The Power to Give Life

Interview

Jesus initiates the conversation  – again note the presence of water as an element of the narrative and eventually as a symbol of life. Here he asked for a drink and in the possible parallel of John 19, Jesus stated, “I thirst.” (John 19:28).

1. The woman remarks at the incongruity of the request. Perhaps it was ironic to her that the despised Samaritan was in the position of meeting the need of a weary Jew, and he had consented to recognize her advantage at this point. In Luke 10, Jesus tells a story about a Samaritan that was in a position to aid a needy Jew.

2. In addition, not only was she a Samaritan, but she was a woman. The apparent parity of the engagement took her back, and perhaps some bit of conscience about her life gave her pause.

He compares the recurring need for physical replenishment to the nature of eternal life. Note that number of rich items he immediately introduces into the discussion.

1. The gift of God – In spite of our unworthiness, God is poised to give needy person a gift of incomprehensible proportions. Recall Paul’s extended exposition of grace in Ephesians 1 and 2, summarizing it with these words, “and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.

2. Who it is that is speaking to you. This “chance” happening had put this outcast, downtrodden woman, and untouchable reject among an untouchable people with the Creator of the world who had come into it to redeem it. On the one hand nothing is more incongruous than this interview, but on the other nothing more at the heart of Jesus’ mission. This contact establishes clearly who he is, Jesus, the one who saves his people from their sins.

3. She should be the one that recognizes her need. [“You would have asked him”]. Though he was, indeed, not just feignedly, weary and in need of a drink of water for physical refreshment, she had an eternal need for life. She was not merely tired spiritually, but dead, not merely oppressed by the heat of a journey, but under condemnation because of an insurmountable load of sin. She should be doing the asking, not he.

4. Living water.- What an image! This image extends the conversation into the very point he was driving at.

Though the image is puzzling, she is undaunted in pressing him for greater clarity. Her narrative proceeds with an observation and a question based on that observation. Then she asks another question that establishes a challenge for Jesus to go further in telling her just how great is this water he will provide.

Since it was clear that he had nothing with which he could draw water from the well before them, She wanted to know the source of this “living water.” An excellent question indeed!

For Jesus to have something that would provided her with more than this well had provided al her life he must be superior to the ne that provided it; so naturally she queries, “Are you greater than our father Jacob?”

That well had served Jacob, his sons, his livestock and had kept providing water generation after generation right up until her present need for water in her household. What Jesus had must be very impressive to outstrip the provisions of that well.

5. verses 13, 14 – As he had done with Nicodemus, Jesus now shows that analogous relationship that things in the natural world (created by God) have to spiritual realities.

The satisfaction granted to a physical need by a physical thing will be short-lived and will have to be done again. The implication is that much less can any created thing meet the spiritual need that has led, as Jesus soon will point out, to the tumultuous bungling of relationships that has plagued this woman’s life.

The water that Jesus gives is not from the deep well before them, but from the infinite depths of his own being as Son of God whose death will forgive sins and whose grace will grant the adoption of sons through the Spirit, and the end thereof, eternal life. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

So intriguing are this possibility and the apparent confidence that Jesus has that he can give it that the woman asks for it. Who would not want such a gift; but the character of both the need and the thirst-quenching gift must now be explored. The blessing of eternal life, freedom from frustration and want, freedom from the threat of divine wrath and other blessings have an attraction all their own. But the path to reception of them calls for an awareness of the strength of the barriers to such life.

Her personal sin and dissatisfaction [16-18]. Jesus begins to point out both the sin and the frustration of her life.

1. Clearly symptomatic of her problem was that serial adultery under the guise of marriage that punctuated the short clauses of her life. Again, as we have seen as a theme in John [e.g  1:47, 48; 2:25], Jesus knows what is in all the persons that he engages. This clearly is a function of his deity. So, knowing what her life history has been, Jesus asked the woman to bring her husband before he told her about this living water.

2. She answers truly but with the technique of mental reservation. Although, as Jesus pointed out, she has had five husbands, she does not have a husband at present, but is living with a man without the trouble of any recognizable form of vows. So Jesus said that she answered truly.

3. In light of this answer, the woman noted that Jesus is a prophet. Probably in an effort to deflect the attention away from the discomfort of looking at her personal moral failures, she turns to a well-worn religious discussion.

Conflict between Samaritans and Jews over worship leads to affirmation and expansion