John 4

Chap. IV. Ver. 1—15. _Christ’s conversation with the woman of Samaria.—On this very interesting narrative we offer the following observations, acknowledging such as have been borrowed.—1. ‘‘When the holy Jesus, (says Bishop Taylor,) perceiving it unsafe to be at Jerusalem, returned to Galilee, where the largest scene of his prophetical office was to be represented, he journeyed on foot through Samaria; and, being thirsty, begged water of a Samaritan woman that was a sinner, who at first refused him, with some incivility of language. But he, instead of returning anger and passion to her rudeness, which was commenced upon the interest of a mistaken religion, preached the coming of Messias to her, unlocked the secrets of her heart, and set in his grace; and made a fountain of living water to spring up in her soul, to extinguish the impure flames of lust.” 2.

We observe the wisdom and kindness of God, in producing good out of evil. The enmity of the Jews, in driving Jesus out of Judea, was the means of sending Christ and his Gospel to the Samaritans. So, oftentimes, when Ministers of the Gospel have been persecuted in one city, and they have fled to another, the Gospel has been heard with eagerness, and has produced the happiest effects. 3. We observe the liberality of Jesus in freely conversing with this woman, though he knew that she was a Samaritan and a sinner, with whom neither priest nor Pharisee would have deigned to speak. Even the woman herself seems to have been astonished at this circumstance, for the Jews, in the true spirit of sectarianism, would have no dealings with the Samaritans, nor, in fact, the Samaritans with the Jews, for they were equally bigoted and hostile.

Alas! that men, whom God hath made of the same flesh and blood—men on whom he daily causes his sun to rise and his rain to fall—men, involved in the same just condemnation, and dependent on the same revelation of mercy—alas! that such men, that any man, should dare to say to his fellow-man, “Stand by, for I am holier than thou!”: 4. We observe the important subject of conversation. Jesus had, indeed, asked for water, and was probably much oppressed with thirst; but he waves his request, and directs her to the consideration of her own wants. ‘‘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.”

The Lord Jesus wastes not his time in general and trifling conversation; but applies directly to one of the great topics of the gospel, the necessity of divine influences: ‘Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.’ How so? That water “shall be in him a well of water, springing up unto eternal life.’ Little indeed did this woman think (as is observed by the Prelate just quoted) of the dignity of him who talked with her—That “he that sat upon the well had a throne above the cherubim. In his arms, who there rested himself, was the sanctuary of rest and peace, where wearied souls were to lay their heads, and dispose their cares, and there to turn them into joys, and gild their thorns with glory.

That holy tongue, which was parched with heat, streamed forth rivulets of holy doctrine, which were to water all the world, to turn our deserts into paradise. And though he begged water at Jacob’s well, yet Jacob drank at his….. But because only the well was deep, and the woman had nothing to draw with, and of herself could not fathom so great a depth, therefore she refused him; just as we do, when we refuse to give drink to a thirsty disciple. Christ comes in that humble manner of address, under the veil of poverty or contempt; and we cannot see Christ from under that robe, and we send him away without an alms; little considering that when he begs of us an alms, in the instance of any of his poor relatives, he asks of us, but to give him occasion to give [us] a blessing.”

5. But what is this living water of which our Saviour speaks? He has himself explained it in a subsequent discourse to the Jews, where, speaking of ‘rivers of living water,’ he says, “this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive.” ((John 6:39).) Under this image two things are intended, instruction and consolation, both which are of the most satisfying nature. Those who are brought under the teachings of God’s Holy Spirit will, in spiritual things, desire no other teacher: those who partake of his consolations, will say to all the riches and pleasures that the world gives, (as Job to his friends,) ‘‘Miserable comforters are ye all, and physicians of no value!’ Thus they thirst no more on earth, and in heaven they cannot thirst.

• Saviour! subdue our worldly thirst, Our love to vanity and dust: On us thy consolations pour, And we shall drink, and thirst no more.” Ver. 16—30. Jesus continues his conversation with the Samaritan woman.—Our Lord having thus gained the attention of this poor Samaritan, is now about to address her conscience. ** Go (said he) and call thy husband.” On this question M. Claude judiciously remarks: ‘‘Jesus Christ did not speak thus because he was ignorant what sort of a life this woman lived. He knew that, to speak properly, she had no husband. It was a word of trial; for the Lord said this to give her an opportunity of making a free confession, ‘I have no husband.’ It was a word of kind reproof, for he intended to convince her of the sin in which she lived.

It was a word of grace, for the censure tended to the woman’s consolation. It was farther a word of wisdom, for our Lord intended to take occasion at this meeting to discover himself to her, and more clearly to convince her, that he had a perfect knowledge of the secrets of her life, as he presently proved, by saying, ‘Thou hast well said, I have no husband; for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband.’” Thus she stands charged with adultery, which she endeavours artfully to evade by turning the conversation: ‘Sir,’ said she, “I perceive that thou art a prophet;” and then she proposes the question as to the right place for worship, whether in Samaria, or at Jerusalem.

Our Lord avoids this now unimportant controversy, and tells her that the hour is fast approaching, when the service of God should not be confined either to this place or that; but when they who worship God, must “worship him in spirit and in truth.” Here two very important points arrest our attention—the object and the nature of religious worship. _1. The object of worship, God, who is a spirit. Metaphysicians know, that matter itself, with which our senses are continually conversant, is not easy to be defined; much less is spirit, of which almost all we know is negative—it is immaterial. The excellent Charnock advises to endeavour, to ‘‘Conceive of God as excellent, without any imperfection; a spirit without parts; great without quantity, perfect without quality, everywhere without place, powerful without members, understanding without ignorance, wise without reasoning, light without darkness; and when you have risen to the highest, conceive him yet infinitely above all you can conceive,”

&c. Nor is this a truth merely speculative; it is of the highest practical importance. If he be a spirit, a pure and perfect spirit, he cannot hold communion with carnal and polluted men, but through a Mediator. This leads us to consider, 2. The nature of divine worship. It must be sincere, or “in truth,” otherwise it is a solemn mockery; and it must be spiritual, or we can hold no communion with the Supreme Spirit. But, alas! we are carnal, hence then arises the necessity of a Mediator: out of Christ, that is, irrespective of his merits and atonement, “God is a consuming fire.” Nor is this all, we are carnal, and can offer no spiritual worship, but as assisted by his Holy Spirit. How good is God!

He not only expresses his readiness to receive sinners, but he sends a Mediator to introduce us to his presence; and lends the aid of his Holy Spirit to assist us. Even this poor Samaritan woman seems to have had some idea of these things: “I know (said she) that Messiah cometh, and when he is come he will teach us all things.” Jesus replies, “I that speak unto thee am he.” The disciples; and the woman leaves her water-pot, and runs home to invite her neighbours to come and see this extraordinary person: ‘Come see a man (who) has told me all that I ever did. Is not this the Christ?” Ver. 31—42. The disciples return, and the woman also, bringing others with her.—Christ’s disciples were, we know, at this time deeply imbued with Jewish prejudices.

They were surprised to find Jesus talking familiarly with a Samaritan woman, and that of the lower class, as her occupation seems to have been to fetch water. Knowing, however, they should meet reproof, they make no remark on this circumstance, but merely entreat their Master, who probably appeared exhausted and fatigued, to take some food; but he said, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.—My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” This is the perfection of obedience, when, like Job, (Chap. xxiii. 12,) we esteem the divine commands “more than our necessary food;” and can say with the Psalmist, ((Psalms 119:92),) “O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” But it was not merely in obedience to the moral law, that our Lord Jesus delighted; it was in suffering for our sins also.

“I have a baptism to be baptized with,” said he, alluding to his last extreme sufferings, “and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Luke, xii. 50.) This was the finishing of Christ’s work for our salvation, and to this he looked through all the intermediate steps of his ministerial labour. Deeply impressed with these ideas he animates his disciples to like diligence in their labours. At this time, it should seem, there were about four months unto the harvest; but he points to another harvest close approaching, in which he evidently alludes to the Samaritans, whom the woman was now bringing with her, and who being probably dressed in white, (as the Asiatics generally are,) gave him occasion to say, ‘‘Look on the fields, for they are white already unto harvest.” These Samaritans were a mixed race of Jews and heathens, but they were running eagerly to receive the word, for which they had been prepared by their countrywoman. Such, he remarks, accorded with the usual course of Providence. One man sows and another reaps, but when the work is complete, sower and reaper rejoice together. Many believed Jesus to be the Messiah from what the woman said; and when they came, they were so delighted with his conversation, that they requested him to remain two days longer with them. Then, ‘‘many more believed, because of his own word: and said unto the woman”—what it is of great importance for all of us to be able to say—‘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”—and not of the Jews only.

It is hardly to be supposed that the disciples took no part in this work, after being thus stimulated by their Master: it is a rich harvest. At the same time, the seed now sown seems to be in preparation for another harvest; for, upon the conversion of the apostle Paul, from being a persecutor to become a preacher, we are told that, ‘then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria,’ ((Acts 9:31);) which seems to imply, that many souls had been gathered in those parts, within about seven years of this period. Ver. 43—54. Jesus cures a nobleman’s son in Galilee.—The report of the miracle which Jesus had here wrought, in turning water into wine, with other miracles which followed, had spread through the surrounding country, and naturally occasioned the present application.

‘The two days he had been detained in Samaria being expired, Jesus now proceeds to Galilee; but not to Nazareth, which he avoided, and passed on to Cana, because he himself bare witness that “a prophet hath no honour in his own country.” (See (Matthew 13:57-58).) When he came to Galilee, however, he was joyfully and gratefully received. But he is applied to by a nobleman at Capernaum, one of Herod’s immediate attendants, (as the word seems to imply,) and not improbably Chusa, Herod’s steward, whose wife became afterwards an attendant upon our Lord, ((Luke 8:3);) and it has been supposed, in consequence of the miracle wrought upon her son. As to this nobleman, it is said, that ‘‘he himself believed, with his whole house,”

though we hear nothing farther of him as a disciple of our Saviour. If he returned to court, it was not a place friendly to the cultivation of religion, nor was Herod a master likely to countenance religious servants. As to his faith, (as Dr. Henry Hunter observes,) it appears to have been “blended with much infirmity. He reposed confidence in the power of Christ to heal the sick; but he weakly imagined that his power could operate only on the spot. Under this impression he travels from Capernaum to Cana, in hope of being able to persuade Jesus to accompany him to the former city…. He besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. He urges the importance of despatch, lest death should interpose and extinguish hope for ever; for his faith carried him no farther than to the brink of the grave, and

there gave up all for lost….. It was meet that he should be taught to enlarge his ideas of the power and grace of the Redeemer, as extending to universal space, and to every possible state of things. This seems to be the only rational interpretation which can be given of the apparent coldness of the reception given him by our Lord. Instead of his usual promptitude to fly to the relief of distress, the importunate father meets, from the lips of Christ, with a seemingly ungracious reflection, which had nearly chilled his heart. Then said Jesus unto him, ‘Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe.’ Parental affection perseveres in following up the request. He tacitly admits the justice of Christ’s censure, but waves discussion, and in the anguish of his soul renews his application…..

‘Sir, come down ere my child die!’ Where the heart is deeply interested the words are few; but, oh, how forcible! The feelings of a parent are seen with approbation by the friend of mankind, to whom nothing that affects humanity can be a matter of indifference. Jesus saith unto him, ‘Go thy way, thy son liveth”….. He receives his son as one alive from the dead; he learns to correct his false ideas of the power of Christ, and to submit implicitly to his decisions. ‘And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.’” By the way, however, a servant met him with the joyful news of his son’s recovery, and upon inquiring the time, it was found that the fever left him at the very hour when Jesus spoke the word.

Thus in the world of Grace, as in that of Nature, “He spake, and it was done: he commanded, and it was established.”

Notes on the verses

So also Dodd- Ver. 29. He that hath the bride, &c.—Doddridge, ‘‘It is the bridegroom that hath the bride.’’ 5 Ver. 31. He that cometh from above is above.—Dr. Smith, ‘‘over” all. He that cometh from heaven is above, or ‘over’ all. Ver. 36. He that believeth not.—Doddridge, ‘‘He that is disobedient.” Campbell, ‘‘He that rejecteth.” The word here used (apeithon) is not a mere negative, implying a simple want of faith, but a positive disbelief.” ‘‘It signifies (says the judicious Leigh) the want of obedience of faith.” Cup. IV. Ver. 1. More disciples than John.—Namely, at this period, when John’s popularity was on the decline, and that of Jesus on the advance. See (John 3:30). Ver. 2. Jesus himself baptized not.—So Paul baptized very few, being on the higher errand, that of preaching the gospel.

1 Cor. i. Ver. 4. He must needs go through Samaria.—We need not, as some have done, refer for the reason of this to the divine decrees, for a single glance at any map of Judea will show that this was the direct way, and only to be avoided, (as Doddridge remarks,) by a long and inconvenient circuit. _ Ver. 5. Called Sychar.—The Jews gave this name in reproach, meaning the country of drunkards, as belonging to the tribe of Ephraim. See (Isaiah 28:1). Ver. 6. Now Jacob’s well was there.—[Over Jacob’s well, the Emperor Helena is said to have built a church in the form of a cross, of which “nothing but a few foundations” remained in the time of Maundrell. He states that it is situated about one-third of an hour, or about a mile east of Nablous, the ancient Sychar; and Buckingham says it is called Beer Samareea, or the Well of Samaria, and ‘‘stands at the commencement of the round vale which is thought to be the parcel of ground bought by Jacob, and which, like the narrow valley east of Nablous, is rich and fertile.

The mouth of the well itself had an arched or vaulted building over it; and the only passage down to it at this moment is by a small hole in the roof.” ‘‘It is,” says Maundrell, “dug in the firm rock, and contains about three yards in diameter, and 35 in depth; five of which we found full of water.”|—Bagster. Neither Buckingham nor Dr. E. Clarke, seem to doubt the identity of the well. Orient. Lit. No. 1343.—Sat thus on the well—That is, says Harmer, as a weary traveller. About the sixth hour—i.e. Noon. See note on (Matthew 27:45). Ver. 10. Living water.—By living water, the Hebrews evidently understood water always in motion, whether in a rising spring, or a flowing stream. Stagnant waters were considered dead—as the Dead sea. Ver.

11. Thou hast nothing to draw with. Rawwolf, speaking of the well of Bethlehem says, the people that go to dip water are provided with small leathern buckets and a line, as is usual in these countries.—Orient. Cust. No. 467. Ver. 18. Is not thy husband.—Mr. Madan supposed that four of her husbands were deceased, or had been divorced; that she had married a fifth, and deserted him, and now lived with another man. The one she had deserted must, however, still have been her husband, and the other with whom she now lived, our Lord says, was not her husband. Ver. 20. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain.—(Mount Gerizim, to which the woman probably pointed, and at the foot of which Sychar was situated, where Abraham and Jacob had erected altars and sacrificed.

On this mountain Sanballat had built a temple for them, which was destroyed by John Hyrcanus.—Josephus. J—B. See (Deuteronomy 10:29); xxvii. 12. The origin of this schism was as follows:—Manasseh having been expelled the priesthood for marrying the daughter of Sanballat, the Moabite, his father-in-law obtained leave from Alexander the Great to build a temple on Mount Gerizim, which mountain they still continued to reverence, though the temple had been long since destroyed. The people were a mixture of Cuthites, and apostate nations, introduced at various times into the province by various conquerors. See (2 Kings 17:24-25). It is certain that the Samaritans were always bitter enemies to the Jews, as well as the Jews to the Samaritans.

See (Nehemiah 4:12, 19); lv. 27, &c. and vi. 1, &c. Ver. 27. With the woman.—Campbell, “with a woman.” East says, it was disreputable for any man of respectability to act hard with a woman. Ver. 42. The Saviour of the world.—Whether they learned this from Christ himself or from the prophecies of the Old Testament, or from both, is not certain. Ver. 46. Into Cana of Galilee.—(Dr. E. D. Clarke, who visited Cana a few years ago, says, “that, walking among the ruins of a church, we saw large massy pots, answering the description given of the ancient vessels of the country; not preserved, but disregarded by the present inhabitants, as antiquities with whose original use they were unacquainted. From their appearance, and the number of them,

it was quite evident that a practice of keeping water in large pots, each holding from eighteen to twenty-seven gallons, was once common in the country.”|—Bagster.—A certain nobleman.—The word (basilikos) signifies properly, as the Syriac and Arabic versions render it, ‘‘a minister or servant of the king;” i.e. Herod, who, though tetrarch only, was allowed to bear that title.