John-Living Water
Orient John 4:1-42
Today’s reading is another encounter story. This time, instead of interacting with a Jewish male who is a respected teacher and leader, Jesus witnesses to Nicodemus’s polar opposite-- a Samaritan woman, who is living in sin. Yet the conversation has the same focus; everyone needs eternal life. This vignette shows Jesus wants all to be saved no matter their ethnicity, gender or place in society. At the end of the encounter with the woman, Jesus gets a chance to teach his disciples about salvation through symbolism of the harvest and how satisfying it is to do God’s will. Ending the section, the transformation and testimony of the women, like the harvest Jesus speaks of, multiples into more believing He is the Messiah. Interestingly, this section is the only place in John where Jesus clearly reveals himself as the Messiah before His trial before Pilate.
Introduction
How do you avoid shame? We all do it. No matter what our circumstances, we avoid being in situations where we are reminded of our past mistakes. Today’s story describes a woman in the same situation. She has gone from man to man, living with them to find affection and love. In fact, she avoids going to the well each day to get water during the cool of the day because the other women are there. Yet Jesus finds her and knowing who she is and what she has done, still offers her Himself. As you read today, consider the grace of Jesus who knows our deepest shame and still loves us.
Opening Prayer
Lord, I’m thirsty for You. Use this time where I drink deeply of Your word to fill me up. Help me to experience satisfaction through Your living water. Refresh me, renew me, revive me. Spring up within me a well of spiritual fruit. Amen
Meditation
Read and reread the following passage, taking God’s word in deeply. As you do be sensitive to a phrase or verse the Holy Spirit emphasizes to you personally.
1 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.
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.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.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Paraphrase
Rewrite the phrase or verse that the Holy Spirit highlighted during meditation. What is your take away?
Reflect
1. Jesus breaks social norms by speaking with a woman, who is a Samaritan, who is also immoral. His disciples marveled at this[1]. How often do you write off certain people’s response to the gospel because of your bias?
2. Jesus tells the woman in vs. 14 that the water He gives her will satisfy her greatest spiritual need-to know God. Have you noticed that the more of God you know, the more of Him you want to know? Where those that haven’t come to faith have a spiritual need that will never be satisfied, the Christian has a spiritual desire to continuingly fill themselves with that which does satisfy. Have you been drinking deeply from God? Psalm 42:2 says our soul thirsts for God. Have you been satisfying yourself with Him or other things?
3. When you worship, do you think what pleases you or pleases God? In this section, Jesus explains the type of worshiper God is seeking-one that worships in spirit and in truth. When you meet with God on Sundays or other private moments throughout your week, is your spirit involved? Are you worshiping in truth, with an accurate view of who God is? If you aren’t sure your view of God is accurate, consider your source about what you know of God. Is it coming from the Scripture or another source?
4. The disciples bring Jesus food, and He explains that He is satisfied by obeying God. Is there an area of your life where you are in disobedience? Have you considered that obeying God will actually give you the “nourishment” you are seeking in your disobedience?
5. When the woman’s life becomes transformed, she shares what has happed with everyone in town. Her message was grace. Jesus knew everything she had ever done, as the people in the town did, and still accepted her. Based on her testimony, they came to see for themselves and ended up trusting in Him too. When we tell people about Jesus, we have to trust that an encounter with Him will be the thing they need to convince them of His authenticity. Do you usually trust Jesus to show people who He is or put pressure on yourself to convince them?
Closing Prayer
Jesus, thank You for Your grace to me. When I first came to You with my sin, You knew everything I had ever done and would do and paid for it with Your life. Because of You, I have full access to the Father and eternal life welling up within me. Like the woman, I want to tell others about You and lead them to the only thing that will satisfy. Create opportunities for me to share. You said that the field is white for the harvest, send me, Your worker into the field. I want to rejoice with you as many come become satisfied in You. You indeed are Savior of the world.
Continue praying personally to the Lord with what He showed you during mediation and reflection.
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