Red Letter Revolution

A short essay on Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the well.

The story in John 4 begins by revealing that the Pharisee’s know what Jesus has been up to, and Jesus knows they know. So, Jesus decides to depart from Judea and head toward Galilee. Instead of going the long way around to avoid the Samaritans, Jesus, teaching us a lesson, went straight through Samaria. The Jews despised the Samaritans for their mixed parentage and rejection of all writings except for the Torah. The Samaritans came into being when the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrian King Shalmaneser. The Assyrian King carted off many of the Jews to other parts of the empire, but some Jews were left behind. It was common policy for the Assyrians to promote inter-breeding by bringing in other conquered peoples and mixing them with the nation just conquered. In this way, the Samaritans came to be formed from the Jews. In the passage, the Samaritan woman poses Jesus a question: Do they worship on the mountain or at Jerusalem? The division occurred when Manasseh, the brother of the High Priest, married a Samaritan woman. The controlling religious party condemned the marriage and demanded it be absolved. However, Manasseh decided instead to withdraw from Jerusalem and he took many priests with him. With the help of his father-in-law Manasseh set up a competing temple on Mount Gerizim, and instituted their own Jehovah worship. As stated earlier, most Jews took an alternate route to Galilee. They usually went east through Jericho, crossed the Jordan, went north through Perea, and then finally back across the river to Galilee. So great was their disdain for the Samaritan they would dramatically lengthen a trip just to avoid contact with them. The story of the Samaritan woman at the well is a theologically treasure trove. Not only does Jesus provide a clear example for us to follow, he challenges the prejudices and practices of the ruling Jews, and hints at the greater spiritual rewards of the next life. The first important point to be learned is not actually mentioned in the text, but taken from historical knowledge. The well that Jesus was at was on a hill, with a winding path up to it. Jesus’ disciples must have passed by the Samaritan woman on the way up, yet they did not stop to talk to her. They did not deem her worthy of the Good News they were called to share. We can learn a valuable lesson from the mistakes of the Disciples. We have a call to spread the Good News to everyone, not just those we deem worthy. Too often, the church has come to resemble the same cliquishness exhibited by children in high school. Rev. Forman Lincicome put it best, “God never intended His Church to be a refrigerator in which to preserve perishable piety. He intended it to be an incubator in which to hatch our converts.”To expand on his analogy, we should expect to reach men as they are: eggs. Instead, we look for those closest to chickens and try to draw them in all the while ignoring those who need it most, those who are trapped by the shell of their sinful lives. The dialogue begins with Jesus making a simple, yet astonishing request. He asks a female Samaritan woman for a drink. This is astonishing for a number of reasons, first because of the previously discussed division between Jews and Samaritans, secondly because Jesus is a male and a Rabbi, and finally because a woman drawing water at that time of day (she drew when none of the other women would be there) meant she was probably one of ill repute as was confirmed later in the text. Her response was typical, “How can you ask me for a drink?” The text explains her statement by telling us that Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Then Jesus, sensing a soul in need of his redeeming power responds that if she only knew who he was, she would be asking him for water and he would give her the living water. She misunderstood his statement and sought to find out where this new flowing water source was. 13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus explains the necessity of the flowing water and his spirit is the flowing water. Once again missing the point, the woman merely seeks water that will perpetually satisfy her physical need. Jesus knows that the only way he can get his point across is by demonstrating his power. Isn’t this the case with us so many times? God reveals a truth to us time and time again, but we remain steadfast in our rebellion. It takes a divine wake-up call to get us back on the right track, almost like a supernatural pot of Folgers. Jesus then reveals his knowledge of the woman’s promiscuity. Amazed by what she has heard, the woman calls him a prophet inadvertently naming him as the Messiah. With his prophet hood established, she seeks his council on where to worship: The Mountain or Jerusalem? 21Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Jesus, instead of enforcing Jewish tradition or Samaritan tradition, basically says that it isn’t important. In my opinion, this verse is an indictment of legalism, and points out that where you worship is not as important as how (how is addressed in the following passages). 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. This statement has always had far-reaching implications to me. Often, when someone is mistaken in their theology some are quick to denounce them as false and therefore worshipping demons or the devil. However, it was possible for Samaritans to be greatly mistaken in their view of God, yet it was God they were worshipping. The practice of their religion is not acceptable to God; however, Jesus acknowledges their sincere attempt to pray to the Father. This would mean that while we may have important theological differences with a group, they could still be worship what they do not know correctly. This may include people with differences in the nature of Salvation (Church of Christ, Roman Catholics, etc.) or even groups that are altogether another religion (Islam). Again, I am not saying Jesus is acknowledging their mistaken beliefs, merely their attempt to worship what they do not know. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” Jesus sums up his statement by declaring that true worship is in spirit and in truth and the father wants people who will worship him that way. Worship that is not in both spirit and truth is not acceptable to God. The Samaritan woman, moved by what he has said, comments that the Messiah will explain everything to them. Jesus replied simply, “I who speak to you am he.” The whole story of the Samaritan woman is a powerful reminder of God’s love for us. Just like her, we are outcasts from the kingdom of God, cast from the garden and born as children of wrath. It takes God loving us first asking us for a drink of water so that we may ask him to love us back with the living water of his redemptive work. Just as Jesus had to demonstrate his power for the woman to understand him, so must the power of God work on the hearts of men to make them ready for the Good News. As Origen put it, “The Word of God declares that the preaching is not sufficient to reach the human heart (even though it may be true and worthy of belief), unless a certain power is imparted to the speaker from God.” God and God alone changes hearts.

This is a paper I did for my Basic Evangelism Class.

The Testimony of my life begins before I was born with a series of events that, had they gone other then the way they did, would have resulted in this paper not being written, in other words, I would not be here. In 1939, the west became involved in what was to be called the Second World War. My grandfather was a strapping young lad at the time and decided, for reasons unknown to me, to join up. He flew a bent-wing Corsair plane through a good portion of the war with no problems, but his luck was about to run out, or so he thought. A Japanese fighter plane thought it might be nice to drop a large shell into my grandfather’s plane. Miraculously, the shell did not go off. It did, however, destroy most of his rudder and all of his radio. After surviving the shell, he had to find a way to communicate to the ship that he was not in fact something to shoot at. The proper procedure was to fly an intricate pattern telling the men on the ship to let him land, but he only had partial control over his rudder. He did manage to pull it off, but I guess it required all the grit and determination my grandfather was famous for. My father, like my grandfather, also had a close call with death, although for less dramatic reasons. Way back when my father was a stupid kid, he did as many stupid kids do: combine alcohol with their stupid choices. He and his friends were in Colorado in a mountainous area getting drunk. As the sun was rising, he decided it would be a good idea to sit at the edge of a cliff and watch the sun rise. As you probably guessed, he fell off the cliff, but what you probably didn’t guess is that he landed in a giant thorn bush. He was cut up, bruised and bleeding, but he lived to tell the tale. The point of the above stories is that God in his infinite wisdom has a plan for all our lives. I was raised from birth to be a follower of Jesus the Christ. I am proof of the proverb spoken by Solomon so long ago. Pro 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Since I didn’t really have a life before Christ, I thought that I would talk about the time when my parents faith became my own. I was 13 years old, and I was mowing the back lawn. My family had been having difficulties including a divorce, and more than that, I was coming into adulthood. I began to think about what I believed and why. I stopped the mower and stood there for a long time just contemplating the beliefs of Christianity. As my mind turned over the things of God again and again, a peace came over me about it. I thought about God’s creation of the World and the proof of it was all around me. I thought about God’s existence, and the proof was in my heart. I thought about God’s son Jesus and what he had done for me. There seemed to be no other reasonable choice than to follow the one true God. Salvation became real to me that day, but in the way of fools I soon returned to foolish things. I thought myself superior to others. I drew a legalistic line in the sand when it came to certain sin, but I excused myself when it came to the sin I struggled with. To put it simply, I was a lukewarm Christian. Then, an event happened that changed my life forever. My mother was on her way to go rock climbing with her friends when the SUV she was in rolled several times. The crash, we learned, was caused by both a tire and a vehicle malfunction. Both vulnerabilities were known by the companies before the products were sold, but it was cheaper to pay off those hurt then stop production. She did not die in the accident, but rather she broker neck and suffered spinal cord damage. She is paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on a machine to breath. I was devastated. I cried out in rage and defiance at a God who would allow this to happen to me. I railed against him and his supposed mercy. Why me? Why my family? Family members telling me to look to Job certainly didn’t make the pain any less. I was consumed with a desire to hurt those who hurt me, and eventually, I taught myself to not care. Not caring was much easier than feeling terrible. I desensitized myself to what was happening. I carried on in that way for almost 4 years, having moments and periods where there was semblance of true faith, but nothing lasting. It was less than a year ago from this writing that that changed. A friend of mine invited me to join him at bible study, and, having nothing else to do, decided to go. The atmosphere of earnest searching and brotherhood in Christ drew me in. I felt the fire of God in my bones; I was brought back to true repentance and worship. It was soon after my return to true faith, that I realized the fallacy in what drove me away. I wanted to know why God would allow this to happen to me, but I was asking the wrong questions. Never, in my pain and rage, did I stop to think that God had spared my mother. He allowed her to survive when most people would not have. The ambulance that saved her life got there in time to do so, because they audibly heard the care crash. Some miracles are large and some are small, and I consider that to be a miracle. God not only allowed her to survive, but when she died several times in the hospital, he sent his servants to minister to her. God had been merciful. Sometimes, that mercy is hard for us to see, but it is evident in all our lives. It evidenced by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The one who deserved to rule over us, humbled himself and died the lowest death so that we might know repentance. The Word tells us that perfect atonement requires a perfect sacrifice. The cost of our forgiveness was the one who always did the will of the Father. His death paid the price, and His resurrection paved the way. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that includes every circumstance known to man. Our God is love. If we remember this one fact through all our trouble, then nothing can defeat us. We have no cause to fear anyone on this earth ever again, because no power on earth no principality of darkness can overcome the power of our God. Rom 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.