Ep. 15: Woman at the well
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JOHN 4:1-42
Samaria was on the shorter road between Galilee and Judea, though Judeans preferred a long detour to avoid it. Why should that be? Samaritans were considered hostile and impure, but not by Jesus. Of course. He had no problems passing through that region. They were truly a multinational people, some would be descendants of the ten tribes, whether mixed or unmixed with Gentiles, including fugitives from Assyria. The southern Judeans considered them impure foreigners. Impure they certainly were, in terms of their idolatry. They exercised a form of Judaism that consisted of a mixture of their former superstitions with Jewish doctrines and rites. They had their own capital in Shechem and even built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim.
Jews and Samaritans were natural enemies. On all public occasions, the Samaritans exercised hostility towards the Jews and took every opportunity to insult them. At various times they had sold Jews into slavery, attempted to desecrate the Jerusalem Temple and killed pilgrims on their road to Jerusalem. The Jews retaliated by treating the Samaritans with every mark of contempt.
We stand on the way from Shiloh and if we do a wide sweep we can see more than seven miles northward, up to the twin heights of Gerizim and Ebal, which enclose the valley of Shechem. Following the straight olive-shaded road from the south, to where a spur of Gerizim, jutting south-east, forms the Vale of Shechem, we stand by that Well of Jacob in Sychar, where Jesus has an encounter. Jacob had originally bought the land and sunk a well there, later giving it to his son, Joseph. This was also the scene of Israel’s first rebellion against God’s order, against the Davidic line and the Temple.
Here several ancient Roman roads met and parted, the south road leading to Jerusalem. Jesus would have rested on the low parapet which enclosed the well, while his disciples went to buy the necessary provisions in the neighbouring Sychar. It was the evening of a day in early summer. Probably John remained with the Master, to record the encounter with the poor Samaritan woman who came, not for any religious purpose but simply to draw water.
Even if he had not spoken, the woman would have recognised the Jew by his appearance and dress, if, as seems likely. He wore the fringes on the border of his garment. Also, his speech would, by its pronunciation (mostly the use of vowels), place his nationality beyond doubt. But it was more than that. He was what Israel was intended to have become to mankind; he was God’s gift to mankind. As always, the seen is to Christ the emblem of the unseen and spiritual. It was with the ignorant woman of Sychar, as it had been with the learned ‘Master in Israel.’ As Nicodemus had seen, and yet not seen, so also with this woman. Jesus was unable to draw from the deep well but he was himself the living water.
She was astounded that he, a Jew, would even speak to her, let alone unravel details about her that no mortal could have even guessed. When Jesus so unexpectedly laid open to her a past which he could only supernaturally have known, the conviction at once arose in her that he was a prophet. But, since they acknowledged no other prophet after Moses, for a Samaritan to be a prophet meant that he was the Messiah. All her life she had heard that Gerizim was the mount of worship, the holy hill which the waters of the Flood had never covered and that the Jews were in deadly error. But here was an undoubted prophet, and he a Jew, no less! Were they then in error about the right place of worship, and what was she to think, and to do?
The Lord answers her questions by leading her far beyond all controversy, to the very goal of all his teaching. How he speaks to the simple in heart! As he spoke, she grasped the glorious picture which was set before her. She saw the coming of the Kingdom of the Messiah. ‘I know that Messiah comes. When he comes. He will tell us all things.’ It was then that, according to the need of that simple woman. He told her plainly that he was the Messiah. So true is it, that ‘babes’ can receive what often must remain long hidden ‘from the wise and prudent.’ It was the crowning lesson of that day. Nothing more could be said, nothing more need be said.
When the disciples had returned from Sychar they were appalled that Jesus should be talking to a woman, it ran counter to all that they thought of the way a Rabbi conducted himself. Yet, in their reverence for him, they dared not ask any questions. Meanwhile, the woman had hurried to tell others of this man who knew so much about her. We can readily assume that others gathered around her to learn of the indisputable fact of his superhuman knowledge. And many became believers in this Jesus.
This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)