Lesson 5 - John 4:10-15, 25-26 - JESUS AND THE WOMAN AT THE WELL
INTRODUCTION: Last week, in John 3:1-14, we covered the well-known encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, a learned Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin who was reputed to be the most learned teacher of OT Scripture. Nicodemus had either seen or heard that Jesus was a gifted teacher whose authority from God was confirmed by 'signs," so he sought him out to discover more about Him. When Nicodemus met Jesus face to face, he didn't get the answers he expected; instead, Jesus told him point blank that unless one is "born again"-i.e., spiritually regenerated by the God's Holy Spirit-he cannot see the kingdom of God. This turned out to be a stumbling block for Nicodemus. He utterly failed to comprehend who Jesus truly was-the Messiah foretold by prophecy, the Son of God. As a learned Pharisee steeped in the traditions of Torah Law, he could not bring himself to accept that he needed to be spiritually regenerated in order to qualify for God's kingdom. Like many people today, He believed that his human works were good enough to get him there. The two main points of application we learned from this were: (1) Merely seeking Jesus won't save you-you must believe in Him; and (2) In order to be saved, the requirement of being "born again" isn't optional.
This week, in John 4:10-15, 25-26, we'll see Jesus continue to use the contrast of replacing something old (and inferior) with something new (and superior) as He goes from conversing with a powerful and educated Pharisee like Nicodemus to an encounter with an outcast and uneducated woman who has a dark past. It has continuity with the previous lesson in that it uses "water" as a spiritual symbol and an encounter in which Jesus reveals Himself to be the fulfillment of what the OT predicted. The text of today's lesson depicts one of the most famous moments in Jesus' early ministry when He speaks to a Samaritan women who is drawing water from a well.
The Background-skipped verses 1-9: On this occasion, Jesus decided to leave Judea and travel north to Galilee. Rather than bypass Samaria like most Jews did (they despised the Samaritans as 'unclean'), Jesus chose to take the more direct route straight through it. Since v. 4 states He "had to pass through Samaria," it tells us that Jesus' mission was divine rather than geographic. Verses 5 and 6 report that Jesus and His disciples stopped at a city named Sychar (see map), where "Jacob's well" was located. Bible scholars estimate this was a spring-fed well more than 100-feet deep. At about noon (the sixth hour) Jesus, by then tired and thirsty, was resting by the well while His disciples were out buying food for them to eat. Verse 7 states that "A woman of Samaria came to draw water." This was curious, because women would typically come to draw water, a strenuous task, later in the day when it was much cooler. This suggests that she was an outcast who was avoiding the other women in this place. Then Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." Jesus' request was normal in one sense, in that He had no bucket in which to draw water from the well. But in another sense, a religious Jew would rather go thirsty than initiate a conversation with an 'unclean' Samaritan woman. Also, He might have waited for his disciples to return and find a bucket to draw the water. In v. 9 the woman expresses shock, asking why He, a Jew, would dare ask her, a Samaritan women, for a drink.
Read John 4:10-15 - IF YOU KNEW THE GIFT OF GOD
10 Jesus replied to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 11 She *said to Him, "Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life." 15 The woman *said to Him, "Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water."
v. 10a: "Jesus replied to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,'" - Here, Jesus Ignores the woman's implied rebuke of v. 9, and like His earlier response to Nicodemus that you must be "born again," Jesus responds to the woman using the term "gift" in ways that could be understood on two levels: one physical, which she has the power to give, and the other spiritual, which Jesus has the power to give. In Jesus' context, the "gift of God" refers to salvation and eternal life, and like Nicodemus, this woman is clueless, having no idea who Jesus is.
v. 10b: "you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." - The term "living water" likewise has two meanings: It physically refers to flowing, physical water like that in the well, but metaphorically, it refers to the cleansing and renewing grace that the Holy Spirit imparts as the result of a right relationship with God. We should see that Jesus is using an evangelistic approach here to introduce His major theme-salvation by grace. He started with something both of them hand in common, namely the desire for water; then with the term "living water," Jesus implied that He could give her something much more valuable which was free. And she might have wondered: What is this "gift of God"; what is this "living water" this man is talking about? Who is he?
v. 11: "She *said to Him, "Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water?" - Jesus has her attention, but the woman (like Nicodemus earlier) is still thinking in terms of physical water; and She asks Him how He expects to get any kind of water without a bucket. She's still hesitant, thinking Jesus could be some kind of trickster who's playing word games with her.
v. 12: "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?" - This shows that the woman's confusion is even deeper, like Nicodemus' earlier exclamation, "How can these things be?" (3:9). In terms of her challenge, "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You?," she obviously expected a negative answer: this traveler would not dare to claim superiority to the great patriarch, Jacob, the namesake of this well.
v. 13: "Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again;" - Here, Jesus implies He's not referring to literal water, which, at best, only gives temporary relief.
v. 14a: "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty;" - Continuing His explanation, Jesus makes it clear that He's not referring to literal water but a spiritual source of relief that satisfies forever; and to have the power to provide such water, indeed, Jesus would have to be far greater than Jacob.
v. 14b: "but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life." - Jesus further described this water as "springing up" within the individual, which is a clear reference to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who also imparts eternal life; and it fulfills the OT prediction that, "Therefore you will joyously draw water From the springs of salvation" (Isa. 12:3).
v. 15: "The woman *said to Him, "Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water." - The woman does not fully comprehend what Jesus is talking about, but unlike Nicodemus, she's open to what He has to offer and obviously wants to know more. She's saying, In effect: I might not understand everything you've told me, but I trust you enough to want to know more about whatever it is that you're giving. And her trust represents a milestone that all potential believers need to reach.
Synopsis of skipped vv. 16-24: In these verses, Jesus, who is all-knowing, tells her to go home and fetch her husband. Why? Before this women can be saved, she must see herself as a lost sinner. To His question, she replied that she has no husband. Then Jesus informed her that she has told Him a half truth: that He knows that she has had five husbands, although the man she lives with right now is technically not her husband. When confronted with this truth, the woman declared that Jesus must be a prophet. Then changing the subject, she told Him that her ancestors (i.e., the Northern Kingdom tribes) had worshiped "on this mountain" (Mt. Gerizim), while the Jews claim you can only worship God in Jerusalem. Jesus takes this opportunity to tell her that a time is coming when people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, which was a prediction of the present gospel Age of Grace. He also informed her that the worship of the Samaritans wasn't approved by God, because "salvation is from the Jews," by which He meant that the gospel message had been given to them first and would initially be spread by them. He told her that the time for true worshippers of God had come-people who will worship the Father in spirit and truth-and that these (not only the OT Jews)-are the people the Father now seeks to be His worshipers (i.e., saved by faith in Jesus).
Read John 4:25-26 - I AM HE, THE ONE SPEAKING TO YOU
25 The woman *said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." 26 Jesus *said to her, "I am He, the One speaking to you."
v. 25: "The woman *said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." - As the woman listened to Jesus, she told Him that she knew something of a coming Messiah, and when He came, he would reveal and clarify "all things," which she assumed were the spiritual mysteries Jesus had been explaining to her.
v. 26: "Jesus *said to her, "I am He, the One speaking to you." - Jesus identifies Himself to the woman as the Messiah whom she hoped for. This is the most open Jesus has been about His identity so far and is only time that He unmistakably identifies Himself as the Messiah. Significantly, it's also Jesus' first "I AM" (GK. ego eime) statement in this Gospel, something He will repeat twelve more times.
Note: Was this woman saved? Yes, because her actions immediately afterward more than confirmed it: After Jesus told her about the 'living water' and informed told her that He was the Messiah she spoke of, she believed in Him, dropped her water pot, and rushed into town to tell others about Him. We'll cover more a about her witness in next week's lesson.
APPLICATION-I AM the One Speaking to You:
