The Gospel of John

The Woman at the Well

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 10- 70

Genre:

Track: 10

Dictation Name: RR197E10

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. Let us pray.

Almighty God our Heavenly Father we give thanks unto Thee that Thou did send us Jesus Christ Thy son our Savior. We thank Thee that Thou didst not leave the world in darkness but did ordain its salvation and didst give us the shining light of Thy son. Grant that in this season our hearts be filled with joy that lasts the year long, that we know that unto us a son, a redeemer, a king has been given, that in Him we are more than conquerors in all things. Give us strength, grace and patience to walk day by day knowing that in Christ we have been called to victory and that Thy hand in all things is upon us for good. Grant us this in Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture is John 4:1-42, our subject: The Woman at the Well. John 4:1-42.

“When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,

2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)

3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.

4 And he must needs go through Samaria.

5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)

9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?

28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,

29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.

31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.

32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.

33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?

34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.

38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.

40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.

41 And many more believed because of his own word;

42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

This episode with the Samaritan woman at the well confounds our normal expectations. We think of being born again as the simple statement of the gospel but our Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus tells us how far reaching its implications are. We would have expected a statement on our Lord’s messiahship in the meeting with Nicodemus but we see it rather in our Lord’s words to a Samaritan woman. We don’t have her name and yet this is one of the longest passages in the entire gospel of John. The Samaritan woman is a woman five times married and divorced and living at the moment with a man not her husband. Now this does not mean she was a floozy, a married woman without a dowry was a concubine, she was a wife but she did not have the name of a wife, she was legally married but she was a concubine because she was not endowered. This was usually true of women whose social or economic status was low and they would be ready to accept an unprotected status as a concubine. To divorce an endowered wife meant that the man lost all that money, usually equivalent to three years wages, and which would normally go to his heirs. She would leave with the children and with that money. Now divorcing a concubine therefore was cheap and no financial loss ensued. And so they were readily married and divorced by men, this was the lot of the poorer girls. So it was no reflection on this Samaritan woman that she was five times divorced and her present man did not even bother to make her a concubine.

She was obviously of a poor family with no menfolk to demand a dowry and status for her. The Pharisees were aware that Jesus was baptizing or rather his disciples were under His direction and they were baptizing more than the disciples of John the Baptist or John the Baptist himself. Our Lord therefore withdrew from Judea into Galilee and His route was through Samaria. He came there near a city of Samaria called Sychar close to the area given by Jacob to Joseph centuries earlier. At Jacob’s well they rested, Jesus we are told, was weary. This statement is an important one because John’s gospel strongly stresses the deity of Christ but at the same time His humanity also. The disciples went into Sychar to buy food, Jesus rested at the well and the Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said that He would like to drink. There would be at such a well nothing whereby you yourself could draw water. The woman’s reaction was one of honest surprise. Jews normally had no dealings with Samaritans, in fact they despised them because the Samaritans were a mixed people, they were people who did not go into captivity and intermarried with other peoples who were moved into the area. Jews and Samaritans each regarded themselves as the true heirs of God’s promises. Jesus made clear to the woman who He was and how absurd her reaction was, she knew He was a Jew by His dress and by His speech and her response was one of curiosity at her His readiness to talk to her because Jews normally despised Samaritans and would have nothing to do with them.

Plumber has very ably paraphrased our Lord’s comments in these words:

“Spiritually our positions are reversed, it is thou who art weary and foot sore and parched, close to the well yet unable to drink of living water. It is I who can give Thee water from the well and quench Thy first forever.”

The gift of God is Jesus Christ: He is given to us as our great privilege and honor. The fallen world may regard Him with contempt and forever seek to crucify Him afresh with their venomous hatred but He is our gift of freedom and salvation. Our Lord offers living water in Himself forever fresh and life giving. In verses eleven through twelve the woman responds literally: she insists on a literal meaning because this Rabbi’s religious emphasis could embarrass her. Our forefather Jacob gave us this many centuries old well, can you do better? In verses thirteen and fourteen our Lord disregards the woman’s comment and yet answers her thinking and tells her that Jacob’s well can only satisfy a temporary thirst but the living water He provides shall have everlasting consequences. Then in verse fifteen the woman continues her literal emphasis, provide me, she says, with your water that I will not need to return to this ell again. Our Lord responds to this skepticism by saying go, call thy husband and come. The woman answers honestly now, I have no husband. Jesus commends her honesty and tells her you have had five husbands and your present mate is not your husband. The woman then recognizes openly that Jesus is more than she had assumed, He was at the least a prophet, but she wanted to shift the discussion away from her marital and sexual history which would reveal her to be poor and abused.

And so she raises the key question between Jews and Samaritans, is Mount Garizam or is it Jerusalem that has the true temple, because there was a temple in both places. But our Lord refuses to be drawn in to such a discussion because He is the true and living temple, all the same salvation is of the Jews because the Messiah is to come through the tribe of Judah. The true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth, God is not limited by space and time because God is spirit and He can only be worshipped in Spirit and truth, He cannot be localized even in the greatest temple, even in one built in terms of His word as well as the temple of Solomon. In Himself Jesus Christ is God incarnate as the way, the truth and the light is the revelation of the invisible God. The woman recognizes that all this fits one person, the Messiah. She says when He has come He will tell us all things. Our Lord says simply I that speaketh unto thee am He. At this point the disciples returned, rather surprised that He was speaking to a woman. This was below the dignity of a Rabbi but they did not comment about it. The woman however immediately went into the city to summon men to see Jesus, he has, she said, a knowledge beyond mans, is this not the Christ? The disciples having brought food urged Jesus to eat but He moved with the challenge of His ministry spoke of the meat or food of His calling provided to His inner being. The uncomprehending disciples wondered who had fed Him and He said my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work. This finished work required the cross.

It takes in farming four months for harvest time to come, Jesus said, but in the work of my calling harvest time is already here, the labors of men over the ages have prepared a harvest for you, for you my disciples to reap. At this point the woman had returned with many Samaritan men who heard Him and believed as He spoke to them. They begged Him to stay on and He did and taught them and many more believed. Now this is the high point of the narrative. More than the Jews, more than the disciples, these Samaritan men believed. The normal channels of Israel and the church are not necessarily God’s channels. We cannot circumscribe God by our institutionary boundaries, by our sacraments or our ideas of succession. What Israel could not do the church also cannot do. We cannot limit God to our channels. God had to bypass Israel and He at times bypasses the church when in arrogance the church sees itself as God’s only means of expression. The woman at the well was no remarkable person, in fact she was of a very lowly status, even more she is left nameless, even though she occupies a sizable portion of this gospel. This is in effect to say don’t fix your attention on her as a unique person, God is bypassing His main channels or at least He is giving priority to this woman and to these outcast peoples above and over Israel and my apostles. God in His grace made her an important instrument in His kingdom. We live in very, very difficult days, troubled days and it may well be that God again will bypass His main channels.

I was speaking yesterday with the Valascos,[sp?] their work was described in the last report and a picture of a seven year old girl up for adoption who has since been adopted, along with a couple of other children. They are Christian Reconstructionists in Brazil, they are doing a difficult task with very limited funds, they have three homes for homeless girls, they are also taking homeless boys whenever they see the need. But all the missionaries and the evangelicals of Brazil look down on them. Their idea of the gospel is that you preach John 3:16 and confine yourself to that. And here Edwardo and his wife are not only preaching but they are ministering to human needs of every kind and their attitude is what are you, some kind of liberationist or Marxist or social gospel-er? I believe those churches and the churches like them here will be bypassed in due time by our Lord because they have limited themselves and they have limited God by restricting the gospel to a particular text and a few that fit in with it in their thinking. This text tells us that a woman who is not even named is used by God over His appointed channels. Let us pray.

Our Father we thank thee for Thy word and we thank Thee for that woman of Samaria who brought the men of her community to a knowledge of Christ as Lord, as savior. We thank Thee that even now Lord Thou art opening up new avenues for the work of Thy kingdom. We pray for Thy blessing upon all so engaged in Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Question] Well if charity done in man’s standards is not necessarily charity done in God’s ways and God’s standards.

[Rushdoony] What was that again?

[Question] Charity done by the churches of the day may not necessarily done in God’s name just because…

[Rushdoony] Yes that often is the case but even more we have to recognize that we cannot limit the gospel. This is why so many are against God’s law because that says there are no limits. Any other questions or comments?

The Samaritans from the time the captivity ended were regarded as an outcast people. They were strong believers in the books of Moses but little else. They had built a temple on the Mount there but since they were of a mixed ancestry they had introduced some aspects of their worship from other sources and for this the Jews despised them. The Jews were right in what they were saying about the Samaritans, they were wrong in that they refused to recognize how they had strayed as much as the Samaritans had. So when our Lord said ‘don’t look at the little moat in someone else’s eye when you have a beam in yours’ it fit the circumstances of the day. Well, let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee for Thy word. We thank Thee that in Thy sovereign grace and mercy Thou didst choose a Samaritan woman whom the world of that day regarded as of no account and didst use her in a mighty way. We thank Thee oh Lord that the things that are of no account to our time and despised by the mighty and wise of our time, Thou art using to shake the things that are ours so that only the things that are unshakable may remain. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.