Unit: Gospel of John (Part 1)
Theme: Light and Life
Lesson Text: John 4:4-26
Supplemental Texts: John 7:37-39; Revelation 21:6; Jeremiah 2:13
Aim: Ask the Lord for a drink of living water that satisfies and saves.
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Download a PDF of this week’s lesson material (the study by Mark Scott, the Application by David Faust, and Discovery Questions by Doug Redford): LOOKOUT_Dec17_2023.
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By Mark Scott
The Gospel of John is filled with contrasts: light and darkness; above and below; life and death; belief and unbelief; etc. It is also filled with words that possess a double meaning. A word can have its natural meaning, but it can also take on a deeper, more profound or symbolic meaning. For example, the word temple can describe a building (2:14), but it can also describe Jesus’ body (2:21). There is physical bread (6:5), but there is also spiritual bread (6:35). There is a blindness of the eyes (9:2), but there is also a spiritual blindness (9:40-41); And in our lesson text, we read about two kinds of water: the water we drink (4:7) and a very special kind of water only Jesus can provide (4:14).
Water
John 4:4-15
John 4 begins with Jesus’ decision to leave Judea and begin his Galilean ministry. The most direct route to Galilee was to go due north through Samaria. That, however, was not the normal route, for the Jews hated the Samaritans and took pains to avoid them. But the text says, “He had to go through Samaria.” Jesus had a divine appointment with a woman at Jacob’s well. In this encounter, Jesus shattered gender, ethnic, religious, social, and cultural barriers. Since Jesus and the Samaritan woman met at a well, the conversation naturally started with water; and it became the metaphor Jesus used to speak about salvation.
Jesus was tired from his journey. He sat down and waited for the disciples to bring food. It was high noon (likely not the normal time for women to come to a well). Jesus initiated the conversation. “Will you give me a drink?” The woman was stunned by such a forward social taboo. She brought up the barriers of ethnicity and gender. The bad blood that existed between Jews and Samaritans was well-known and had a strong historical context. Jesus bypassed the barriers and kept engaging her by saying, essentially, “You probably should be asking me for a drink, if the truth be told.” Jesus wanted to offer her the gift (translated from dorean in Greek, which is the same word used in Acts 2:38 for the Holy Spirit) of God, which was living water.
The unnamed woman did not pick up on the symbolism. She addressed Jesus politely by calling him Sir and pointed out that he had nothing from which to draw water from the well. To her credit, she was interested in this living water, as evidenced by asking whether Jesus was greater than Jacob. For sure, she knew the historical background of this well (which is preserved to this day).
Then Jesus essentially said, “There is the water in this well, and then there is the water I can give you.” Physical water is good for quenching thirst, but spiritual water can spring up to eternal life. The woman wanted in on that. At the least, she wouldn’t have to face the social stigma of coming to that well again and again.
Worship
John 4:16-26
The conversation abruptly turned when Jesus changed the topic from water to family. He asked the woman to call her husband. The literal translation from the Greek of her response is only three words, “Husband, no have.” Then Jesus revealed so much more about her. Her marriage track record was a train wreck, and the man she was living with at the time was not her husband.
Because Jesus knew such details of her life (see John 2:25), the woman now thought he was a prophet. She changed the subject, either to escape the awkwardness of the moment or perhaps because she thought worship was a subject a prophet would want to speak about.
Verses 20-24 contain more worship terminology in a condensed space than anywhere else in the Bible. Samaritan worship versus Jerusalem worship—who is right about where to worship? Jesus answered that worship was not about geography. Proper worship (the kind that has always been pleasing to God) is about the person—one who is in tune with the Spirit of God and is guided by his truth (the standard of Scripture). Since God is spirit (a stunning theological truth), he is searching every nook and cranny of the universe to find true worshipers.
The woman was confident the Messiah would sort this out when he arrived. Jesus then revealed his identity with those famous words from Exodus 3:14, “I am.” The woman progressed well in her recognition of Jesus—from a Jew, to Sir, to greater than Jacob, to prophet, to Messiah. Those who acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah will also find “the spring of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6).
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