Devotional Questions:
John 4:1-18
“The shortest route from Jerusalem to Galilee lay on the high road straight through Samaritan territory. Many Jews would not travel by that road, for they regarded any contact with Samaritans as defiling. Immediately after the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 B.C., the Assyrians had deported the Israelites from their land and had resettled it with captives from other countries. These had brought with them their own gods, whose worship they had combined with remnants of the worship of Jehovah and Baal in a mongrel type of religion […] By the time of Jesus a strong rivalry and hatred prevailed.”[1]
“Women customarily went to the well when it was cool, either in the morning or in the evening. This offered them interaction as well as water. This woman’s coming along in the heat of the day suggests that she was an outcast.”[2]
- Why did the woman avoid people (v.18)? How do the shameful things in my life (past and present) affect how I relate to people? What can I learn about the nature of sin through this?
- What must have driven this Samaritan woman to keep repeating a failed life strategy? What are the ways in which the description of this woman is an accurate description of the human predicament?
- What must have Jesus been feeling as he said v.10? Do I know the gift of God, and who it is that came to offer me the living water, and how does this impact me today?
- How would the woman have felt upon hearing Jesus telling her to bring her husband? What lessons can I learn about what is required in order to relate with God? What must I face in order to relate with God?
John 4:20-24
- What misconception about worship did Jesus clarify for the Samaritan woman? What are the ways in which modern people also try to “localize” and confine the presence of God?
- What does it mean to worship God “in spirit and in truth?” What is the truth that I need to acknowledge?
Additional Questions:
John 4:28-30
- Considering the likelihood that the woman went to the well at this uncommon hour in order to avoid people, what is surprising about how she is relating to the townspeople now?
- What are the fears and shame that she has been freed from? How have I experienced this freedom because of Jesus?
John 4:46-53
- What did the royal official think was required in order for his son to be healed? In what similar ways do people place certain pre-conceived notions on how God should work?
- What is surprising about the royal official’s response to Jesus’ reply in v. 50?
- When was the last time I “took Jesus at his word” and put my “feet” into obedient action?
- Why does the royal official ask about the time when his son began to get better if he already “took Jesus at his word?” What were the steps between being told to go, and the point when “he and all his household believed?” What can I learn about how faith grows? What practical steps do I need to take to develop my faith in light of this passage?
[1] Source: Frank E. Gaebelein, Gen. Ed. Expositor’s Bible Commentary CD, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992) notes for chapter 4.
[2] Quest Study Bible, study notes (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994) 1470.
Commentary:
v. 4 “The shortest route from Jerusalem to Galilee lay on the high road straight through Samaritan territory. Many Jews would not travel by that road, for they regarded any contact with Samaritans as defiling. Immediately after the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 B.C., the Assyrians had deported the Israelites from their land and had resettled it with captives from other countries. These had brought with them their own gods, whose worship they had combined with remnants of the worship of Jehovah and Baal in a mongrel type of religion. When the descendants of the southern captivity returned from Babylon in 539 B.C. to renew their worship under the Law, they found a complete rift between themselves and the inhabitants of Samaria, both religiously and politically. In the time of Nehemiah, the Samaritans opposed the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (Neh 4:1-2); and later, in Maccabean times, they accepted the Hellenization of their religion when they dedicated their temple on Mount Gerizim to Zeus Xenios. By the time of Jesus a strong rivalry and hatred prevailed.” [1]
v. 6 “The well of Jacob lies at the foot of Mount Gerizim, the center of Samaritan worship. It is one of the historic sites in Palestine that we are reasonably certain of. The ‘sixth hour’ would probably have been about noon, reckoning from daybreak. It was an unusual time for women to come to a village well for water. Perhaps the Samaritan woman had a sudden need, or perhaps she did not care to meet the other women of the community. In consideration of her general character, the other women may have shunned her.” [2]
v. 9 “To a Jew this was an amazing story. Here was the Son of God, tired and weary and thirsty. Here was the holiest of men, listening with understanding to a sorry story. Here was Jesus breaking through the barriers of nationality and orthodox Jewish custom. Here is the beginning of the universality of the gospel; here is God so loving the world, not in theory, but in action.”[3]
v. 11 “It was living water of which Jesus spoke. In ordinary language to the Jew living water was running water. It was the water of the running stream in contradistinction to the water of the stagnant cistern or pool. This well, as we have seen, was not a springing well, but a well into which the water percolated from the subsoil. To the Jew, running, living water from the stream was always better. So the woman is saying: ‘You are offering me pure stream water. Where are you going to get it?’
“She goes on to speak of ‘our father Jacob.’ The Jews would, of course, have strenuously denied that Jacob was the father of the Samaritans, but it was part of the Samaritan claim that they were descended from Joseph, the son of Jacob, by way of Ephraim and Manasseh. The woman is in effect saying to Jesus: ‘This is blasphemous talk. Jacob, our great ancestor, when he came here, had to dig this well to gain water for his family and his cattle. Are you claiming to be able to get fresh, running stream water? If you are, you are claiming to be wiser and more powerful than Jacob. That is a claim that no one has any right to make.’”[4]
vv. 13-14 “Jesus went on to make a still more startling statement that he could give her living water which would banish her thirst for ever. The point is that again the woman took this literally; but in point of fact it was nothing less than a Messianic claim. In the prophetic vision of the age to come, the age of God, the promise was: ‘They shall not hunger or thirst’ (Isaiah 49:10). It was with God and none other that the living fountain of the all-quenching water existed.”[5]
vv. 16-18 “Suddenly and stabbingly Jesus brought her to her senses. The time for verbal by-play was past; the time for jesting was over. ‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘and fetch your husband and come back with him.’ The woman stiffened as if a sudden pain had caught her; she recoiled as if hit by a sudden shock; she grew white as one who had seen a sudden apparition; and so indeed she had, for she had suddenly caught sight of herself. She was suddenly compelled to face herself and the looseness and immorality and total inadequacy of her life. There are two revelations in Christianity: the revelation of God and the revelation of ourselves. No man ever really sees himself until he sees himself in the presence of Christ; and then he is appalled at the sight. There is another way of putting it—Christianity begins with a sense of sin. It begins with the sudden realization that life as we are living it will not do. We awake to ourselves and we awake to our need of God.”[6]
vv. 21-24 “Jesus pointed to the true worship. God, he said, is spirit. Immediately a man grasps that, a new flood-light breaks over him. If God is spirit, God is not confined to things; and therefore idol worship is not only an irrelevancy, it is an insult to the very nature of God. If God is spirit, God is not confined to places; and therefore to limit the worship of God to Jerusalem or to any other spot is to set a limit to that which by its nature overpasses all limits. If God is spirit, a man’s gifts to God must be gifts of the spirit. Animal sacrifices and all man-made things become inadequate. The only gifts that befit the nature of God are the gifts of the spirit—love, loyalty, obedience, devotion.[7]
v. 26 “This is the one occasion when Jesus voluntarily declared his messiahship. The synoptic Gospels show that normally he did not make such a public claim; on the contrary, he urged his disciples to say nothing about it (Matt 16:20; Mark 8:29-30; Luke 9:20-21). In Galilee, where there were many would-be Messiahs and a constant unrest based on the messianic hope, such a claim would have been dangerous. In Samaria the concept would probably have been regarded more as religious than political and would have elicited a ready hearing for his teaching rather than a subversive revolt.”[8]
vv. 46-50 “There could be no more improbable scene in the world than an important court official hastening twenty miles to beg a favour from a village carpenter. First and foremost, this courtier swallowed his pride. He was in need, and neither convention nor custom stopped him from bringing his need to Christ. His action would cause a sensation but he did not care what people said so long as he obtained the help he so much wanted. If we want the help which Christ can give we must be humble enough to swallow our pride and not care what any man may say.
[…] Here was a courtier who had faith. It must have been hard for him to turn away and go home with Jesus’ assurance that his little lad would live. […] Yet he had faith enough to turn and walk back that twenty mile road with nothing but Jesus’ assurance to comfort his heart.”[9]
[1] Frank E. Gaebelein, Gen. Ed. Expositor’s Bible Commentary CD, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992) notes for chapter 4.
[2] Frank E. Gaebelein, Gen. Ed. Expositor’s Bible Commentary CD, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992) notes for chapter 4.
[3]The Gospel of John : Volume 1. 2000, c1975 (W. Barclay, lecturer in the University of Glasgow, Ed.). The Daily study Bible series, Rev. ed. (Jn 4:10). Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
[4]The Gospel of John : Volume 1. 2000, c1975 (W. Barclay, lecturer in the University of Glasgow, Ed.). The Daily study Bible series, Rev. ed. (Jn 4:16). Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
[5]The Gospel of John : Volume 1. 2000, c1975 (W. Barclay, lecturer in the University of Glasgow, Ed.). The Daily study Bible series, Rev. ed. (Jn 4:16). Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
[6]The Gospel of John : Volume 1. 2000, c1975 (W. Barclay, lecturer in the University of Glasgow, Ed.). The Daily study Bible series, Rev. ed. (Jn 4:21). Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
[7]The Gospel of John : Volume 1. 2000, c1975 (W. Barclay, lecturer in the University of Glasgow, Ed.). The Daily study Bible series, Rev. ed. (Jn 4:27). Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
[8] Frank E. Gaebelein, Gen. Ed. Expositor’s Bible Commentary CD, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992) notes for chapter 4.
[9]The Gospel of John : Volume 1. 2000, c1975 (W. Barclay, lecturer in the University of Glasgow, Ed.). The Daily study Bible series, Rev. ed. (Jn 5:1). Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.