John 4 1-26 It is Not a Transaction

Yesterday we started John 4, and I did not get very far. Let’s go through the full interaction of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman.

“So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.” - ‭‭John‬ ‭4:5-6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

For some context on how special this location was, let me share this with you from a commentary. 

The city of Sychar was ancient Shechem, and was the capital city of the Samaritans.

· This is where Abram first came when he arrived into Canaan from Babylonia. (Genesis 12:6)

· This is where God first appeared to Abram in Canaan, and renewed the promise of giving the land to him and his descendants. (Genesis 12:7)

· This is where Abram built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 12:8)

· This is where Jacob came safely when he returned with his wives and children from his sojourn with Laban. (Genesis 33:18)

· This is where Jacob bought a piece of land from a Canaanite named Hamor, for 100 pieces of sliver (Genesis 33:19)

· This is where Jacob built an altar to the Lord, and called it El Elohe Israel (Genesis 33:20). This established the connection between Jacob and what became known as Jacob’s well there in Sychar.

· Sychar (Shechem) was also the place where Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, was raped – and the sons of Jacob massacred the men of the city in retaliation. (Genesis 34)

· This was the plot of ground that Jacob gave his son Joseph, land Jacob had conquered from the Amorites with his sword and bow in an unrecorded battle (Genesis 48:22)

· This is where the bones of Joseph were eventually buried when they were carried up from Egypt (Joshua 24:32)

· This is where Joshua made a covenant with Israel, renewing their commitment to the God of Israel and proclaiming, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24)

This was a very, very special place. This was a place of renewal, of victory, or remembrance, safety, and security, of tragedy and redemption, of unity and honor of the Lord. This was holy ground of sorts. But, at the same time, this location was also culturally racist and divided. For just a little more context and color on this situation, let me share this with you.

Most of the Jews in Jesus’ time despised the Samaritans, disliking them even more than Gentiles – because they were, religiously speaking, “half-breeds” who had an eclectic, mongrel faith. The Samaritans built their own temple to Yahweh on Mount Gerizim, but the Jews burned it around 128 b.c. This obviously made relations between the Jews and the Samaritans even worse.

“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. )” - ‭‭John‬ ‭4:7-9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Everything was “off” with this interaction. A Jew and a Samaritan. Not good. A man and a woman interacting. Not good. A rabbi would not traditionally speak with a woman in public, not even with his own wife. A woman coming to the well alone. Not normal. A woman coming to the well at noon, the hottest part of the day. Not normal.

So everything was off, wrong, or just out of sorts with this environment and interaction. And you know what happened? God spoke! That’s right. In the midst of a situation that was nowhere near perfect, or aligned, Christ was there and spoke to a broken, sin-filled human. This is love; this is our God, this the Jesus, the Christ. He meets us where we are in the middle of our junk and lives. What stands out to me here is the woman more than likely was coming at noon, by herself because she was a cast out of society. She was more than likely living in shame, and Jesus met her in the middle of her sin and shame. Jesus spoke first, and Jesus crossed the proverbial line, in love. Jesus is sitting at the well, ready to engage the woman, and he is sitting at the well right now, waiting for us to step into the interaction. 

If you have not read the entire interaction, do that, it is fascinating and interesting how John describes it. I am going to just focus on this next section of the text, but there is so much more to unpack and digest if you want. 

“...whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”” - ‭‭John‬ ‭4:14-15‬ ‭NIV‬‬ 

Here is where my thoughts go with this text. A human can go without food for about three weeks but would typically only last three to four days without water. We need water to live, and can not go very long without it. We also crave liquid and have a desire to consume liquids regularly, which often get misinterpreted for hunger. We long for water because we need it to live. This interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman was about longing for life, longing for a connection with God, and Jesus was using water as the perfect illustration to make that connection. This interaction was not about eternal life in the “after-life” this was eternal life today, right now, living life to the full. 

As I process this and dive into the text here, this eternal life offered by the Son of God is not a one time drink...we drink multiple times per day and long for liquids with our thirst. Jesus gives us the spiritual refreshment we need, what we in our hearts and lives we desire, and we need to live off that regularly, continually drinking the spring of life offered by Jesus. But, the woman looked at this often like we do, as a human does. It was a transaction of ease. The woman said to Jesus; sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. The woman saw this as something that would make her life easier, not transformative. She saw this as a one time deal, and then she would be done. Oh, how convicting this feels. Jesus sits waiting to embrace us, to receive us, and we see this as a one and done interaction, one that is centered on us, and that is a transaction. 

Life in Christ is not about a transaction or a series of transactions. Life in Christ is about a thirst for a relationship with the creator of the universe. A intimacy that draws us to Jesus throughout the day, no matter what we are carrying with us. Shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, anger, depression, whatever we have in our buckets and bags we take before Christ, and he accepts us and receives us as we are, and fills us with eternal life, and washing us clean. God is Love, He is Good, and He looks like Jesus.