The Significance of Jesus' Interaction with the Woman at the Well

Jonathan Harden sent me this today...thought you all would enjoy it.

Whenever I read Scripture it has always been confirmed to me that there is a reason for everything: there is a reason for why the authors of the different books wrote certain things; and there is a reason why our church fathers placed the Scriptures in certain orders when it was canonized. Most especially when I read the New Testament, I see the glory and wonder through the writers of these texts. Authors, both ancient and modern, always have a choice to make: what to exclude and what to include. It is obvious that John was aware of this because at the end of his gospel he writes that there is no way on earth that I could have been able to write all that Jesus had done.

With that said, when reading Scripture, we always have to ask ourselves, why did the author choose to include this story? When we ask this and seek to answer this question, the depth and beauty of Scripture comes alive. Therefore, I took what was read last Monday in John 4 about the Samaritan woman and asked the question, “Why this story” and found something that added so much depth to the story.

The first thing that should be addressed is who John’s audience was. When we understand this, I think the rest will be much clearer. John was writing to the gentiles. This is evident through various different contributing facts. 1.) John was the latest written gospel. As Christianity began to spread, there began to be more Christian gentiles than there were Christian Jews; especially after the date 70 A.D. when Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome. A contributing factor of that would be that the Christian Jews would not support an uprising against Rome (didn’t look so good to the Jews). 2.) The language John uses in his gospel is very clearly written to a group of people who were not familiar with Jewish law, customs, and even culture. You can see this in various passages, where John actually explains in a side note what certain Hebrew or Aramaic words in Jewish culture actually meant translated into the Greek language and culture.

So, we know that John’s gospel was written to the gentiles, so what?

Let’s take a look at John 4. In this story Jesus comes to a woman at a well… a Samaritan woman. Let’s stop there… a Samaritan woman. This is a no, no according to Jewish customs. The Samaritans were half-breeds. After the kingdom had fallen, it was the Samaritans that began to fraternize with other idols. They were quite literally the scum of the earth to many of the Jews. Think of cast system in old India with the ‘untouchables.’ The same behavior would have been given to the Samaritan by the Jews. It actually was not uncommon at all, for Jews to travel the long route all the way around Samaria to get to a location rather than going straight through Samaria…. So this is very significant what Jesus is doing here.

Continuing… Jesus starts talking about living water to this Samaritan woman as a symbol of Christ’s salvation… transition to Isaiah 55:

"Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters;
 and you without money, come, buy, and eat!
 Come, buy wine and milk
 without money and without cost! (2) Why do you spend money on what is not food,
    and your wages on what does not satisfy?
 Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
 and you will enjoy the choicest of foods. (3) Pay attention and come to Me;
 listen, so that you will live.
 I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the promises assured to David."

This is very significant. Jesus was telling the Samaritan woman the same thing Isaiah was telling the people of Israel before the exile. Isaiah is telling the people of Israel why do you seek things that will only temporarily satisfy your needs ands desires, when the one thing that will keep you satisfied is free? Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the water that she knows to seek only satisfies temporarily, but the water that he can offer will allow her to thirst no more. Isaiah, similarly, is telling the people of Israel that the sustenance they are seeking, and sacrificing so much in seeking, will not fulfill them only that which comes from the Lord will sustain them.

I think this is a pretty cool parallel between the two stories, but that doesn’t really change much in terms of the significance of what Jesus is telling the Samaritan woman; Isaiah is still speaking to the Jews. But, what Isaiah has to say next, hits it out of the park. Up to this point, he is confirming Israel’s beliefs. It’s like he is setting them up only to give them the one-two, right afterwards.

'This is what the LORD says:
 "Preserve justice and do what is right, for My salvation is coming soon,
 and My righteousness will be revealed. (2) Happy is the man who does this,
 anyone who maintains this,
 who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,
 and keeps his hand from doing any evil. (3) No foreigner who has converted to the LORD
 should say,
 "The LORD will exclude me from His people"; and the eunuch should not say,
 "Look, I am a dried-up tree." (4) For the LORD says this:
 "For the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
 and choose what pleases Me,
 and hold firmly to My covenant, (5) I will give them, in My house and within My walls,
 a memorial and a name
    better than sons and daughters.
 I will give each [of them] an everlasting name
 that will never be cut off. (6) And the foreigners who convert to the LORD,
    minister to Him, love the LORD's name,
 and are His servants,
 all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it,
 and who hold firmly to My covenant— (7) I will bring them to My holy mountain and let them rejoice in My house of prayer.
 Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
    will be acceptable on My altar, for My house will be called a house of prayer
 for all nations."'

This is what makes John’s account of this story so significant. The promise Isaiah was foretelling to Israel, of God’s salvation for all nations, is being realized in this story John recollects. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise given to the people of Israel by the mouth of Isaiah. Even the Samaritan, who is considered lowly, is worth of God’s salvation.

I believe the story John tells goes one step further though. Jesus is offering this Samaritan woman a salvation that is beyond the walls of the temple. He is offering a salvation where the temple is quite literally ourselves. The physical stationary altar that Isaiah is referring to is now transformed into a living mobile one, because Christ was the last sacrifice that needed to be made on the physical altar. Therefore, our lives then become the sacrifice for God, like Christ’s was.
So, between these two texts we find that Isaiah was prophesying over a people that were about to be exiled regarding God’s salvation; Jesus was fulfilling this prophesy to those who were the exiles in they eyes of the Jews.

It’s simply amazing how Jesus turns the whole world upside down.

John 3:34-36

"For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." - John the Baptist

The Living Water

John 3: 13, "Jesus 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 will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'" -ESV