Sermon: The Samaritan Evangelist
Bible Passage: John 4:4-38
I. The larger passage starts in John 2:1 and ends in John 4:54
1. Starts in Cana and ends in Cana (according to the narrator, this is Jesus’ first Jerusalem visit)
2. Starts with the miracle of “water turning into wine” and ends with “the healing of the son of a royal official”
3. In this large section, Jesus teaches the emptiness of Jewish religion, institutions, and religious practices
4. Nicodemus of Jerusalem and the Samaritan woman of Samaria are placed side by side (narrator’s dialogue partners with Jesus)—disruption envisaged
5. There are apparent comparisons in this passage (just like the younger and older sons of Luke 15, last week’s sermon)
a. Jerusalem and Samaria
b. Temple in Jerusalem and Temple in Mount Gerizim
c. Religious man, Nicodemus, and Samaritan woman who is implicitly a woman of bad moral
II. Nicodemus
1. Religiously powerful—a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council (3:1)
2. Orthodox & theologically trained
3. Met Jesus at night (3:2)
4. Does not respond positively (at least immediately) to Jesus
III. Samaritan woman
1. Not necessarily educated
2. Messed up relationships (five divorces! And now live-in relationship)
3. Lonely (stigma)
4. Middle of the day
5. Responds to Jesus immediately (comes empty but goes back completely transformed)
IV. Unusual things
1. Jesus came to Samaria—a divine necessity (verse 4:4a “had to”)—defied political, religious, cultural limitations/boundaries (4:9)
2. The incident happens at about sixth hour (noon) (4:6)—an odd number in John (cf. six empty jars 2:6)—symbolisms, double meaning “Johannine irony”
3. Jesus strikes a conversation with a Samaritan woman (socially, morally, and spiritually lost person)
a. She was lonely and possibly isolated from the others (verse 4:7)
b. Life style (bad decisions, trying different things to satisfy)
c. Public shame
d. She was carrying an empty jar (“empty pot” Johannine symbolism) (cf. verse 4:7, 28)
e. She had five husbands and now in a live-in relationship—morally lost (verse 4:8)—sought from men what only God can give
f. She appeared to be religious but spiritually lost just like Nicodemus—Jerusalem and Gerizim (verse 4:20)
g. We expect a person like Jesus not to speak with her; it’s unbecoming of Jesus to talk to a woman like her (explain from the older son)
h. “Will you give me a drink” (verse 7)
i. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink” (verse 9)
o. Jesus developing a conversation with her was a shock to the her
4. Jesus introduces Himself to the woman as the “Gift of God” who gives living water to her if she asked Him (verse 10)
a. “gift” is something the other person does not work towards
b. “gift of God” is “the gift” that originates from God
c. “If you had known” points to ignorance, depravity
d. The initiative is Jesus’; it’s not the woman’s
e. Jesus knew that the woman’s need was not necessarily water, but a life from her deadness (this life needs to be a gift only Jesus has it)
5. “The gift of God” that is offered to her is the “living water” (verse 10)—“living water” as opposed to “stagnant water”
a. It refers to a new life
b. John 7:38 let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Verse 39 (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive
c. “living water” is a life that is in line with the activity of the Spirit
6. Unless it is a gift, this woman could never get it
7. The woman cannot/does not merit it, but it has to be a gift freely given
8. Only Jesus can give her freely through the Holy Spirit’s regeneration of her dead-heart
9. The living water Jesus gives is the life communicated through the Holy Spirit
10. Jesus tells her that man will never be quenched with what the world gives (verse 13)
11. On the other hand, Jesus is the One who quenches man’s thirst forever (verse 14)
12. The gift “Jesus” in a believer becomes a fountain of life—eternal life (verse 14)
V. Observations on verses 7-14
1. Jesus’ acceptance of the woman is not based on her nationality or her background
2. In fact, her background points to how much she was undeserving in human terms, and how gracious Jesus is
3. Jesus is not judgmental of her past
4. Her unmet needs she tried to seek in wrong places
5. Behind human behavior, there is something beneath that can be met only by God through Jesus communicated by the Holy Spirit
6. Legalism prevents you from coming to God, but God allows an undeserving sinner to come to Him
VI. The Samaritan woman responds to the Gift of God, the “Spring of Water” (verse 15)
1. She recognizes the need for Jesus and makes a confession: “I can see that you are the prophet”—Tahib (verse19) “regeneration”
2. She requests Jesus “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water” (verse 15) “response”
3. She left her water jar (verse 28), in order to enjoy the new and living water—renunciation of the old, spiritual and moral, in favor of worship in spirit and truth (“fruit of her salvation”)
4. She is willing to bear witness to the very people she avoided before she met with Jesus
VII. Jesus is God’s gift to those who are empty, morally, spiritually, and socially corrupt
Take Away:
1. Ask Jesus to give you the living water
2. Cross cultural, political, and geographical boundaries to share about God’s gift