to buy food). The Samaritan woman asks Him, incredulously, How can you, being a Jew, ask me for a drinkI am a Samaritan and a woman also! (This she said because Jews do not use vessels together with Samaritans). Jesus said to her, If you only 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. The woman replied, Sir, you have no bucket and the well is very deep, where will you get this living water? Surely you do not mean to say that you are greater than our illustrious ancestor Jacob, who never sought any better water than this, either for himself or for his sons or for his cattle!? Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks this water will grow thirsty again; but whoever shall drink the water that I, Myself, shall give him, he will never, no never, be thirsty again, but to the contrary, the water that I shall give him will become within him a bubbling spring of water welling up unto eternal life.

Summary

Jesus, out of His need for natural water and a woman's need for living water, teaches His messiahship in Samaria.

Comment

The woman evidently came from the city of Sychar. Every day she would walk half a mile or so to the well, and as far back again carrying her waterpot either on her head or her shoulder. According to the custom, the women of those days met at a certain time of the day at the public watering place to exchange news and small-talk as they drew the next day's supply of water. This woman came alone! From subsequent information concerning her adulterous situation we assume she was a social outcast. None of the respectable citizens dared associate with her. She was an outcast an unclean adulteress a Samaritan a woman! How would Jesus approach her? How would He overcome these barriers and reach her without raising more barriers?
The Master Teacher uses His need as an opening to gain her interest. He is tired and thirsty, and He asks her for a drink. It is a natural request, and one which could not raise any barrier. Had His disciples been there, they would have provided for His thirst, But they had gone away into one of Samaritan cities to market for food. (The Greek word translated buy is from the same word which is often translated market.)

In John 4:9 we see that for Jesus to ask a drink, even to speak to her, was not the ordinary custom of that day. The woman is plainly astonished. She probably recognizes Jesus as a Jew either from His speech or His dress.

Part of her astonishment comes from the fact that Jews did not use the same vessels as Samaritans. They considered the Samaritans as unclean as the Gentiles, and, according to Pharisaic interpretation, they would have to purify themselves ceremonially should they thus defile themselves. If Jesus is to get a drink He will have to drink from her bucket, for He has none of His own. The above interpretation is better than have no dealings with and this is evident from the fact that the disciples did go into a Samaritan city and did purchase food from the market-place.

A brief history of Samaria is in order here to show why the Jews considered the Samaritans unclean. When the kingdom of Israel was divided in about 926 B.C. (1 Kings 12:1-33), the northern kingdom, under Jeroboam, embraced all the territory originally allotted to the ten northern tribes. This kingdom was known as Israel, and encompassed the provinces of Samaria and Galilee. Hoshea, Israel's last king, spurned the powerful nation of Assyria and made a political alliance with Egypt. About the year 722 B.C. the Assyrian king besieged the capitol city and later carried nearly all the people of the northern kingdom away into slavery and captivity (2 Kings 17:1-41). A small remnant of the ten tribes was left. The Assyrians, in order to better control the conquered territory, imported foreign peoples into Samaria (2 Kings 17:24). The remnant of Jews intermarried with the foreign peoples, and this mixed people was given the name Samaritan.

This heathen mixture worshipped idols. God sent wild beasts, and many Samaritans were slain. They attributed the plague of lions to their failure to know the Law of Jehovah, and they appealed to the king of Assyria for help. He sent them a Jewish priest to teach them the manner of the God of the land. Although the Samaritan religion was very nearly the same as that handed down by Moses, it was probably tainted with some paganism. This would be one reason for the aversion of the Jew toward the Samaritan.
Approximately 200 years after the captivity of the northern tribes, the kingdom of Judah was taken captive by Babylon. Judah was subsequently allowed to return to her homeland in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The first thing the people of Judah did was begin reconstruction of the Temple at Jerusalem. In the fourth chapter of the book of Ezra we are told the Samaritans wanted to join the Jews in rebuilding the Temple. The Samaritans were told with contempt, You have nothing to do with us in building a house unto our God. The ire of the Samaritans was aroused against the Jew.

Hostility continued and increased between the Jew and the Samaritan. About 409 B.C. Manasseh built a rival temple on Mt. Gerizim. The Samaritans were generally inhospitable toward pilgrims from Galilee going to Jerusalem for the feasts (cf. Luke 9:52-53), and many of these pilgrims journeyed to the feast by the way of the eastern side of the Jordan valley. The rivalry became so intense that the Samaritans would often set rival fires to perplex and confuse the Jews as they watched for their own signal fires which were to announce the rising of the Passover moon. Someone has written, The Samaritan was publicly cursed in the synagogues of the Jews. and was thus, so far as the Jew could affect his position, excluded from eternal life.

In addition to this centuries-old hostility, no Jew would speak to any woman in publicnot even his own wife or daughter. This foolish tradition was carried to such an extreme that some Pharisees would close their eyes when they saw a woman on the city streets. As a result, they often bumped into walls and houses, and they came to be known as the bruised and bleeding Pharisees, Thus we can see the woman's astonishment that Jesus should even speak to her, If He had been a normal Jewish rabbi, He would have gone home immediately and washed himself because He had been in her presence.

The Greek idiom of John 4:10 gives us an insight into the thoughts of Jesus. He sees a certain pathos in the woman's situation, He is saying to her, If you only knew (but you do not) Who it is. He would have given you living water (but He cannot because you know Him not). No man can receive the living water until he knows Jesus. Faith comes by hearing, and the hearing that brings faith comes from the Word of God (cf. Romans 10:17; Philippians 3:8-11). Jesus is the source of life, and we must partake of Him (cf. John 6:53; John 6:63) through His word to have that life!

Notice how, having gained her sympathy, He gradually raises her thoughts from the temporal to the spiritual, ever holding her interest and ever leading (not driving) her into new light.
The woman is a little cynical in her reply. Jesus implies He can supply her with some sort of perpetual source of water better than what is in this well. Yet, even the great patriarch Jacob used this well. Does He insinuate He is greater than their ancestors (they claimed descent from Joseph and his two sons)?

The water the woman is thinking of (John 4:13-14) never completely quenches even the physical thirst, But the water which Jesus gives completely and perpetually quenches the soul's thirst. This is what Paul meant when he said, our inward man is renewed day by day.

The Old Testament is permeated with the idea of God supplying His new people with living water. Jesus was not uttering a new idea. Of course, the Jews rejected the idea that the Nazarene could be the living water, just as they rejected anything connecting Him with the Messiah. Jesus was claiming to be the fulfillment of these messianic prophecies concerning the living water (cf. Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 49:10; Isaiah 55:1; Psalms 42:1; Psalms 36:9; Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13; Ezekiel 47:1-12; Zechariah 13:1; Zechariah 14:8). Read these references; they are important!

Some commentators do not connect this living water with the living water of John 7:37-39. But it is improper to disconnect the two. In John 7:37-39 Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as the living water, and adds, this life-source shall flow out from the believer. Neither passage, John 4:13-14 or John 7:37-39, is contradictory of the other.

Quiz

1.

What were some of the barriers Jesus broke by talking to this woman?

2.

Why may we assume that Jews did have some dealings with Samaritans?

3.

Where did the Samaritan people originate?

4.

What was the beginning of hostilities between Jew and Samaritan?

5.

Why was Jesus unable to give this woman living water?

6.

What was Jesus claiming when He claimed to be able to give living water? Give 5 Old Testament references.

7.

What does John 7:37-39 add about the living water?