Reflection on John 4  #1

Most of John 4 records the one-on-one talk between our Lord Jesus and an unnamed Samaritan woman. This is one of my favorite story because I often thought of myself being the woman who talked with the Lord who is the one and only true lover of my soul. This gives me a lot of insight of my Lord as well as myself.

At that time, the antagonism of the Pharisees grew as they took note of Jesus' growing ministry. To avoid premature conflicts, Jesus took His disciples, " left Judea and went back once more to Galilee." Judea was the southern province, Galilee was the northern one. In between the provinces, there was Samaria. Samaritans were either descendants of few Jews intermarried with gentile settlers, or gentiles. They intertwined the worship of idols with confused belief in the true God, the God of Israel. They accepted only the five books of Moses, but rewrote even those to inject their own ideas. They twisted history and truth to elevate themselves over the hated Jews. They claimed Mount Gerizim, not Mount Zion was the most sacred spot of earth.

The Gospel says that our Lord Jesus "had to go through Samaria." But He did not have to unless He wanted to. He wanted to meet up with a lonely nameless Samaritan woman who had very low moral standard. "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 the sixth hour." His disciples went into the nearby town to buy food at that time. Jesus sat there alone in His weariness. It was noon when the heat was greatest. Then there came an outcast Samaritan woman who had to draw water at this unusual hour to avoid other women. She had no idea the Lord Jesus was waiting for her to offer her the greatest gift of God.

Jesus took the initiative by asking her for water, "Will you give me a drink?" By asking for a service, our Lord Jesus immediately placed Himself at a very humble position. Our Lord was sympathetic, understanding and graciously humble as He started the conversation this way to win this lonely woman's soul. The woman was so surprised when Jesus, a Jewish man, spoke to her. The nature of the request must have shocked her too, for Jews wouldn't even use Samaritan's utensils. But she also felt His kindness and His respect toward her. By breaking the silence and making the request, our Lord broke the barriers of culture and religion, and soften this woman's heart. She had the courage to ask frankly, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?"

Jesus had won the woman's confidence and attention. He changed the direction of the conversation to awaken her spirit. He answered,  "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." The one who needed a drink of water now pointed to the woman that she needed to ask for "the gift of God" or "living water". And the Jewish man who just asked her "for a drink" would gave her the "living water" gladly. The woman’s mind was still fixed on her task of drawing water from the well and misunderstood the "living water" as physical water. She was happy that someone would thought about her need but suspected the capability. She said, " Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?" She challenged Jesus, "Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well?" Who could be greater than her great ancestor in her mind? Had she begun to sense some superior power in Jesus?

Jesus simply explained that He wasn't speaking of any physical water such as the fresh spring water in Jacob's well. He said, " Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in Him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Being thirsty and thirsty again was something the woman was very familiar with. This was her unhappy experience in her physically and emotionally thirsty yet unsatisfied life. We all experienced this thirst and know how it feels. Such thirst is as a bottomless pit. We want things or people to make us content, to quench our thirst, but soon after we obtain them they slip out of our hands. The more we depend on external things for conscious satisfaction, the more quickly our thirst returns to hound us with increasing intensity.

Only if we drink the water Jesus gives, we "will never thirst." When Jesus promised to give "living water" to us, above all He promised Himself to us, the Word of God to us, or the Holy Spirit to us. "Living water" also pictures the inner spiring of joy that continually renews and satisfies the heart of the true believer. Having the "living water" at the deepest core of our beings, we find love, peace, joy, and the meaning to existence. Our inmost needs completely and permanently meet. Jesus alone has power to give God's gift of "living water" to anyone who asks. The woman wanted it and asked, "Sir, give me this water." She still didn't comprehend what the "living water" meant in Jesus' word, but she wanted whatever Jesus offered so that she "won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." The woman might be very ignorant of the Scripture, totally opposite of the Pharisee named Nicodemus, but she responded quickly to Jesus' offer. It is not necessary to understand all that is involved to ask for Jesus' gift. Anyway, in this world, it is impossible to understand all that is involved with the idea of "living water" and "eternal life" The poor Samaritan woman didn't understand all, the Scripture scholar Nicodemus didn't do better than her. We couldn't either. But we all can look at Jesus and ask, "Lord, I want your gift, please give it to me."  He will. But He will first make our hearts and hands clean to be worthy to have the precious gift with us. Conviction of sin and repentance from sin are the first steps in granting us the living water.

The next thing Jesus mentioned, the woman definitely understood. Jesus told her, in order to get the wonderful "living water", she needed to "Go, call your husband and come back." The woman assumed that Jesus did not know her. But she didn't have any interest to lie in front of Him, the One who promised the gift of "living water" to her. She didn't give an excuse: my husband is not available for whatever reason. She quickly replied, "I have no husband." She didn't lie and call the man with whom she was living her husband, or maybe she never gave him this title in her heart. She wasn't ready to tell the mess of her life yet.

Jesus spoke next to fully expose the situation of her life in its full light. He wasn't trying to embarrass her, to shame her, or to condemn her. He was trying to help her, to let her face her problem. He opened the wound at the place where His cure was to begin because He is the greatest Physician. He 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."

Did she at this moment catch sight of herself and her morally downhill life in the light of God's truth? Did she feel Jesus speaking truth with compassion and grace? Knowing the worst about her, He chose to approach her, to talk to her, to offer her "living water". Even He knew the darkness inside her heart, He didn't despise her, He loved her deeply. The woman felt the love and acceptance from the Lord so she accepted His searching words about her past. She said no words of self-pity or self-defense. She looked away from herself to Him. She had much more important thing to ask Him, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." She really wanted to know: How should I, a sinful woman, worship? Where should I go to worship?

The Lord understood this woman didn't understand much about worship. He knew how seriously she now desire truth. He asked the woman, "Believe me, woman." He asked this woman in spiritual poverty to have faith in Him. Then He said, "a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem." He told the woman the Jews and the Samaritans should worship the same Father. And there would no longer be one place of worship when the time came. And the Lord dealt with the woman's prejudice against Jews and the Old Testament. He told her "You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews." God revealed Himself to Jews through Old Testament. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came through the Jews. Samaritans should acknowledge this truth. They should be warned the danger of their man-made worship which placed them under God's wrath.

The Lord told the the woman, "Yet a time is coming and has now come", time is never a limitation for Him. Jesus' presence makes past, present and future real at once. And He only accepts the worship from "the true worshipers" who "will worship in spirit and in truth." He emphasizes, "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." True worship is done with human heart by acknowledging we are sinners. True worship comes from within, is not put on , is not empty rituals. True worship is the full revelation of God's truth in its entirety. We worship by joining our spirits with His. He is spirit, so are we. God's requirement for "true worshipers" remains the same today.

When the woman realized that Jesus answered her essential question: how can sinful people like her worship a holy God? Jesus assured her, amid all her sinfulness, that the Father seeks people like her to worship Him "in spirit and in truth." She already believed Jesus was at least "a prophet". She now thought of Jesus being Messiah as God's Prophet who would reveal God's truth. She wanted to learn more truth from Him. She started to wonder if Jesus were "the Prophet, the Messiah", not simply "a prophet". The woman said, "I know that Messiah(called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

Looking at her eyes, Jesus revealed Himself plainly to her, declared, "I who speak to you am he." Can you imagine the scene? By Jacob's well, at noon, the Lord told this sinful woman who failed all intimate relationships that He is the One and Only, the true lover of her soul. And He was waiting for her all the time. Have you experienced the meeting with the true lover of your soul like this Samaritan woman did? If not, I want to let you know, He is waiting for you for your meeting. He will show you your situation to make you confess your "husband" problem, or maybe your "parents, children, siblings, neighbors, co-workers,..." problems. And He will offer you "living water" which bubbles within your heart to cleanse you, for you to renew your soul, to know the truth, in order to worship Him "in spirit and in truth."

Jesus' conversation with the woman seems to have ended abruptly with the disciples' return. The woman left her water jar, went back to the town. She  wanted to run back to her town as quickly as possible. Without guilty in her heart since her sin was forgiven, without water jar on her shoulder since drawing water was no longer the foremost task in her mind, this woman must run like a deer! She called her town folks, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" The woman changed. She showed her love for her Lord whom she just met, and her concerns for her neighbors who for a long time despised her. The town people were surprised by the woman's kindness in fact that she shared the good news with them. They were also shocked by the woman's courage in her open confession but without any hint of shame. Why didn't she hide her sin anymore? But they were more interested in the One who showed kindness to this sinful outcast woman and caused her change. "They came out of the town and made their way toward him."

When they got there, what did they find? They found that Jesus was waiting for all of them. "They urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days." Our Lord was the first Jew who stayed with the Samaritans for the sake of their salvation. "And because of his words many more became believers." They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world." We all need to meet  with Jesus personally for our salvation. And once we are saved, we need to call our neighbors "come" and "see Him".