An Encounter With Jesus (Sermon 180318)

Good morning church, and a warm welcome to the boys/girls from the Boys’ Brigade/Girls’ Brigade who are here for their enrolment service today. This morning our scripture text is taken from a famous passage that many would be familiar with, one where Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well. The reason why I chose this text today is because this passage always reminds me about the power of encountering Jesus. For non-believers, the first encounter with Jesus is always transformative, and leaves people changed. For believers, there are lessons to be learnt about Jesus’ approach to evangelism and additionally, to not forget to come to Jesus and to meet Him in His word regularly. As the passage is long, I will be reading the Scripture passage for us. Let us listen to God’s word. 

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³ he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. ⁴ And he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.^[a]

⁷ A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 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 again.^[b] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

²⁷ Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

This is the Word of God. Thanks be to God.

Let us pray.

Dear Lord,

We pray that you will open our eyes to see the truth of who You are, our ears to hear what You have to say, and our hearts to respond to the truth of Your Word. Hide me behind the Cross and may the Holy Spirit move us to be doers and not just hearers of Your Word. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

In today’s passage we find a very interesting encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. In unpacking the passage I would like to share some of my observations along the way: what we can learn from Jesus as His disciples, but also the nature of who Jesus is. I say that this encounter is interesting, because of its incredible unlikeliness of these two characters meeting together, much less have a conversation, and a theological one at that.

We grasp some sense of enmity and hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans most starkly through the Bible’s parenthesis in verse 9 that says ‘For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans’. Why is this so? In order to answer this question we need to have a quick history lesson about the context, which will help us better understand why this encounter is so incredible. The Samaritans were basically Jews that intermarried with non-Jews during the Assyrian conquest of Israel (the northern kingdom). The Assyrians took most of the Israelites into captivity and resettled the land known as Samaria. We see the biblical evidence of this in 2 Kings 17:24 The foreigners brought with them their pagan idols, which the remaining Jews began to worship alongside the God of Israel (2 Kings 17:29) Because of this, the Jews, who were of ‘pure’ blood and worshipped only one God, hated the mixed marriages and polytheistic worship of their northern cousins, which served to intensify the animosity and hatred between these two groups.

Now the Jews would not deign to even touch a Samaritan with a ten foot long pole, and vice versa. What then, was Jesus doing? I would like to suggest, for my first observation, that

1)    Jesus was intentional and countercultural 

Do you think that Jesus did not know of the hatred between Jews and Samaritans? Of course he did. This encounter is hardly one of chance, but was one filled with intentionality. He knew there was someone he needed to minister to. In v4 the text tells us that “he HAD to pass through Samaria”. Historically, Jews tended to avoid Samaria en route to Galilee, even though it was a shorter route, yet Jesus did not shy away from a possible confrontation with a Samaritan. In fact, as a religious teacher Jesus was of honourable repute, and on many occasions in the Gospels Jesus demonstrates almost casual indifference to others’ opinions when he defies established social norms and customs e.g. shunning the ‘sinful’ – this he does intentionally, to reach the ‘sinners’. He does not concern himself about what others thought about him as a religious teacher, and does not let their opinions hinder his ministry to those who truly need him.

Jesus’ tone to the woman is almost commanding at first reading, and he uses an imperative verb ‘give’ in v7, “Give me a drink”. Jesus’ thirst reveals a theological point – that he was the son of God, yet he was fully human. He wearied and thirsted. Now when he says this it is almost awkward because the 1^st century Jewish social customs were all about propriety. The women were not supposed to interact or communicate with men in public unless they were from the same household. Women were almost always expected to be only in their homes, and women were separated from men in private, public and religious life. Thus it was unthinkable that Jesus spoke to this woman, much less demanding water of her, because of the two levels of barriers that separate them, first of gender, second of race.

Now, I am not advocating going against established social norms for its own sake in a bid to follow what Jesus did. I will show later that Jesus’ question is a pointed one, that served the twofold purpose of meeting his physical thirst yet eliciting the woman’s curiosity about who he is. What I am suggesting however, are the implications for evangelism here. There are 2 points here. The first, is that Jesus was intentional – he took the route through Samaria. He did not say oh let’s see what today brings – maybe I’ll get to talk to someone about salvation, but ‘he had to pass through Samaria’ hints to us that he knew he was going to minister to someone here. The second point is that Jesus was countercultural, and did not fear being different or attracting the wrong attention. Jesus was unafraid of ‘offending’ people’s sensibilities because a soul was at stake. Many times what impedes our desire for evangelism may be discomfort and awkwardness, but if we go beyond that and remember that the cost of our ‘face’ is an lost opportunity for sharing Christ, we may find that God uses us WHEN we step out of our comfort zones.

At this point, it is important to ask why Jesus broached the subject of water. Water is highly interesting because it represents many things. What is one thing that water is associated with? … Life! Did you know that the human body is made up of about 60% water? Did you also know that a typical human can survive up to 3 weeks without food, but only up to a few days without water? Water is simply essential for survival, and both the Samaritan woman and Jesus knew this. However, the Samaritan woman did not know that Jesus was the ‘living water’, which brings me to my second point.

2)    Jesus is source of the living water – the giver of everlasting life

Jesus’ entry to the conversation is anchored on a physical need – the need for water. He uses this to get the Samaritan woman curious about what he had to offer. In v9, upon being asked for water by Jesus, the woman first responds with surprise at being approached by Jesus. Jesus then very skilfully re-orients the conversation to include a spiritual aspect, as if he knew there was a spiritual need, a curiosity in the woman about the things of God. Listen to what he says in v10 “if you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water”.

Now, the words ‘living water’ is of great interest. The Greek word for ‘living’ is ‘za-o’, and is primarily a verb. This word has various meanings, conveying the idea ‘to live’, and also the idea of ‘vigour’ and ‘strength’. Because of this understanding, the first century Jew would have immediately thought (as did the Samaritan woman) of a spring or river, which is what she presumed he was referring to. Jesus’ pun however, was much deeper than a well . In using the words ‘living water’, Jesus was referring to meeting a spiritual need, while the woman’s mind was still fixed on the physical need of drinking water.

The issue here is that while the Samaritan woman’s understanding of water remained water that quenched a physical thirst, Jesus was referring to water that quenched a spiritual thirst, a water that gave eternal life. This word appears a number of times in the Gospel of John, and if I can refer you to two other instances, you will realise that in both of them the reference to life has spiritual implications, and Jesus is always talking about spiritual life. (John 6:51 “I am the bread of life; John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”). Here what is most significant is that Jesus is the source of this living water – he is the giver of everlasting life. For many of us who journey through life, the incessant demands for meeting our physical needs will never satisfy. For students, we chase after grades. For adults, many chase after success and achievement, and are constantly barraged by work and its demands on our time. Some struggle with meeting basic needs. For those of us who do not yet know Jesus, just like the Samaritan woman, Jesus extends this invitation to all to experience true satisfaction, indeed, a satisfaction that lasts for eternity.

The Samaritan woman continues to question his source of water in v11, and it is clear that she is still focusing on physical water and her physical needs. She challenges his offer of water, and draws Jacob as a comparison. In v12 she says “Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well…” Of course, Jacob was a recognised patriarch in those times, and the Samaritans know that if not for Jacob, there would not be the provision of water. Of course, again there is a comparison between Jacob’s water that provides for physical life, and the living water that wells up to spiritual life that Jesus gives. Jesus is surely implying here that he IS, indeed, greater than Jacob. Where Jacob’s well water ‘gives’ physical life, Jesus gives spiritual, eternal life.

Jesus shows this by making reference to eternal life twice, once in the idea of not being thirsty again in v14, and next when he mentions eternal life in v14. Astounded, yet being practically-minded, the woman then asks him for this water, but in her response in v15 it seems to be that her motivation for asking is again desiring to meet her physical needs. How incredible it would be to never thirst! Yet Jesus’ offer is not to quench our physical thirst, but to quench our spiritual thirst. He is the source of living water that gives us eternal life.

The third point I would like to touch on is how the Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus is transformative. From the time she heard his audacious opening question to the time she left him, it is as if she became a different person.

3)    Jesus transforms us – brokenness of the Samaritan woman; later joy and sharing of the ‘gospel’, of who Jesus is

At v16 it can be a little puzzling why Jesus shifts the tenor of the conversation almost as if to something completely irrelevant and random. It is almost interrogative and too personal for comfort, considering that they are strangers. Surely if a random person came up to you to strike a conversation and the first question he or she asks is, where is your spouse? It would disturb you and make you feel weird. However, I would like to suggest that his questions moved from the area of physical needs and literal needs e.g. thirst, to the area of emotional and spiritual needs e.g. brokenness and rejection. Why do I say this? I am not saying that Jesus does not meet physical needs – we have heard of many miraculous stories of how through prayers people’s literal, felt needs get met in spectacular ways. However, in the context of this story Jesus was trying to show that there was a deeper need in the Samaritan woman, and by extension, in us as well.

The Samaritan woman here, on closer inspection, is no ordinary woman. Why does she go to the well at the sixth hour (at noon)? Women usually went to collect water early in the morning, not at noon. Commentators suggest that because of her unique circumstances that Jesus prophetically reveals to her (showing that He is divine as much as human here), she is an outcast. Presumably she is concerned about people learning about her current status, and gossip about her. Let us take a bit of time to examine what Jesus says. This woman has no husband at present. Yet she has had five husbands. And the man she is living with is not her husband. In first century Middle East women have no right to divorce. Only the men can initiate divorce. Instead of thinking what kind of woman she is and condemning her, we should be reflecting on what kind of pain and hurt she must have had gone through, again, and again. Here stands a woman who was broken and bears the weight of great emotional scars. Surely she was looking for something but has not found it yet.

She replies Jesus with a factual statement, and I want to bring your attention to v18-19 , where because of Jesus’ prophetic knowledge of her personal life, her mind is turned now to spiritual things as she asked him a theological question regarding the differences between where Jews and Samaritans worship. Without going into the details of the conversation at this segment, which requires another whole sermon to expound on, I would just like to highlight some observations. The Samaritan woman, despite being some sort of social outcast because of her background and circumstances, has some grasp and understanding of religious knowledge. She knows the differences in the worship of Jews and Samaritans.  She also knows, in v25, that the Messiah is coming. And in v26 the revelation is that, Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One, the promised deliverer.

If you retrace the flow of the conversation, you will notice that who Jesus is to the Samaritan woman gradually changes in the course of the passage:

1)    Enemy – v9 Jew vs Samaritan

2)    Stranger – v11 “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water”

3)    Prophet – v19 “I perceive that you are a prophet”

4)    Messiah – v26 “I who speak to you am he”

Where is the transformation? Let us look at v28-29 

“So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

Some foods are average. Some foods are good. Some foods are excellent. But every once in a long while you come across a food that you can confidently tell people – this is life-changing.

This is a picture taken by me, on my previous holiday to Japan. The shop name is Shin Udon, in Tokyo. This is without a doubt, the best udon I have eaten in my life.

Of course, when we say ‘life-changing’, the use of the word is hyperbole – we are emphasizing how great and good it is. We go out and tell people about it. No, sorry, we post it on Instagram and Instastory. Surely then, the impact Jesus had on the woman was ‘life-changing’ in the truest sense of the word, and not just a matter of exaggeration.

Remember she is a social outcast. She is now witnessing to the people around her, and telling them about Jesus, the Messiah. The result? v30 “They went out of the town and were coming to him”. She went and told people about it, because she truly had a life-changing experience with the Messiah.

What can we conclude then?

-       Salvation that Jesus offers is given to all on condition of faith, regardless of nationality, politics or race. It doesn’t matter who you are and where you are from – Jesus cares.

-       Jesus is the living water, and from him flows everlasting life – only he can meet our deepest spiritual needs and give us eternal life

-       Jesus can transform us – we come to him broken and are our lives are changed

Jesus says that

“whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.^[b] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. Are you thirsty? Jesus is the only one who can meet our deepest needs. Amen.