THE PRELUDE
THE MESSAGE
October is a good month in our area. Many apple orchards have reached harvest time, and picking has begun. Workers do this, or, increasingly, families enjoy the chance to pick apples. When families pick apples, it is a recreational activity, not one their survival depends on. That is not true of all crop harvesting. For all of us, farmers must harvest crops to provide the food we need to live and thrive. In Biblical times, I think we can safely say every harvest was essential. There were few, if any, social safety nets to cover shortages. Most food items were perishable. The phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, “give us our daily bread,” showed a daily reliance upon God’s provision.
The fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, however, offers a different understanding of food and harvests as essential to our survival and thriving. That account begins with an awkward introduction. John wrote, “1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee” (John 4:1-3). We have five characters mentioned here. Jesus, Jesus’ disciples, John the Baptist, John’s disciples, and the Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders. To understand what is happening in verse 1 of Chapter 4, we need to turn back a page to the end of Chapter 3. There we would read, “25 Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification” (John 3:25). John the Baptist had disciples, and the Jewish authorities, the Pharisees, had a continuing interest in John and his baptismal practices and their meaning for purification. We see that in Chapter 1 of John, where he wrote, “19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews [Pharisees] sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him [John], ‘Who are you?’ 20 He [John] confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’ 21 And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He [John] said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ And he [John] answered, ‘No.’… 24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him [John], ‘Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’ (John 1:19-21, 24-25).
Why were the Pharisees so interested in John? There are a few reasons. First, the Pharisees practiced ritual washing by immersion to make themselves ceremonially clean for worship and service. Each person immersed themselves to make themselves outwardly clean. On the other hand, John’s baptism was for the repentance of sin, an act that signified inward cleanliness. John baptized the person. People being baptized did not do it themselves, as was done in a Jewish ritual bath. Second, the Pharisees believed the Messiah would purify the nation with water. Ezekiel 36:25-26 was a key passage. “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:25-26). And so the Pharisees wondered whether John the Baptist was fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel, hence the questions: “Are you the Christ? Are you the Prophet?” The Pharisees wanted to know John’s authority and purpose for baptizing for inner purity. They also asked, “Are you Elijah?” because John was baptizing along the River Jordan, where Elijah had ascended into heaven. Moreover, John the Baptist dressed like Elijah. Elijah wore a garment of hair with a leather belt about his waist (2 Kings 1:8). John wore camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist (Mark 1:6). So, the Pharisees were interested in the authority of John, the type and meaning of his baptism, and his creating disciples. The Pharisees wondered, “Were John’s baptisms a sign that God was acting upon the Messianic prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures?”
So when the Pharisees learned that Jesus, in reality, it was his disciples, were also baptizing people, and more people than John, it would have been natural for the Pharisees to pursue Jesus with the same set of questions: “Are you the Messiah? Are you the Prophet? Are you Elijah?” Jesus would answer those questions, but on his timetable, not the Pharisees'. So Jesus moved away from Jerusalem and the inquisitive Pharisees and toward Galilee. John wrote, “4 And [to get to Galilee] he [Jesus] had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour [noon]” (John 4:4-6). The text says that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. In one sense, this is not a true statement. Jesus could go to Galilee without going through Samaria. So the sense we should have here is that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” was a compelling movement of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was moved to pass through Samaria because essential work needed doing.
John placed Jesus in Samaria, at the location of Jacob’s well. Jacob, who would be renamed Israel, fathered 12 sons, each representing the different named tribes of Israel. This New Testament scene is steeped in Old Testament imagery and meaning. John said Jesus was weary. He was experiencing the natural tiredness of the human body, brought on by work, travel, and a lack of rest, food, and water.
John then wrote, “7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans) (John 4:7-8). Let’s pause there for a moment. The opening of chapter 4 describes an increasing number of baptisms by Jesus' disciples, who are absent from this scene because they all went into town to get food, leaving Jesus alone at the well to encounter a Samaritan woman. This account has two interrelated storylines. One storyline follows Jesus’ disciples, and it appears to be told through an illustration involving food. The second storyline introduces us to a Samaritan woman and her encounter with Jesus at the well. So we now see that a second storyline is present involving water from the well of a descendant of Abraham and Isaac, namely Jacob, the founding father of the tribes of Israel. That second story of Israel’s history and standing with God is told not through an interaction with Israel's most revered members, the Pharisees, but through a Samaritan woman. John begins two stories: one about Jesus and his disciples, and the second about Jesus and a Samaritan woman. John turned to the second story first, which we will only look at briefly. And we begin with John’s parenthetical last line, “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”
Why did Jews not deal with the Samaritans? Because the Jews believed the Samaritans were in a continual state of external uncleanliness, and anything they touched would likewise be unclean. This Samaritan woman stands in stark contrast to the Pharisees, who were exceptionally careful to remain ceremonially clean through frequent spiritual baths. Jesus' decision to speak with this woman and ask her for a drink showed John’s readers that Jesus was unconcerned with the external. He was concerned with the lost. People are not lost because they do or do not engage in ceremonial washings. They are lost and are only saved through the grace Jesus offers to wash and make right their inner being.
In the interest of time, I want to look at just a couple of points from Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman. “16 Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ 17 The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.’ 19 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet' (John 4:16-19). The Samaritan people are descendants of the tribe of Joseph and the tribe of Levi. These tribes once followed the five books of the Torah. In Scripture, marriage often describes a people’s relationship with God. Jesus’ allusion to this woman having had five husbands speaks to her personal life but, more broadly, his statement applies to the lives of the Samaritan people. At one time, the Samaritans were part of the nation of Israel gifted with the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, to husband the people. When the Assyrians conquered the northern tribes of Israel, many of Joseph's tribes and the Levites stayed on the land and intermarried with the Assyrian conquerors, becoming the Samaritans. The Samaritans developed their own Scripture, taking some from the Torah and mixing it with Assyrian beliefs. This is suggested by the allusion that the woman, and the Samaritan people, had no husband at all. Their relationship with God through their own scripture was illegitimate. Having heard Jesus speak about her marriage and illegitimate relationship, she said to Jesus, “You must be a prophet.”
And so we have here a Samaritan woman, someone as far away from being a pious male Pharisee as you can be, saying Jesus is a prophet. Then “25 The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things’” (John 4:25). Again, a Samaritan woman, not a pious Pharisee, is contemplating Jesus' identity as either a prophet or the Messiah. Now to end her contemplation, Jesus says most plainly, “26 ‘I who speak to you am he’” (John 4:26). So Jesus, seeking to avoid the Pharisees and their questions about his identity, “Are you the Messiah? Are you the Prophet? Are you Elijah?,” revealed his identity as prophet and Messiah to the least likely person, a Samaritan woman. Why? Because he had to pass through Samaria, and the time had come to let others know that God wanted all nations to come to Him.
Just at this pivotal moment in the second story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, the first story of Jesus and his disciples jumps back to life. John wrote, “27 Just then his disciples came back [from town buying food]. They marveled that he [Jesus] was talking with a woman [a Samaritan no less], but no one said, [to her] “What do you seek?” or, [to Him] “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 ‘Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ 30 They [the people of the Samaritan town] went out of the town and were coming to him [Jesus]” (John 4:27-30). So the woman could not even wait to fill her water jar before going to town to share that she had met God’s Christ at Jacob’s well. The response to her testimony was immediate. People began flowing out of the town to meet Jesus. This completes the story of the Samaritan woman. But her story is necessary to understand the story and the teaching for Jesus’ disciples and for us.
John returned to the disciples’ story. John wrote, “31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, 'Rabbi, eat. ’ " (John 4:31). The disciples who left Jesus and went to town for food are now urging Jesus to eat something. They wanted Jesus to eat. We now know that mealtime with Jesus is never simply about food and calories. It was always a time of divine revelation. “32 But he said to them, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about ’" (John 4:32). Jesus’ response caught the disciples off guard. No doubt the disciples had managed all the supplies, including food. They knew they were out of food and needed to go into town to buy some, which they did. Jesus had no separate stash of food. “33 So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat?’” (John 4:33). They took Jesus’ words literally, believing someone had stopped by and left him food. We soon see this is a misunderstanding. John often uses misunderstandings to bring Christ's divine revelations to life.
“34 Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work' (John 4:34). Jesus food is to do God’s will. He did God’s will by obediently going through Samaria and by engaging in conversation with a Samaritan woman. That was Jesus’ food.
Food, we know, is the substance that gives our bodies life and energy. When we seriously lack food, we feel weary, lethargic, and grumpy. But when we eat, we feel satisfied, joyful, and energized. Jesus used food as a metaphor. Jesus was saying that doing God’s will—specifically the spiritual work of revealing himself and leading people to faith—nourished and satisfied him more than physical food. Jesus was always looking for the opportunity to reveal himself to those whom others would be lost. Doing so satisfied Him because He was doing what God the Father desired most. This is spiritual food.
Jesus said the disciples knew nothing of this, at least in part, because they had become focused on physical food alone. All the disciples had left Jesus by the well to go to town to buy food. Physical food was foremost in their minds. While in town, none of them shared the good news. The disciples had already called Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, the prophet promised by Moses, and the Christ; they were practicing baptisms, yet none told the Samaritans Jesus was at Jacob’s well, a short walk away. The disciples returned to Jesus from the town, spiritually empty-handed. The Samaritan woman, on the other hand, spoke about Jesus as the Christ, and the townspeople began walking to the well. They were eager to see and experience Jesus for themselves. Jesus said, “38 ‘I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.’ 39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days—41 And many more believed because of his word” (John 4:38-40). Jesus had labored, the Samaritan woman had labored, and the townspeople of Sychar of Samaria were saved. Jesus' disciples, having had their fill of bread, may have been there to baptize the people as a final symbol of commitment to Christ, but they had largely missed an opportunity to do God’s will.
What do we learn from these stories that help us in our faith journey? Let’s start with the second story of the Samaritan woman. Drawing from the Old Testament understanding that marriage is used to illustrate our relationship with God, the woman’s story of multiple husbands and illegitimate marital relationships teaches us that we must be husbanded by God’s Word, his written word and his living word, Jesus. We would understand this point in the Gospels.
- “I [Jesus] am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper [husbandman] of the vineyard. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful” (John 15:1-2). God husbands his people, caring for them and, yes, pruning when and where it is needed.
- “For my [Jesus] flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (John 6:55). Our standing with God comes through one relationship, through Jesus. All other spiritual relationships are illegitimate.
- “1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.3 And the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ 4 But he answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Quoting Deuteronomy 8:3) (Matthew 4:1-4). Throughout Scripture, we are told that God’s Word, in text and in the person of Jesus, is the source of life and the bond of our relationship with Him.
We therefore see in the second story that the Samaritan woman’s life was transformed when she encountered the living word of God and understood he was the prophet and Messiah she had always desired. We must then ask ourselves, with whom do we have our primary relationship in life? Are we wed to God through Jesus Christ and husband by God’s Word?
The second lesson comes from the first story with Jesus, his disciples, and food. Jesus found that what gave him the energy and satisfaction of life was doing God’s will. The disciples were more focused on their stomachs. The disciples were so focused on the temporal things of life that, when they went into town to gather food, none shared the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus counseled us, saying:
- “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal” (John 6:27). What is the object of our time and effort in life? Is it temporal things like food, or is it the eternal? How many times do we go to the grocery store for food and never take the opportunity to share a word about Christ?
- Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:34). Can we make that claim?
A meal with Jesus was not an ordinary experience. It was never intended to be. A meal with Jesus was an extraordinary experience that helped us understand the eternal life to which he is calling us. Let us rise to the occasion and experience the extraordinary and be willing to proclaim at every opportunity that Jesus is the Savior of the world. Amen and Amen.