In chapter 4 of John’s Gospel, Jesus was still trying to stay under the radar as far as the Pharisees and Sadducees were concerned. So, he left Judea and headed toward Galilee. The land of Samaria was located between these two provinces. He was just north of the border of Judea when he stopped in Sychar at the foot of Mount Ebal. Jacob’s well was located about a quarter mile from Sychar just outside Shechem. In order to better understand Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman you will need to understand the culture and history of Samaria and the role it played concerning the twelve tribes of Israel and their relationship with God.
Four hundred years before the people of Israel crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land of Canaan, Abram (Abraham) had built an altar in Shechem to commemorate his meeting with God (Genesis 12:26). Abraham went on to father Isaac with his wife Sarah. Jacob was the son of Isaac. He was given the name Israel by God (Gen 32:22-32). Jacob produced twelve sons, each of whom became the father of one of the twelve tribes. These were the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob later bought a parcel of land outside of Shechem (Genesis 33). On the site, he also buried items of idolatry that had been in his household. He dug a well there that became known as Jacob’s well. This was all prior to the Israelites entering and becoming enslaved by Egypt.
When they were released from Egypt and it was time to enter the Promised Land, Joshua was given explicit instructions by Moses. After the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and captured Canaan, Joshua was to lead the people of Israel to Mount Gerizim. He explained that Mount Ebal, near Shechem, was to be used for curses and Mount Gerizim for blessings (Deuteronomy 11:29). The two Mounts were actually twin peaks that faced each other in the very center of the Promised Land. The tribes were split in half. One half proclaimed God’s curses from Mount Ebal and the other half proclaimed God’s blessings from Mount Gerizim. This symbolized the very bedrock of Israel’s dedication to God and the foundation of God’s commitment to man. The Israelites acknowledged that at the center of God’s promise was what He would curse and what He would bless. It was a turning away from idolatry as they embraced God’s blessings.
The Land of Canaan was then divided among the tribes by the casting of lots (Joshua 14:2). The tribe of Joseph was actually two half tribes that were the tribes of his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. It is not coincidence, but the divine hand of God that the tribes Ephraim and Manasseh were allotted the area that contained Jacob’s well and therefore the inheritance of their father and grandfathers (Joshua 16:4). God kept His promise and blessed the direct descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for their faithfulness.
As time passed, the first temple was built in Jerusalem. King Solomon built this temple as God had instructed through his father, King David (1Chronicles 17:1-15). After the death of King Solomon, his son refused to lighten the taxes imposed by his father to finance the temple. This caused the the Kingdom of Israel to split into a Northern Kingdom called Israel which was composed of ten tribes and a Southern Kingdom called Judah, which ended up having the two remaining tribes. The capital of the Northern Kingdom was the ancient city of Samaria. This general region eventually became known as Samaria – taking the name from the ancient capital. The Samaritans of Jesus time held that they were descendants of the tribes of Joseph, his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh and the tribe of Levi.
That first temple was destroyed in 587–586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king. The Israelites and Judeans were taken captive and brought to Babylon in the North. They were eventually released in order to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. However, a remnant stayed and intermarried with the Assyrians and Babylonians. From this remnant came the Samaritan people. It was from Moses’ command to Joshua to build an altar on Mount Gerizim that the Samaritans ultimately came to believe that Mount Gerizim was the location chosen by God for the holy temple. The second temple was completed in Judea around 515 B.C. Afterward, the Samaritans built a temple on Mount Gerizim in 450 B.C. This led to a great deal of religious tension between the Jews and the Samaritans and eventually the destruction of the Samaritan temple in 128 B.C. Even though their temple was destroyed, the Samaritans refused to recognize the temple in Jerusalem as the site God designated. They continued to worship on Mount Gerizim. All of this was the history leading up to the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.
Genesis 24:11 indicates that toward evening was the time women would go out to draw water. Water was normally drawn only at dawn and dusk to avoid the heat of the day. Contrary to this, the woman that Jesus spoke to (John 4:6-7) appeared alone at noon at a public well. In this culture, it was considered inappropriate for men to speak to women in public outside their kinship circles. Given the animosity between the Jewish people and the Samaritans it was even more unusual for Jesus to initiate a conversation by asking a favor of her. The woman herself remarks on Jesus’ impropriety.
Jesus responds not in kind but by pointing out that if she knew who He was she would know the great gift He had to offer. This was a gift that no other could give and had she known she would have asked Him for a drink instead. Thinking in a carnal sense the woman did not understand and continued to question Jesus. In response, He described His gift as being able to quench that for which she thirsts even unto eternal life. Still, she was thinking about her own physical thirst and not what was being offered. When Jesus brings up her husband, she slyly said she had no husband. Jesus called her out and we now see why she was approaching the well at that hour of the day. She was avoiding the gibes, jeers and scorn of the women who drew water in the morning and evening.
It’s not clear from John’s narrative whether her five prior husbands divorced her or died and she remarried. In that culture it was much easier for a man to divorce a woman than the other way around. Also, Roman marriage laws stipulated only the freeborn could marry, and then only to another freeborn person. This blocked millions of former slaves under Roman rule from legal marriage. Living as a concubine could have been the Samaritan woman’s only option if she and her “husband” were both freed slaves, or if one was freeborn and the other freed. It can be presumed that there was a great deal of pain concerning her prior and current relationships.
It was astonishing to her that any Jewish man would speak to her let alone know her most intimate history. She realized Jesus was a Jewish prophet. This revelation gave opportunity to redirect the conversation away from these sensitive issues and toward religion. Many times, when a person has been hurt, they will use a number of mechanisms to control the people around them so they do not get hurt again. These mechanisms can take the form of anger (driving people away), manipulating a conversation (again to divert) or any number of other control techniques. As often as not, the person doesn’t even realize they are doing this. The Samaritan woman brought up the biggest point of religious contention between the Jews and the Samaritans, their places of worship. Her reasoning was to draw the prophet into heated disagreement so he would get angry and leave her alone. However, Jesus knew exactly what she was doing and chose to continue ministering to her with the truth concerning worship and God’s desires for the Samaritan people.
John 4:21-24
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Again, He assured her that the water He offered, living water, was far better than the water from Jacobs well and that the time was coming and had come for the true worshipper to worship as the Father desired. He was seeking worshipers based on how they worshiped and not where they worshiped.
The Samaritan woman reluctantly gave one last effort to divert the conversation by saying she would wait for the Messiah to reveal the truth. That’s when Jesus told her who He was and described His ministry to bring God’s people into true worship. To worship in Spirit and in truth was true worship. This was the first time in scripture that Jesus formally revealed His true identity by saying He was the Messiah. It was not coincidence that He chose the foot of the mountains where God’s blessings and curses had been proclaimed. This location was the center of Gods promise (the Promised Land) and the Messiah was the center of all of God’s promises. He was both a blessing and a curse. For those who received Jesus, He was God’s blessing. By lifting the curse of our sins believers were allowed into everlasting life. For those who rejected Him there was only condemnation to suffer the eternal second death. The curse of sin condemned man to etenal death.
Hearing this the woman left her carnal ways of thinking (the physical water jar) and sought out the town people to witness a man proclaiming Himself to be the Messiah. In those days proclaiming as much was a death sentence. Hearing the woman’s testimony many of the towns’ people immediately made their way toward the well.
When the woman had left, Jesus used the time to teach His disciples a lesson. Bringing people to the truth in the Lord was nourishing to the spirit. They need not wait to partake in this spiritual blessing. The time was at hand to bring those in need into the Lord and teach them to worship in Spirit and truth and leave idolatry and false worship behind. Idolatry was the worship of someone or something other than God as though it were God.
Jesus later described the gift offered to the Samaritan woman as the Holy Spirit that would pour forth from believers like rivers of living water…like God (John 7:37-39). His use of the term “living water” was not new, but had been used throughout the scriptures to describe the Lord. The Samaritan woman was obviously not as familiar with scripture and did not immediately recognize the term. That is why it is very important to know and understand scripture. By knowing the truth, you will also know when someone is speaking falsely.
Jeremiah 2:13,
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
Jeremiah 17:13,
13 Lord, you are the hope of Israel;
all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust
because they have forsaken the Lord,
the spring of living water.
John 7:37-39
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
In bearing witness to Jesus’ lesson, many of the Samaritans from town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony. The words that poured from her were like living water and spoke to the hearts of those to whom she spoke. Those who still questioned whether Jesus was the Messiah were soon convinced when He spoke to them.
After two days, He and His disciples continued toward Galilee where He was welcomed. John’s remark in (John 4:44) that “a prophet has no honor in his own country” seems to indicate that Jesus did not stop in his hometown of Nazareth but went straight to Cana about four miles northeast. Remember, Nazareth was in the province of Galilee. This being said, most of the peoples in the province had been witnesses to all that Jesus had done at the Passover Festival in Jerusalem and believed in Him. Yet, He was unwelcomed in Nazareth. In fact, He had been driven out of Nazareth (Luke 4:14-30).
The chapter ends with Jesus performing a miracle reemphasizing the lesson of spiritual truth versus idolatry and false worship. A royal official from Capernaum traveled to Cana to plead for Jesus to heal his son who lay sick at home over sixteen miles away. Christ made a comment on faith saying, “Unless you people see signs and wonders you will never believe”. Placing faith in signs and wonders before faith in God is idolatry. He said this to the official because He knew he and his family did not believe in Jesus as the Christ but only that Jesus could perform miracles. Jesus healed the official’s son in order that he and his family would believe. And so, they did.
It cannot be understated that your prayers do not have to be in a certain place or time to be effective. Nor does the person you are praying for have to be a believer. For we do not base our faith in signs and wonders. To do so can lead us astray. Some need to see to believe. This was true with the royal official and his family. Yet, blessed are those who believe and have not seen. Whichever the case may be, Jesus has been the center of God’s promises to man from Genesis through this very day.
Take note of how John uses the physical geography (mountains, well, water jar, etc.) to reveal the spiritual (blessings, curses, promised land, the Messiah). Again, he does this to draw attention to gnostic ideology and correct it with spiritual understanding. See if you can find other physical and spiritual correlations as you reread this chapter. Feel free to comment as well.
