Posts Tagged with Samaritan

“Negasaurus” is a word we like to use jokingly to describe someone who is being negative. It’s a play on a dinosaur name. When one of my sons has an idea and the other one shoots it down… Negasaurus! When we all agree on where to eat but one objects… Negasaurus! When one of us is down on ourselves and we need cheering up… Negasaurus! “Negatron” also gets thrown around a fair bit. Having sons, it’s a play on “Megatron” from the ever popular Transformers. We totally discourage “name-calling,” but these family “inside jokes” are a lighthearted way for us to let each other know we may need an attitude adjustment.

In this conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well we see her throw many objections at Jesus. She is a first-class “Negasaurus.” But Jesus doesn’t give up on her. He sticks around and answers all her objections.

John 4:7-14

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.”

Jesus says, “Give me a drink.”

Her objection

Jews don’t talk to Samaritans

Such a simple request from a thirsty man. Why does it seem she replies so harshly? She’s basically saying “Are you talking to me?” This woman has a serious mental block about a Jewish Rabbi asking her for a drink. She already knows what John parenthesized for us in verse 9, that Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. In an extreme form of religious snobbery, devout Jews would walk miles out of their way, through the Jordan Valley, to avoid contact with the Samaritans. Jews believed the Samaritans were in a constant state of “uncleanness” because they were descendants of the Northern tribes of Israel that intermarried with the pagan Assyrians after their captivity in 721 B.C. Not fully Jew, not fully Gentile, they were half-breed relics of history.

His answer

“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.”

Living water? What is that? Maybe her mind went to Jeremiah 17:13 which says, “O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.” Maybe not, as it seems she has a few more objections coming. She seems a little confused, so she asks him “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

Her Objections

You have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep.
Where is the living water?
Are you greater than Jacob?
This well is our inheritance from Jacob.

The well was indeed at least 100′ deep and possibly even deeper in that day. She knows in order to get herself, let alone this Jewish Rabbi, a drink she’s winding a long, long, long rope, and all she sees is his empty hands. Then she even challenges him. “Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” So her question is one of authority. She has this national pride. It’s almost like she’s questioning Jesus heritage in light of her own. The Jews might claim Abraham as their father but in her mind this well, being given to them by the Patriarch Jacob, gives them the authority to inhabit the place. But the answer to her question is yes, he is in fact greater than Jacob. Jesus addresses this later in the conversation so we’ll catch up on that next time.

His Answer

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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.”

Her authority is coming from the Law, the old covenant made between the Lord and the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When we live our lives trying to please God with our own self-righteousness by the law we will continue to thirst. I might be righteous by the law for a second, but the whole job of the law and the old sacrificial system is to show me I can’t be  righteous. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” James 2:10

Here Jesus is expressing the new covenant… Grace.  We can only break free of the condemnation of the law when we drink the “living water.” It is grace that tells us only Jesus takes away our sin and failure to uphold the law perfectly. Then we are finally free to stop our Negasaurus objections and have true peace with God. And that freedom and peace bubbles over, becomes like Jesus said, a spring of water welling up to eternal life… giving the grace of God generously to everyone around us.

Living Water

If you could have living water, and never be thirsty again, and by thirsty I mean knocked down, drug out, soul weary, what would you give for it? Turns out it doesn’t cost money, but humility. We must ask and believe. Jesus repeats his “living water” offer later. In John 7:38 Jesus actually quotes proverbs 18:4 and says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” John defines that “living water” for us in 7:39 saying “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Christians shouldn’t be rules lawyers, like the Pharisees, but rather “living water” drinkers. And that living water doesn’t stagnate but flows in and through our lives. There’s only one well that gives “living water.” Jesus.

Isaiah 12

This beautiful song is a powerful promise of the coming Savior. We see the grace of God, the well of salvation, and the only God worthy of our worship.

You will say in that day:
‘I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.
Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day:
‘Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.’
Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

 

Next Time

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you were encouraged, Next time we’ll cut to the heart of the issue as Jesus calls her out on sin and then reveals himself as the Messiah sent to save her from those very sins.

Further reading:

Jeremiah 17 the true heart of God for disobedient Israel, He wanted relationship but they wanted to go on sinning in idolatry and offering up sacrifices to band-aid their shame.

A wonderfully detailed article on ancient Shechem. The town Sychar (where the woman was from and the disciples went to buy food) was built near its ruins. Lots of great maps and history.