For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without the law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. --1 Corinthians 9:19-22
When my son was in high school he joined the track team, deciding to run cross country racing. I went to several of his cross country meets and was amazed at the motivational T-shirts and sweatshirts I saw. I think my favorite said, "Trample the weak, hurdle the dead."
Obviously, in any competitive environment like long-distance running, participants are coached to give it their all to cross the finish line first, even if it means leaving a struggling runner behind. That's why it is always so heartwarming when I see a video online of a long-distance runner who will stop and go back to help a struggling runner finish the race. You've probably seen them too--a runner collapses within sight of the finish line, either from injury or from sheer exhaustion. The stronger runner usually passes the kaput competitor, then after a few strides stops, turns around, and helps the struggling trackster to his or her feet. Together, they hobble across the finish line together.
Lots of familiar phrases come from the sport of running. Phrases like "hit the ground running," or "it's a marathon, not a sprint." I think my favorite is "stay in your lane." We all have barriers in our life, either real or imagined, either physical barriers or those set up by legal constructs or even social barriers invented to divide people.
Jesus broke through those barriers. His love was not hemmed in by geography, genealogy, or genetics. We read about that in our passage today.
His Primary Purpose
He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But he needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.--John 4:3-9
Let's stop here a moment. Why did John say that Jesus "needed to go through Samaria"? It sounds like He had urgent business there. I believe His urgent business was for Him to meet and speak with this unnamed woman at the well. Now, if you have a Bible map, you will notice that the quickest way from Judea to Galilee was straight through Samaria. However, because of their hatred for the Samaritans, most observant Jews would travel the long way around between Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee.
Why did they hate the Samaritans? Well, back in the Old Testament we see that Israel was divided into the Northern Kingdom (which kept the name Israel because it was bigger, consisting of 10 of the 12 tribes) and the Southern Kingdom (which was then called Judea). The Northern Kingdom was carried off into exile before the Southern Kingdom, and the remnant that was left there intermarried with their Assyrian captors. They kept on worshiping the true God, but they assimilated the gods of the Assyrians, in direct disobedience to God's command. Later, when the Southern Kingdom of Judea was carried into exile by the Babylonians, they stayed true to their monotheistic roots, and never assimilated the false gods of Babylon. The Samaritans were not allowed into the Temple at Jerusalem, so they built their own temple near Sychar where they were able to worship until some Jewish zealots burned their temple down in 146 BC.
So that was what was going on geographically and genetically. Now we come to the gender issue. Observant Jewish men would not speak to any woman in public, let alone touch her. If a Jewish man touched a woman who was on her menstrual cycle, he was considered unclean under Jewish law. Since they could not ask whether the woman was on her period, they stayed away from all women all the time. Bible commentator William Barclay wrote this:
The strict Rabbis forbade a Rabbi to greet a woman in public. A Rabbi might not even speak to his own wife or daughter or sister in public. There were even Pharisees who were called ‘the bruised and bleeding Pharisees’ because they shut their eyes when they saw a woman on the street and so walked into walls and houses.
It is no wonder, then, that this woman was rather astounded that Jesus would approach her and engage her in conversation. He even asked for some water, meaning there may have been some physical contact between them. How many barriers were broken in this exchange? Let's keep reading.
A Prophet Portrayed
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and livestock?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, or come here to draw." --John 4:10-15
Now, this woman did not have the best reputation, which we will get into a bit later. That's why she was there at noon (the sixth hour counted from sunrise, about 6 a.m.) Most of the other women in the village would come draw water in the morning, when it was cooler, and before they prepared food and water for washing for their families. The assumption is that this woman was gossiped about mercilessly by the other village women, and did not want to face them. This was yet another barrier that Jesus broke in speaking with her.
Much like His conversation with Nicodemus in chapter 3, Jesus started talking about physical things in a spiritual way. And like Nicodemus, this Samaritan woman did not understand what Jesus was saying at first. We know from our background of studying the other verses in John and in Revelation that Jesus likens Himself to the Water of Life. In fact, Isaiah 12:3 says, "Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of Salvation." I think Jesus was Himself the fulfillment of this prophecy.
People in that day would describe flowing streams and rivers as "living water." The woman knew there was no river or stream nearby, so she thought that Jesus was referring to some mystical source of physical water. If she could find another source, she would not need to come to the well in the middle of the day. Indeed, she would not need to come to the well at all if there were another source of water. Yet, when she said it out loud, it probably made no sense to her. Maybe Jesus was not speaking about something physical; maybe He was talking about something spiritual. Maybe this Man had something she needed at her most basic level. In this way Jesus was starting to break down barriers in her mind.
Now Jesus gets personal.
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly." The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." --John 4:16-26.
The woman probably did not want to have a conversation about her past sins. Her sordid life was a topic of gossip in the town, and now this Man was bringing it up. If Jesus had started His conversation with her by bringing up past sins, she would have likely not listened to Him. But now, with the barriers in her mind being broken one by one, she was ready to hear it.
Jesus knew her heart; He knew her past. Similarly, He knows us that intimately, as well. As a result, the woman tries to change the subject again. She wants to know why her people were prohibited from worshiping in the Temple in Jerusalem. Since the Jews had burned down the Temple of Yahweh that they had built some two centuries prior, they were prohibited from worshiping God where they were. I think the core of her question may have been, since You know so much about me, tell me this: am I prohibited from worshiping God because of my sin?
This woman answered one of her own questions. Did you notice? In verse 12 she asked Jesus, "Are you greater than our father Jacob?" In verse 19, after being reminded of her sin, she says, "Sir, I perceive You are a prophet." Given this measure of credibility that she gave to Jesus, she was ready to hear His answer about worship. Last barrier coming down hard. When we try to evangelize our neighbors, are we coming from a position of credibility? If not, then they may not hear us, or they may not be ready to confront their sins.
Jesus's answer starts with worship in general, but moves to the personal. One day people will not need to go to a Temple or shrine to worship. One day we all be able to worship God in Spirit and in truth. If you approach God in a spirit of worship and truth, then your past doesn't matter. Your sins won't be a barrier to your coming to God. Truth means confessing your sins, and repenting. Truth means you recognize that God came down as Man, to become sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
The Right ResponseAnd at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?" The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" Then they went out of the city and came to Him. In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors." And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."--John 4:27-42
What was the disciples' response? They stayed quiet, even though the sight of their Rabbi conversing with a Samaritan woman must have filled them with questions. When we come up on someone sharing the Gospel, our response should not be to interrupt, but to pray that the seed sown would be fruitful, that this person would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
What was the woman's response? She left all that she had behind, and ran to tell others. She became the messenger and missionary of the Messiah. "Come and see!" she said. "He's told me everything I ever did." The Pulpit Commentary says,
This exaggeration of the self-revelation was due to the deep conviction of her mind that the Prophet had read her whole life - its weakness and its follies, and it may have been its sins and crimes, not unknown, alas! to others as well. Chrysostom says, "She might have said, 'Come and see One that prophesieth;' but when the soul is aflame with holy fire it looks then to nothing earthly, neither to glory nor to shame, but belongs to one thing alone, the flame which occupieth it."
The disciples, concerned with temporal things, wanted to make sure that their Master had eaten. Jesus was more concerned with spiritual things, replied that He was satisfied. He then took an opportunity to teach the disciples about evangelism--sowing seeds of the Gospel, reaping where other had sown, and the sheer joy experienced by both laborers at the result.
The townspeople responded positively to His message. "Now we believe," they said, for they had seen the Messiah with their own eyes. "And many more believed because of His own word." I am reminded of the prophet Jonah. You'll recall that Jonah did not want to go preach in Ninevah; by contrast Jesus purposefully went to Samaria. The Ninevites responded to Jonah's message, much to his consternation. The Samaritans responded to Jesus, to His great joy. In Matthew 12:39 Jesus said, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." Now, this was in response to the Pharisees (who did not think that He was the Messiah) who demanded a sign of Him. His response to them was to think of Jonah--as Jonah spent 3 days and nights in the belly of a whale, the Son of Man will spend 3 days and nights entombed in the earth. I know that is what He was referring to. But this episode also has shades of Jonah in it, don't you think? The response of the people of Samaria was like the response of the people of Ninevah. The message of Jonah was "repent, for God's wrath is coming." The message of the woman at the well was, "This Man knows who I am--my faults, my past, my failings--and He loves me anyway."
What will your response be to the message of the Gospel? Will you be like the Pharisees and reject Him? Or will you be like the Samaritans (and the Ninevites) and accept Him fully and completely? What barriers still need to be broken in your life? He can break them down if you let Him. If you have responded positively to His message, what barriers exist for you to share the Gospel? Run--don't walk--to tell your friends and neighbors what Jesus has done for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment