Study Format:
1. What did you hear Jesus offering to you? To us? To the world?
2. What kind of resistance to Jesus did you hear?
3. What will you have to learn to resist or renounce in order to receive what Jesus is offering?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• The conflict in chapter 4 is based on the well-established rivalry between Jews and Samaritans. The breach began during the Assyrian occupation of Palestine in 721 BCE (see 2 Kings 17). The conflict revolved around the correct location for worship, the Jerusalem Temple or a shrine on Mt. Gerizim. During the Assyrian occupation, the exiled Jewish community continued to see Jerusalem as the center of worship life, whereas the Samaritans, still in Palestine but blocked from Jerusalem, built a new center of worship on Mt. Gerizim. By the time of Jesus, there no longer was a shrine on Mt. Gerizim (it had been destroyed by Jewish troops in 128 BCE), but the split continued (for probably obvious reasons, if you want someone to come around to your way of thinking, destroying their most sacred place is maybe not the best approach).
• Like much of John’s Gospel, the story of the Woman at the Well is a complex interweaving of dialogue and narrative. There are five major scenes in the story: v. 4-6 – Jesus’ arrival at the well, v. 7-26 – conversation between Jesus and the woman; v. 27-30 – arrival of the disciples and departure of the woman; v. 31-38 – conversation between Jesus and the disciples, v. 39-42 – Jesus and the Samaritan townspeople.
• In the interest of time (this is already a long passage) the lectionary cuts out verses 1-4. While not central to the story, these verses help explain how Jesus got to a well in the middle of enemy Samaria. Prior to this, Jesus had been in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover (2:13). After his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus traveled to the Judean wilderness where he spent some time with John the Baptist, and also did some baptizing. This stirred up the attention of the Pharisees, so Jesus decided to leave Judea and return to Galilee. “But he had to go through Samaria” (John 4:4). This very short verse is interesting, because why did he have to travel through Samaria? Scholars are evenly divided on whether the need was geographical or theological. For the geographical argument, first century historian Josephus noted that the best route from Judea to Galilee was through Samaria. For the theological argument, the word translated as “had to” (edei) is often used in John’s Gospel to indicate God’s plan.
• The location of a well calls to mind many Old Testament images. Jesus interrupting a woman in a household task recalls Elijah doing the same thing with the widow of Sidon (1 Kings 17:10-11). Other scenes involving a man and a woman at a well include the betrothal stories of Isaac (Gen 24:10-61), Jacob (Gen 29:1-20), and Moses (Exod 2:15b-21). John already connected wedding imagery to the coming of the Kingdom of God in the miracle at the wedding feast at Cana. The connection between the Samaritan woman at the well and these betrothal stories in the Old Testament expand the Kingdom of God not only to Israel, but even to those who are marginalized by Israel.
• In addressing the woman, Jesus broke two social conventions. First a Jewish man, especially a religious leader, did not engage in public conversation with a woman. Second, Jews did not engage in any way with Samaritans out of concern for ritual uncleanliness.
• “Living water” (v. 10) has two possible meanings (more word play! Noticing a theme here?). First, it could mean fresh, running water (spring water, instead of water from a cistern). It could also mean life-giving water.
• Like Nicodemus, the woman only caught the surface level of the wordplay. How could Jesus get her water, living or otherwise? He doesn’t even have a bucket. As readers, the Gospel writer lets us in to see the irony of the situation. The woman challenged Jesus that he was not greater than Jacob, the great ancestor of the faith who gave them the well. The reader of course knows the truth, Jesus IS greater than Jacob.
• Like with Nicodemus, Jesus leaned into the woman’s misunderstanding and challenged her to imagine bigger. Water, even fresh, spring water, quenches thirst only for a while. But Jesus is talking about water that gives life.
• The Samaritan woman’s enthusiastic response to Jesus in v. 15 on one hand shows she still missed the point. She still saw Jesus through the surface lens of the physical, instead of the broader spiritual gift he was offering. However, her move to seeing Jesus not as a rabble-rousing Jew without a bucket, but as someone who could meet her need does demonstrate her openness to expand her understanding about who Jesus was.
• Interpretations tend to get stuck on the woman having had five husbands and now living with a man not her husband, but that is not the point of the conversation. The point is that much like how the rest of the conversation had gone, the woman responded at a surface level (I have no husband, a true statement), whereas Jesus went beyond the surface, to the deeper truth of her statement. The difference is now they are not talking about water, but about the woman’s life. In response, the woman declared Jesus to be a prophet, showing another move along the spectrum of understanding the truth of who Jesus was.
• Recognizing Jesus as a prophet, the woman asked his thoughts on the greatest theological question of her time, where was the proper place of worship (aka: who was right, the Jews or the Samaritans). Jesus, rather than answering the question, looked beyond. Focusing on the proper place to worship is to confine God. God is bigger than such a conflict allows for.
• The woman’s understanding continues to develop, but there is still some lack of understanding, as seen in v. 25. “I know that the Messiah is coming…When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” The irony, as the reader well knows, is that the Messiah is in fact standing in front of her, and she still doesn’t recognize him. With this though, Jesus dropped the games and spoke plainly, “I am he…”
• “I am” is an explicit reference to the name God gave to Moses in Exodus 3:14, “I am who I am.”
• V. 27-30 form a transition, with the arrival of the disciples, the woman left to proclaim what she had heard.
• When the woman left, she left her jar behind. The left-behind jar plays two roles. First, it links the two conversations. While the woman is no longer in the scene, the presence of her jar shows she continues to be a participant. Second, is shows her progress in understanding Jesus. So convinced of him, she no longer is caught up in the search for water that brought her to the well, but is instead immersed in the mission of spreading the Kingdom.
• V. 29, the woman’s testimony has several interesting layers. “Come and see,” a key invitation in John’s Gospel to participate in the life of faith (cf. 1:37-39, 46). “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” There is a level of tentativeness to her statement of faith, she cannot all the way believe the truth of her statement since Jesus challenged her expectations of what a Messiah was. Her tentativeness is in contrast to others in the Gospel, who’s certainty keep them from seeing Jesus (ex. Nicodemus, 3:9; the crowds, 6:25-34; the Pharisees, 9:24-34). Yet in response to her uncertain witness, the townspeople went to see Jesus (v. 30).
• While the woman was testifying to the townspeople, Jesus had a similarly two-leveled conversation with his disciples (in the presence of the woman’s water jar). This time, the miscommunication was not with water, but with food. The disciples brought Jesus food from town, but Jesus referred to the food of his work which sustained him. Who Jesus is, his identity, is indistinguishable from the work Jesus does, doing the will of God.
• After the food conversation, Jesus switched to another popular metaphor for the coming kingdom, agriculture, and specifically harvest time. When he asked the disciples to look at the field, that for which the disciples are to reap is the Samaritans who are coming.
• V. 36 and 37 it is unclear who is meant to be the sower and who the reaper. These are not allegories, but parables, inviting the reader to read themselves in all the roles, and none of the roles.
• The story ends with the description of the success of the Samaritan mission. Jesus “had” to go through Samaria (v. 5), and when he did, many believed and asked him to stay (meno, the same word from John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us,” sense of abiding with).
• The Samaritans confession of faith demonstrates that while salvation may be from the Jews, it is not limited to the Jews. And the truth of Jesus words, that neither the Jerusalem Temple nor Mt. Gerezim define the worship of God.
Works Sourced:
O’Day, Gail. “The Gospel of John.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
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