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JESUS MESSIAH TO THE WORLD
John 4:1-42
“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.”
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 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.”
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Jesus learns that the Pharisees heard that he was gaining more disciples than John the Baptist. So he leaves Judea and goes back to Galilee. It is likely that the underlying reason here is that the Pharisees are jealous of Jesus. So to avoid a confrontation, Jesus goes back to Galilee.
It says here that Jesus had to go through Samaria. The reason that he had to go that way is not given. It would have been just as easy for Jesus to go along the Jordan valley. Perhaps it was for his own reasons. Perhaps Jesus knew in advance that he would meet the woman at the well and that many people in the town would believe in him.
So, Jesus came to where the well of Jacob was. You can see on a map where this is in Israel.
We can also see on a map that Jacob’s well is near another popular location, Mount Gerizim.
"And when it so happens that LORD God brings you to the land of Canaan, which you are coming to possess, you shall set up there for you great stones and plaster them with plaster and you write on the stones all words of this law. And it becomes for you that across the Jordan you shall raise these stones, which I command you today, in mountain Gerizim. And you build there the altar to the LORD God of you. Altar of stones. Not you shall wave on them iron. With whole stones you shall build the altar to LORD God of you. And you bring on it ascend offerings to LORD God of you, and you sacrifice peace offerings, and you eat there and you rejoice before the face of the LORD God of you. The mountain this is across the Jordan behind the way of the rising of the sun, in the land of Canaan who is dwelling in the desert before the Galgal1, beside Alvin-Mara, before Sechem."
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The Samaritan Pentateuch also has a difference Deuteronomy 27:4 as follows:
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Masoretic text: Deuteronomy 27:4,
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Deuteronomy 27:4,
"And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and coat them with plaster."
Samaritan text:
Deuteronomy 27:4,
"And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Gerizim, as I command you today, and coat them with plaster."
Now the command to locate the place of worship is found in Deuteronomy 12:1-14. It is not possible for this to have been revealed when God gave the 10 commandments. The command for the place of worship comes after Aaron dies in Deuteronomy 10:6, long after the 10 commandments were given. The command for the place of worship says that God will reveal the place in the future, after the Israelites have defeated their enemies in the land.
Deuteronomy 12:3, “Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire. Cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places. You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, but you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go.”
The idea that they must seek the place that God will choose, implies that it will not be revealed till after they are in the land.
The tabernacle never rested at Mount Gerizim or on Mount Ebal. The Israelites originally settled the Tabernacle in Shiloh, halfway between Jerusalem and Mount Gerizim. Then the Ark was captured by the Philistines and made its way to Jerusalem, where the 1st temple was built with the Ark in it.
Now, Jesus sits down by the well and asks the Samaritan woman for a drink. The Samaritan woman immediately notices that Jesus is a Jew and not a Samaritan and asks how he could ask her such a thing because Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
The Samaritan woman may have immediately known Jesus was a Jew because of his accent or dress. The Samaritans wore fringes or tassels dyed blue on their outer garments, while the Jews wore white fringes or tassels with the cord dyed blue.
The Samaritan woman is immediately shocked that he would ask her for a drink because Jews typically refused to drink from a Samaritan vessel because they considered everything Samaritans touched as unclean. The Samaritans had intermarried with Assyrians that settled the land after the Northern Kingdom was defeated by the Assyrians. In the 2nd century B.C. the Samaritans helped the Syrians in their war against the Jews. So, the Jews considered that the Samaritans were not fully Israelites.
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.”
Jesus is now referring to himself and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God to her.
The Samaritan woman does not realize that Jesus is talking about himself and the gospel, so she continues to carry on a conversation about the water in the well.
“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 then expands on what he is talking about.
“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 message of Jesus is rooted in Jeremiah 17:13, where God is called a spring of living water.
This living water is available now to this Samaritan woman as Jesus speaks to her. This goes hand in hand with the times that Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is at hand and that some that he spoke to would not die before seeing the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is rooted in a relationship with Jesus Christ. We must receive the living water from Jesus.
The Samaritan woman still thinks about this on a physical level.
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.”
The woman still does not realize who Jesus is.
So Jesus tells her to go get her husband and this conversation leads to Jesus telling her about her whole marital life and the fact that she is currently with someone she is not married to.
The woman then acknowledges that Jesus is a prophet and her thoughts turn to the differences between the Jews and the Samaritans. Perhaps she is thinking that if Jesus is a prophet, then perhaps the Jews are right. She expects that Jesus would start telling her about where the proper place to worship God is at. Or perhaps she is deflecting away from her marital behavior. Jews would have her stoned for her behavior.
Jesus does not condemn the Samaritan woman. Jesus acknowledges that the Jews are right about the place of worship. Jesus says that salvation is from the Jews. This is one of the teachings of the Pentateuch that the Samaritans would have to acknowledge.
Genesis 49:10 says,
"The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his."
Jesus emphasizes the spiritual aspects of faith over the material aspects. He says that in the future people will worship on neither mountain that the Jews and Samaritans argued about, but in spirit and in truth. This is the core purpose of the faith. It is a living relationship between God and people. These are the kind of worshipers that God seeks.
Now things are starting to click for the Samaritan woman. Jesus is explaining things to the woman and it makes sense.
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
This is the Samaritan’s reflection of Deuteronomy 18:15-19,
"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”
"The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name."
BINGO! She hit the nail on the head.
Jesus acknowledges this.
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
This is the first time that Jesus explicitly acknowledges being the Messiah in the gospels. The only other time that Jesus is recorded explicitly acknowledging being the Messiah is when he is questioned by Pilate.
So, now the Samaritan woman goes to the town and tells everyone a man told her everything she ever did and asks them if this could be the Messiah.
This event is an evidence of the Omniscience of Jesus. John does not mention that this is a sign, but it is. Jesus is prolific at this type of thing, and it is mentioned as a matter of fact. Now the whole town is making their way to Jesus.
Meanwhile, the disciples return from obtaining some food and they urge Jesus to eat something. Jesus uses this opportunity to make a parable about his food being doing the will of the Father. Jesus equates the work to be done to harvesting a crop. Jesus mentions that the work has been done and that the disciples are to reap the benefits of the work that has already been done.
The harvest at this time is the many Samaritans that come to believe in him.
The Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the testimony of the Samaritan woman.
So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 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.”
This is important. After Jesus teaches them for 2 days, these people say, “We KNOW that this man is the Savior of the world.”
There are some that try to claim that Jesus’ ministry was only to the Jews. John reveals that the mission of Jesus was to the whole world. In John 3:16, it says that God so loved the WORLD, that he gave his only unique Son. Now Jesus is teaching people that he is the Savior of the WORLD.
In Matthew 15, there is an incident that, at first, seems to confirm the idea that Jesus came only for the Jews. Jesus was traveling through Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile region, and “a Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly’” (Matthew 15:22). This Gentile woman recognized Jesus as the Messiah (“Son of David”), but “Jesus did not answer a word” (verse 23). As the woman kept up her appeals, Jesus finally responded, but His words seemed to hold little hope: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (verse 24). However, the woman did not give up, and Jesus eventually granted her request, based on her “great faith” (verse 28).
Tyre & Sidon were Gentile cities, so it is obvious he did not go there to minister to Jews only.
The fact that Jesus helped the Canaanite woman, even he said he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, is a significant detail in the Gospel narrative. Perhaps he only became impatient with the woman, since he was trying to spend some time with his disciples. Jesus did grant her request.
Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus gave other indications that His power and compassion reached to all people.
He healed a Roman centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1–10).
He traveled through the Gentile region of the Gerasenes (Mark 5:1).
He ministered in a Samaritan city where Israelites were mixed with non-Israelites (John 4).
Jesus came to save everybody (1 John 2:2).
“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Jesus Christ is God Himself (John 1:1). Jesus died on the cross as the payment for all our sins, and He rose from death in resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”
Jesus said He was the Good Shepherd, and He predicted that His flock would be greatly expanded: “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16).
The early church recognized that salvation was available to the Gentiles. The Jewish Christians who fled the persecution in Jerusalem went into the Gentile regions of Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, and they were “spreading the word only among Jews” (Acts 11:19).
At first, Peter was hesitant to bring the gospel to a Gentile household, but God made it plain that Cornelius was also one of the elect (Acts 10).
“Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too” (Romans 3:29).
Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, but He had come to offer salvation to everybody.
The Messiah was to be a “light for the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6).
Isaiah 49:6 says,
“he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
So call on Jesus, because “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21).
Very Early in his ministry, large crowds followed him from Decapolis, a group of ten Greek cities.
Matthew 4:25
“Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.”
In John Chapter 3, Jesus teaches Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council and emphasizes that His mission is for everyone, for the whole world.
Verse 14, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him."
Verse 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
Therefore, Jesus maintained from his early ministry and all throughout it that he came to minister to the whole world.
The living water that leads to eternal life is available for all.
To receive the living water that leads to everlasting life, one must have a thirst for it.
The living water that leads to eternal life is only available through Jesus Christ.