Expanding Horizons

2 Corinthians 5:14-21                 John 4:1-42

Expanding Horizons

One Sunday, a minister began his sermon this way: “I’d like to make three points today. First, there are millions of people around the world today who have never heard about Jesus. Second, most of us sitting here today don’t give a damn about that.” After a lengthy pause, he added: “My third point is that you are more concerned that I said the word ‘damn’ than you are about the millions of people who have never heard about Jesus.”

Now, in the passage we have before us, Jesus used similar shock tactics to firstly bring an estranged woman and the inhabitants of her village into the kingdom, and secondly to bring home to his disinclined disciples their responsibility in making disciples cross-culturally. 

The apostle John wrote this account in two parallel sections, first dealing with the Samaritan woman and then dealing with the disciples and the other Samaritans. It is a passage filled with contrasts, as a woman who was shunned by all because of her challenging circumstances, became the unlikely means Jesus used to reveal himself to the villagers. It is instructive to note that at that time and in that culture, women were not allowed to divorce their husbands, while husbands, on the other hand, were allowed to divorce their wives for just about any reason, like if she burnt his breakfast. (1)  Now, while we don’t really know why this woman had five husbands and why she was not married to the man she was living with at the time, we do know that had she committed some sexual offence as a married woman, she would have been executed, so we can be sure that she was not cast aside because of sexual impropriety. Maybe she was simply a bad cook or not as pretty as the other girls in town or perhaps, sadly, she was unable to have children, we just don’t know, but whatever her misfortune, she had been ostracised by her own community to such a degree that she no longer participated in the most basic part of village life. She came to the well alone at a time of day when most were avoiding the hot sun. How amazing then that this excluded, scorned, and rejected person became the first witness to Jesus in that Samaritan village. 

The disciples, on the other hand, who should have played her role as witnesses to Jesus, were rendered mute because they were more concerned with religious rules and cultural conventions…and with filling their empty bellies.  

And herein lies our first lesson. Focus on anything other than Jesus…whether the focus is set on rules regarding the length of skirts, hair styles, clothing, music etc, or whether the focus is set on popular modern fads and fashions or if the focus is set on other people…focus on anything other than Jesus results in us missing the point of the Gospel entirely.

Yet, as is so often the case, the purpose of God was still achieved despite the racial and ethnic bias of the disciples and their callous self-centredness. They were apparently more concerned about eating than about fulfilling the kingdom agenda…especially when it came to people historically loathed and despised. Interestingly, this event more than likely opened the way for Philip’s later mission as recorded in Acts 8. 

Be that as it may, the passage begins by telling us that our Lord was forced to retreat to the relative safety of Galilee because of the hostile behaviour of the Pharisees in Judea. His time had not yet come and so he simply left. However, John tells us that Jesus needed to go through Samaria. Now, to us this does not seem like a big deal, but at the time, religious Jews concerned with ritual purity, preferred to take the longer route along the Jordan valley. They regarded the Samaritans as ‘unclean’ as they were a mixed race with a mixed religion. 

John seems to indicate that the ‘need’ here was not one of human necessity, but of divine compulsion…it is as if Jesus was being driven into Samaria to fulfil a divine appointment revealed to him by the Father. Later in John, Jesus said that he only did what the Father told him to do, so we can safely assume that this was the case here too. Jesus needed to go as love compelled him to do so. As Paul said later in his letter to the Corinthians: “…the love of Christ compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them all and was raised again.” This is other-person-centred-love in action. 

In the first letter to the Corinthians, he said something similar: “For if I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to boast about because necessity is laid upon me. Yes, woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel!” And herein lies our second lesson. Do we sense that same compulsion to tell others about Jesus? Do we move with divinely determined direction? Or are we more like these disciples than like Jesus or Paul?

The location where Jesus met this Samaritan woman is historically significant. At the foot of the Samaritan’s most holy mountain, lay Jacob’s well. Like with the Qur’anic switch from Isaac to Ishmael, the Samaritan Pentateuch switched from Mount Ebal to Mount Gerizim. According to the Masoretic text, in Deuteronomy 27:5 Moses commanded the Israelites to build an altar on Mount Ebal. But the Samaritan Pentateuch changed the name “Ebal” to "Gerizim", therefore stating that Moses commanded the building of the altar on Mount Gerizim. While it is possible that a later, post-exilic redactor purposefully changed the names because of the location of the Samaritan altar, the fact remains that Jesus met the Samaritan woman on Samaritan holy ground. 

The Samaritans had built a temple on Mount Gerizim during the Persian period, but this was destroyed by the Jews in 128 BC, complicating relationships even further. And then to muddle things up even more, the Samaritans only considered the Pentateuch as divinely inspired Scripture, thus any reference to Mount Moriah, Mount Zion, or Jerusalem was disregarded. 

The area itself was rich in history. Here Jacob had dug a well for his family and flocks. On his deathbed, he gave the land to Joseph and eventually Joseph’s body was carried back from Egypt and buried there. Accordingly, the Samaritans considered themselves offspring of Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph and his Egyptian wife, but they were also mixed with other conquered races brought there by Syria after they conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In short, it was a monumental mix up of places and spaces and races.

But the most important reason for the choice of this well, was that God had an appointment with a human being in desperate need of love and salvation. The whole scene is divinely orchestrated as Jesus gently leads her to life.

It all began with a need. His need.

Jesus was wearied from the journey. He was tired and thirsty. The ostracised woman also had a need. A need to be wanted for who she was, not for what she could do or produce. She was, no doubt, tired of being an object of gossip or whispering and, I can only imagine her guard going up as she approached the well she had thought would be unoccupied. 

But instead of homing in on the possible causes of her misery, Jesus elevated her to a position above himself by stating his need. He simply asked her, “Will you give me a drink?” 

Just as an aside, verse 8 tells us that the disciples had gone into town to look for food. How they wangled their way out of the dietary and purity laws, the text does not say, but the important thing to note here is that their absence seems to have been divinely planned. Too many men or unkind racial remarks may have ruined Jesus’ method. It is equally important to note the word ‘food’ as it is used again in the later section dealing with the disciples. 

Jesus’ request seemed to disarm the woman completely. Her initial seemingly sarcastic objection to the request may have been based on the historic tension I mentioned before. No Jew, much less a Jewish Rabbi, would ever speak to a woman, especially a Samaritan woman, and they would most certainly not have accepted something from her hand. But by flaunting cultural and societal taboos, Jesus opened a way to introduce the whole village to the Gospel. 

His statement in verse 10 is interesting. Usually living or moving or running water stood in contrast to standing or pooled or contained water. Of course, we know that Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit, but she seemed blinded by her harsh material world. How she may have dreamed of never having to come to this well again…never having to risk being humiliated or humbled again. To be free from all that shamed her. 

But the point is that throughout this passage Jesus indicated that the old way of doing things was about to give way to the new way. The “lifeless” was going to be replaced with the “lifegiving”. The standing water was about to move aside as the living water was poured out. Temples, altars, mountains, wells, national or racial division…all would end as the Kingdom of God burst onto the scene of human history and brought an end to all things used to divide. In Jesus, all would be one. 

The woman, like Nicodemus, at first did not understand. Jesus had no container with which to draw water. Was he mocking her? Her reply appears to be defensive. “Who do you think you are? Do you think you’re better than us? We are the descendants of Jacob, and you are standing on our holy ground here.” As they would say in the southern states of the US, them’s fighting words! And here’s the next lesson for us. When talking to someone about Jesus, don’t take the bait…they will bait you will all sorts of side issues…sexual issues, social issues, and so on. But Jesus did not go down that rabbit trail. 

He zeroed in on the great difference between man-made rules, ritual, and religion on the one hand, and true worship on the other. While the former demands more and more effort from the person, the latter demands an awareness of powerless inability. Without living water poured into us, we will remain stagnant and dead. 

In parabolic fashion, Jesus basically told her that if she continued to drink from the well of human tradition, she would simply never be free from her misery. Whatever her need might have been, it would remain unfulfilled. However, if she would drink from the living water, her restless search for fulfilment would come to an end. The Spirit of the living God would quench every kind of thirst in her. 

Now, while there are many similarities between this woman and Nicodemus, Jesus’ response to her was different. Did you notice that he did not chastise her for her apparent ignorance? Instead, he gently yet persistently and irresistibly drew her to the deeper matters of life. 

But what he then said must have been a bit of a disappointment. By asking her to bring her husband, he was exposing the very reason why she was an outcaste. Her reply appears to be flat and dismissive, like someone who has been so deeply wounded that they would rather not talk about the subject. “I have no husband.” A sad sentence on so many levels.

Imagine now her shock when Jesus revealed her whole miserable past…how she had been passed on from one wretch to another and how with every passing on, her dignity was eroded in the eyes of her society. She wasn’t even married to the last man…who knows why…but in that culture she needed a man if she was to survive without sons to take care of her. This last one could not have been an honourable man, otherwise he would have married her, so who knows what she had to live with.

Her reply in verse 19 has often been interpreted as a last stand of defiance…but I think that her opening remark reveals someone who is willing to explore an alternative to her own narrative. She concedes that he must be a holy man as he spoke like a prophet. This may have been her way of asking for guidance. Should she abandon her people and become a Jew? 

But Jesus showed her that the visible vestiges and material elements of the past were but shadows of a greater spiritual reality. There was no longer a place to worship as much as a person to worship. So, what she needed was a change of heart…not a change of status, or location, or nationality, or even ability. She did not need an altar, a mountain, a temple, or a well. She needed the one who stood before her.

I think she understood that, at least in part, as with apparent surrender, her next statement laid bare the cavernous nothingness she must have been aware of all her life…a void within her that only God could fill. This stranger…this Jewish man…this possible prophet had exposed the raw pain that was her life. Could it be that he was the promised one? 

It is astounding to note at this point, that this is the first time Jesus revealed his messianic identity. He had not even told his disciples yet…in fact he never really did. True, he accepted statements made by his disciples to that effect, but it was the ostracised outcaste of Samaria that heard the declaration clearly, “I am he.” 

And herein lies the final lesson for today. What book have you judged by its cover? Is there someone you avoid because they are of a different social standing or of a different nationality or of a different persuasion? Next week, we will look at how Jesus dealt with his disciples who were shocked that he was speaking to this woman, but before we examine them, perhaps we need to examine ourselves first. Where are we right now? Are we standing with Jesus, or are we off with the disciples? Are we concerned enough about the lostness of the people around us that we would be willing to step out of our comfort zones and swallow our pride, so that we could come alongside those who need to hear a loving, gentle, persistent word of hope? 

There are many very unfortunate and unfulfilled people in our world today, who are tirelessly yet unsuccessfully striving to fill their sense of emptiness with several unreliable options that have absolutely no lasting value. This unhappiness is evident in the rising number of anger related violence, mental health issues (such as debilitating depression and anxiety), alcohol and drug abuse (including prescription medication), suicides, protests, riots, and wars. Many are victims of this discontent and despondency as they are used, abused, and exploited to satisfy the insatiable desires of those who are more influential and powerful. 

This is very similar to the reality of life in the Ancient Near East during the 1st Century. Despair gave rise to unrest and rebellion and, in turn, to crushing defeat. People cried out for deliverance, but as is the case today, they often looked for release in all the wrong places. Their Messianic dreams and yearnings were clouded by their hunger for vindication and revenge. Many had simply given up hope. 

So, may I exhort you all to prayerfully consider Jesus’ method in his approach to one such form of emptiness and to ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in the same way…to engage people intentionally and purposefully as you lovingly uncover the void and gently yet firmly present them with the better way to living life?

Shall we pray?

“Lord Jesus may the living water of your Holy Spirit lead us as you were led to those who in their pain seek solace and isolation at the proverbial wells of this world, so that we too might experience the compulsion to speak the lifegiving Gospel into the emptiness of their souls. Amen.”

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023

(1) The Mishna on Gittin 90a states: [He may divorce his wife] even if she burned his dish, as it is stated: “Because he has found some unseemly matter in her”. Rabbi Akiva says: even if he found another woman who is prettier than her, as it is stated “And it comes to pass, if she finds no favour in his eyes” (Deuteronomy 24:1).