Jesus - A Glimpse Of God Part 13

13. Jesus Teaching the Needy!

 

We are on Day 13 of our adventure through the Gospels, looking together at the life of the most amazing person in human history - Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

John 4:1-26 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Jesus was travelling via Samaria as it was the shortest route back to Galilee. It was hot. Jesus was thirsty and wanted a drink. His disciples had gone into town to get food. So he asks a Samaritan woman to fetch him some water from the well. That he asked a Samaritan would have been bad enough, but to also talk to a woman!

The woman: We don’t know the name of this woman. But by looking at this conversation between Jesus and her, we discover several things about her. That she was a Samaritan. There was equal animosity between Jews and Samaritans. The Samaritans were a mixed race people of both Jewish and Assyrian descent from the time of the division of Israel into two parts and the annexation of the Northern kingdom by Assyria. As she was fetching water at the hottest part of the day, she was probably an outcast! This was probably due to her sexual immorality having had 5 husbands and currently in a 6th relationship.

Jesus: Jesus here reveals his genuine humanity. He was tired, drained, hot, thirsty and hungry – normal human feelings and reactions. It also shows that Jesus contravened tradition in that he spoke to a woman who was a Samaritan and a sinner. By asking for a drink of water; he was putting himself in this woman’s debt and showing his humility. It also reveals his divine nature! He knew the woman’s life of sinfulness (John 4:17) and again, when he offered her the water of eternal life (John 4:14) and he was able to spiritually satisfy her (John 4:14)! Jesus, loved the woman, an outcast from her community, and gave her the most revealing and explicit statement we have in the Gospels as to who He really was (John 4:26).

In showing love for the woman, he transcended cultural barriers. Ordinary Jewish men would never ask a woman for a drink, let alone a Samaritan woman! But Jesus is no ordinary man. The Gospel accounts show Jesus’ love is for all people: rich, poor, learned, unlearned, male, female, wanted and unwanted! This encounter between Jesus and the woman shows us that Jesus’ offer of salvation is for all people, and not just the Jews. The woman, did however, misunderstand one thing - the living water Jesus offered as she probably thought he meant running water or water from a river! But the living water Jesus offered was spiritual water to cleanse her from sin and give eternal life. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, God is described as “a fountain of living water” (Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13).

When the disciples returned, the woman left her water jar and went back to the town to tell other people about Jesus (John 4:29-30). We read of the many people coming to faith because of the Samaritan woman’s story (John 4:39-42) knowing Jesus as the saviour of the world (John 4:42). Again, I ask, who do you say this Jesus is? But further, what are you going to do with this Jesus and let Him do to you?

Come back tomorrow for Day 14, as we continue to look together at that extraordinary man, Jesus Christ, through the Gospel accounts! We will see together, Jesus rescuing and teaching somebody who is contrite of heart - unlike her accusers! See you soon!

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