HORIZONS BIBLE STUDY 2015-2016
COME TO THE WATERS
Lesson 8: John 4:1-30, 39-42
It is a strange conversation. Jesus’ dialogue with the Samaritan woman is full of twists, turns and abrupt topic changes.
Tired, Jesus sits by a well. A woman approaches. Jesus asks her for a drink and then after a brief exchange, tells the woman that if she comprehends who he is, he will give her living water. This is the first twist in meaning. “Living” water can be fresh running water as opposed to well water — or, in the Gospel of John, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The woman is understandably confused. What is this Jewish man doing talking to her, a Samaritan woman? Jews and Samaritans have been hostile for over 200 years. Jewish male leaders did not initiate conversations with women they did not know. Plus, how is Jesus going to give her water when he has no bucket and there is no free-flowing stream anywhere? Unless Jesus is greater than Jacob and produces some miraculous source of water, she is skeptical that Jesus has anything to offer.
Jesus responds to her skepticism, saying that, for those who drink of his water, there will be a spring gushing up giving new life, abundant life, life eternal. The woman wants this eternal spring so she doesn’t have to haul water. She does not realize that Jesus is talking about more than H2O. For the woman, and for us, it is difficult to grasp what Jesus is saying about who he is. Do you experience being filled up by Christ? How would you describe who Jesus is to someone else?
Jesus then unexpectedly turns the conversation to the woman’s domestic life. Jesus, without condemnation, says that the woman has had five husbands and that the man she lives with now is not her husband. This woman comes at noon, instead of mingling with other women in the morning when it is cooler. Is she shunned by others?
The woman quickly works out that this man must be a prophet who perceives things that ordinary people cannot. She embarks on a theological discussion about the true place of worship, a huge point of enmity between Jews and Samaritans. Jesus points beyond this theological argument to the time when people will worship God, not in one particular location, but in spirit and truth. The woman affirms her belief that the Messiah is coming who will reveal all truth. Jesus replies in Greek, “I am, the one who is speaking to you.”
Again, Jesus’ words can be understood in different ways. It could mean, “I am the Messiah.” (The Messiah was often interpreted as the anticipated king who would be the heir to the throne of King David.) Jesus’ phrase also echoes the encounter at the burning bush where Moses is given God’s name, “I am” or “I am who I am.” Jesus is saying, “I am God, the one through whom God speaks.”
No longer avoiding people, the woman is bursting to tell others, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”
The woman’s witness is odd. Jesus has not told her everything she has ever done. He does know about the five husbands. Perhaps he sees the pain of her life. She might have been divorced five times because she could not produce children, without whom she lacked worth in her time. Maybe she is judged as being of bad moral character. Either way, she is diminished in the sight of others. But whatever her story, Jesus talks with her as a woman of theological depth for she is the first person to whom Jesus reveals his identity. Jesus takes her seriously. Jesus sees her. Do you believe that Jesus values you?
In her book “The God Who Sees You,” Tammy Maltby recounts a conversation with a nurse at a hospital. As they chat, the conversation turns to the death of the nurse’s brother in an accident. Her brother’s death has left grief and bitterness in its wake. The nurse pours out her heart to Maltby, a stranger who is willing to patiently listen. Maltby says to the nurse, “Do you understand that God really sees you in all this?” Maltby writes, “I hadn’t even finished my sentence when she started to weep. … She was completely undone that God sees her pain, her fear, her broken heart. She kept saying through deep sobs, ‘He sees me? He really sees me?’”
The Samaritan woman doesn’t fully grasp who Jesus is, but we sense that something has shifted in her for the better. She overflows hope as she shares her experience of Jesus. The world would be blessed if we did the same.
ROSALIND BANBURY is associate pastor for adult ministries at First Church in Richmond, Virginia.
