John 4

John 4:1-54

CHRIST AND THE WOMAN John 4:1-54. , born in 1824, made himself famous by his masterpieces of the Christ. True, he treated some secular subjects, but “Christ Taken Prisoner”, now in the Gallery at Darmstadt, is perhaps his greatest work; while “Christ and the Adulteress”, in the Museum at Dresden, “Christ Preaching on the Sea of Gennesaret”, in Berlin, and “Christ in the Temple”, in the Dresden Gallery, with “Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane”, in a private gallery at San Francisco, all belong to his greater endeavors. But his work, “Christ and the Samaritan Woman”, is by no means to be despised. The face of the Saviour is somewhat worthy its subject, and the evident interest of the Samaritan woman as she listens to what Jesus has to say, her hand resting upon her water-pot, is an interpretation of the text itself.In the study of this Scripture certain thoughts have made such impression that we would convey them.First,THE CHRIST The superiority of Jesus to the day in which He lived appears in the circumstance that He is in Samaria at all. The straight road from Jerusalem to Nazareth takes one through the entire breadth of Samaria and close by the town of Sychar. The ordinary Jew in making this journey from Judea to Galilee to express his prejudices against this people and country, went around Samaria, crossing the Jordan twice, greatly extending the distance. Christ scorned such a thought and struck straight across the country counted “unclean” by His own people.Jacob’s well exists to this hour. About twenty minutes east of Nabulus one finds the historic stone well, on the edge of which Jesus sat resting Himself ; and not more than ten minutes’ walk away is Sychar, the town from which this woman had come. His presence in that country was an illustration of His break with the narrowness of Jewish opinions, and His conversation with the woman could mean nothing less than a stroke against “the wall of partition which the hatred of centuries had erected between Jew and Samaritan.”There were many reasons to the Jewish mind why such a conversation should never have occurred.Her sex should have stood in the way.

This thought is expressed in the Scriptures themselves, for when the disciples had returned from the city and looked on Him, “They marvelled that He was speaking with a woman” (John 4:27). Once Dr.

Chesterton of the Old World, took Rev. Mr. Roberts, a higher critic, to task for some of his opinions. Roberts had charged Jesus with having fallen into Jewish prejudices, and thereby permitted a husband to divorce his wife at pleasure without even hinting that under any circumstances a wife could ever secure a divorce. But, as Dr. Chesterton says, “Here Mr.

Roberts, like the average higher critic, is off on his facts. When Jesus stated under what conditions a man could put away his wife, He was answering their question, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause’?” The subject of a woman’s possible divorcing of her husband had not been brought to Him at all. “But”, as Chesterton adds, “in Mark’s Gospel Jesus puts man and woman upon the very same basis, and declares that if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she also committeth adultery”.

He knew no sex distinctions where sin was involved. And, for that matter, He held to no prejudices where sexes were involved. The Apostle wrote, “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female”. It can be said with equal truth that there was no more prejudice with Christ Jesus toward a woman as such than He knew toward a man because of his sex, and as for the Jewish opinion upon that subject, He spurned it, and addressed this woman deferentially, saying, “Give Me to drink”.Again, her Samaritanism might have silenced Him. She herself is surprised that it did not, and voices her wonderment in the question, “How is it that Thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me who am a Samaritan”? and the Apostle adds, “for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans”. That was a literal truth —“no dealings”—nor had they entertained any for many a year.

Go back to the Book of Ezra, fourth chapter and first verse, and you will read,“Now when the adversaries of Judah, and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple unto Jehovah, the God of Israel; then they drew near to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of fathers’ houses, and said unto them, Let us build with you; for we seek your God, as ye do; and we sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us in building a house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto Jehovah, the God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.

Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem” (Ezra 4:1-6, A. S. V.). The feud had lasted and the passing years had added fuel to the flames. These people were blood relatives to the Jews, and a family quarrel is one of the meanest conceivable. The only other that approaches it is a quarrel in a church among people who have professed a common faith, and in this instance both these features were involved, for the Samaritans worshiped Jehovah and wanted a part in building a temple unto Him, and were denied it. A man who can extricate himself from a quarrel which combines both church and family features, revealing no prejudices, is better than a genius in judgment; he reveals grace—positive godliness. By refusing to hate Samaritans Christ struck that “middle wall of partition” a second blow.There remained, however, what might have seemed to be a more insuperable barrier between that man and woman at that well.Her sins might have made His approach unthinkable. In Luke’s Gospel we have the record of how“one of the Pharisees desired Him that He would eat with him, and He entered into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat.

And behold, a woman who was in the city —a sinner—when she knew that He was sitting at meat in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster cruse of ointment, and standing behind at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden Him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This Man, if He were a Prophet, would have perceived who and what manner of woman this is which toucheth Him, that she is a sinner” (John 7:36-39, R. V.). He did perceive and afterward frankly confessed that He knew, and freely forgave her her sins, which were many, and pronounced an encomium upon her, of her penitence, her presentation, and her positive love.He knew that this woman was a sinner and a little later adroitly uncovered her sin. To cover sin from the eyes of the Christ is as impossible as to escape the eye of God—“Thou God seest me”. Sir Robt. Ball, the great astronomer, in a lecture spoke of the “photograph eye” which had brought out millions of stars whose existence was not known until the camera was turned toward the heavens. He told, also, how a kodak friend of his took a picture of the Great Eastern as it lay at the dock. The hull of the ship was black, having been painted, yet when the negative was printed, the word “Lewis” was on it.

The photographer went back to see whether any such word appeared, but it was not visible. Being astonished he went to the office of the Great Eastern and learned that underneath this tar, invisible to the human eye, the word lay; the searching rays of the camera had found and reproduced it.There is no covering of sin so deep or black but the gaze of Jesus penetrates to it.

Henry Van Dyke has remarked truly that “Jesus never said or did anything to minimize or disregard sin—to cover it up with flowers, to transform it into a mere defeat or mistake, to deny its reality and explain it away.” No such nonsense as that sin “is naught, is null, is silence emplying sound” ever passed His lips. And yet the Man whose eyes searched out sin was never cold and unsympathetic toward sinners. He never assumed an attitude of hatred toward them. In fact, He who was separate from sinners yet knew how to sympathize with us, having been “tempted in all points like as we are”, and felt no disposition to stand aloof from the stained soul. I had a letter a few days ago from a woman who has recently moved to another city. She spoke of an aristocratic company of people whose building was located in the slum center, and to one of whose vestrymen she had said, “How splendid to have your church right in the midst of the poor and stained.

I suppose you give those people a good deal of attention and assistance”, to which he replied, “Why Madam, we never see those people or come into any sort of contact with them. We could not afford to associate with them.” There are some people who are not safe among sinners.

Lot was one of them. He never helped Sodom any by dwelling in it, but was himself dragged down. Let such people keep away from the slums. Christ was not that sort. He could dwell with sinners without becoming one of them. He could be “in the world and yet not of it”. Those of you who have read Hawthorne will remember how Hilda refused to be associated with poor Miriam, and shrunk away from her as if she feared defilement at the very time when Miriam’s heart was breaking for sympathy; at the very time when only the consciousness of love could recover her from crime. There are people who seem to think it a virtue not only to keep themselves unspotted from sin but aloof from the world, and to look with fierce frowns upon every sinner who passes their way.

Christ never so behaved. His nature was pure enough not to fear defilement; His soul was clean enough to experience the fullest sympathy, and His arm was strong enough to lend assistance to the sin-sick and sinking. The Pharisees are not all dead yet. Many a sinful woman is given additional shoves toward hell by the exclusive, critical and condemning attitude of men and women who have named the Christ, but have never caught His spirit. Oh, it is good to have a Christ who “came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”! It is good to have a Christ that can stand in the midst of the stained, sorrowing, sick and dying, and say, “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”!The second study of interest in this Scripture is THE WOMAN In all ages it has been the common custom of women to wait and demand advance from the opposite sex. Certainly better women only introduce themselves when the circumstances justify such conduct. But let it be understood that to make the acquaintance of any woman will, in all likelihood, involve you in answering questions. Inquisitiveness is as common to the sex as is extended speech.Her first question uncovered a feminine curiosity; her second question expressed her ignorance of the Scriptures, and her third question revealed a soul-interest.Her first question uncovers a feminine curiosity. “How is it that Thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me who am a Samaritan woman”? She did not know this was Christ, the Son of God. She had dreamed no such thing.

To her Jesus was an ordinary Jewish man. I think she doubted His motive. She was little better than a woman of the streets, if she was not indeed just such; and on the basis of her own character would easily question the morals of the Man who addressed her, and felt that perhaps His willingness to forget the old feud between Jews and Samaritans was nothing better than a disposition to show familiarity toward a comely Samaritan woman. Herein I find a reason for Jesus’ having said to her, “Go call thy husband and come hither”! He wanted to teach her sin-stained soul, but He proposed to show at once that He preferred to do it under conditions of self-defense and justification, namely in the husband’s presence. The world has in it a multitude of women with whom any good man can stop and chat at pleasure, or even leisurely sit and converse without criticism from any quarter; but one of the awful penalties of sin on a woman’s part is found in the circumstance that when once she has fallen she can never hold even the most exalted conversation with the most righteous man apart, without calling suspicion upon herself and casting the same upon him. There are plague spots in every city that need a preacher more than any other section of the city beside, and yet into some houses of these same he cannot afford to go alone, and through the door of some homes he cannot afford to pass, save when he knows the husband is at home.Her second question revealed an ignorance of Scripture. When Christ had answered her question with “If Thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldest (not have suspicioned but) have asked of Him, and He would have given thee Living Water”, her reply shows that she had no conception of what He meant. She thought He was speaking of the water at the bottom of the well.

And yet, had she been familiar with Scripture, she might have understood. It would be an interesting thing to sit down and go through the Old Testament Scriptures and see how often salvation is symbolized by water. Take Isaiah alone in the use of this figure,“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid: for Jehovah, even Jehovah, is my strength and song; and He is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:2-3, R. V). Again, speaking of the Coming of Christ, he says,“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water: in the habitation of jackals, where they lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes?” (Isaiah 35:5-7, R.V.). Yet again,“Thus saith Jehovah that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, who will help thee: Pear not, O Jacob My servant; and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses” (Isaiah 44:2-4, A. S. V.). If I were asked what the chief difficulty in preaching at the present time is, I should answer that second only to men’s love of sin is their ignorance of the Scriptures. You talk to men in the very language of the Word of God and they do not know that it is from the Book, and they cannot understand what you mean. Nothing is more pitiful than the present-day ignorance of the Scriptures on the part of sinners. It would be ludicrous, if it were not so pathetic, to hear the average unconverted man attempt to tell what the Bible says. This woman knew the Name of Jehovah, but she did not know the Word.Her third question displayed a spiritual interest. “Sir, I perceive that Thou art a Prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship”.

Where? Practically all she knew about religion was this old dispute with the Jews.

It is all that some people know now. You meet with them and talk with them and they will ask you straight away about some church feud, some matter of theological debate. They are at home in that frying pan. I have known people to put in more time talking about church troubles than they were willing to give to church work. I have known people whose deepest interest in religion seemed to relate itself to the possible success of their party or clan. And yet this old bone of contention revealed some disposition to worship, however ignorantly it was entertained, and Jesus straightway taught her the fundamental truth of all worship, namely, that it did not depend upon any locality, nor was it necessarily connected with any holy hill, or with a specific house, but rather with the worshiper himself, and must forever remain a matter of seeking the Father in Spirit and in truth.

And even this woman, in her dark ignorance, knew that the only way to the Father was by the Son, for she said, “I know that Messias cometh (He that is called the Christ) when He is come, He will declare unto us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He” (John 4:25-26).Truly the Lord appears to them that look for Him.

He comes in a moment when they think not. This woman went to this well expecting nothing better than a pitcher of water; she returned from it with a well in her soul. In the Old Testament we have the romantic records of how at a well Rebekah met Isaac, Rachel met Jacob, and Jethro’s daughter met Moses. They went there for water only; they found there lovers and husbands, but great as were these men of God, their fortunes were small beside hers who found at the well the Lord of life.“Dear Saviour, we are Thine By everlasting bands; Our hearts, our souls, we would resign Entirely to Thy hands. “Thy Spirit shall unite Our souls to Thee, our Head; Shall form us to Thy image bright, And teach Thy paths to tread. “Since Christ and we are one, Why should we doubt or fear? If He in Heaven hath fixed His throne, He’ll fix His members there.” But again, the text yields another suggestion, namely, THE WITNESS Her first witness was against herself. When Jesus said, “Go, call thy husband”, she answered, “I have no husband.” To her Jesus replied, “Thou saidst well, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: this hast thou said truly” (John 4:17-18, R. V.).“The woman saith unto Him, Sir, I perceive that Thou art a Prophet” (John 4:19). Shamed as she must have been in the presence of One she now believed to be from God, she did not deny her sins. No man or woman has ever yet been saved until sin was both felt and confessed. As Marcus Dodds, speaking to this very incident, once said, “No one can slink out of his past life, forgetting or huddling up what is shameful.

It is only through truth and straightforwardness we can enter into that life which is all truth and integrity. Before we drink the Living Water we must truly thirst for it.”One day in the old Tremont Temple, George C. Lorimer, speaking on “Samson Grinding at the Mill”, said in passing, “The bird with a broken pinion never soars as high again.” Mr. Butterworth who was present, taking that sentence, wrote the poem with which we are so familiar: “I walked through the woodland meadows, Where sweet the thrushes sing; And I found on a bed of mosses A bird with a broken wing. I healed its wound, and each morning It sang its old sweet strain; But the bird with a broken pinion Never soared as high again. “I found a young life broken By sin’s seductive art; And touched with Christ-like pity, I took him to my heart. He lived with a noble purpose, And struggled not in vain; But the life that sin had stricken Never soared as high again.” Years afterward when Lorimer was in Immanuel Church, Chicago, delivering himself of one of those soul-stirring sermons of which he was America’s past-master, he said, as he pointed his finger toward the audience, “It may be to-night there is a defaulter here,” and the finger-tip rested directly in the face of a man who was guilty of that very crime. A few days later he pled guilty and received a sentence to Joliet, and one day in his cell he found this poem, “The Bird with the Broken Wing”, and said, “It is a picture of myself; I can never rise so high again, but if my heart is yielded to God, I can claim a part of it; I can employ a part of this in power: ‘But the bird with a broken pinion Kept another from the snare; And the life that sin had stricken Raised another from despair’.” And in Joliet that man gave himself to Jesus fully, confessing all and being fully forgiven. Conviction for sin, a witness against self, are the first steps toward salvation. The man who said “God be merciful to me a sinner”, “went down to his house justified”.Her next witness was to needy neighbors. She“left her water pot, and went away into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a Man, which told me all things that ever I did: can this be the Christ” (John 4:28-29, R. V.)? “And from that city many of the Samaritans believed on Him because of the word of the woman who testified, He told me all things that ever I did. So when the Samaritans came unto Him, they besought Him to abide with them: and He abode there two days.

And many more believed because of His Word; and they said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy speaking: for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world” (John 4:39-42, R. V.). Ah, it is great business this of bearing witness to others; this of proclaiming to the people whose eyes are on the earth, whose hands grip the muck-rake, “Jesus of Nazareth passeth by”. A woman can engage in it? Yes. A. J. Gordon tells us that in the beginning of the last century 13 £ 2s 6d was cast into the treasury at the house of a widow Wallace, in Kettering, for inaugurating the enterprise of modern missions. At the close of the century the societies which had sprung from that humble beginning were contributing $11,000,000 for evangelizing the heathen.In those days a woman’s missionary society was unknown, but there was one woman who wanted all the world to hear of Christ and what a work she inaugurated! Oh, to witness to our neighbors!

To witness at home first of all! Yes, and to witness abroad! To do anything, to say anything, to go anywhere if only we may get others to God. Mr. Moody tells how when he and Mr. Sankey were in Liverpool, a poor woman came to the meeting an hour before the time. When at last the singing began, her babe, tired already and restless, began to cry, and the well-dressed folks who had just entered the house looked cross and moved nervously and wished she would not disturb them. The woman did her best to quiet the babe and when she could not, rose to leave.

And Mr. Moody said, “I cried out, ‘Let that baby cry if it wants to. I can speak louder than the baby can cry. Now, you ill-mannered people, don’t look at that mother. Pray the Lord to bless her, instead. She has no one to take care of that baby, and perhaps she has not been in church for years’.” So the woman stayed and listened to the Gospel with the tears running down her face. At the close of the meeting, when he asked all those who desired salvation to stand, she was the first to rise. She started forward with the babe in her arms and it awoke and began to cry again and she did not know what to do.

Suddenly a great six-footer rose and coming to her said, “Madam, let me take your baby while you go to the inquiry room.” He took the precious charge and walked up and down the side of the room in the presence of eight thousand people, comforting and quieting it. The man may not have known what he was doing. He only thought to be kind to a burdened mother, but as a matter of fact he was helping to get her to God, and as she came out of that room she had another face, resplendent in every feature. He had shown himself a neighbor indeed.Her witness was confirmed by the Lord Himself. She told the people about Him; she got them to Him. He convinced them; He converted them from the error of their ways; He accepted their penitence, and pronounced their pardon, and many who believed because of His Word, said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of thy speaking: for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world” (John 4:42, R.

V.).We see the way. Get men to the place where God is.

Go after them. Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come into God’s house. If there is a faithful preacher in the pulpit they will find Christ there, and He will reveal to them more of Himself than we have been able to tell them about Him. In these days there are all too many people who think they can do nothing; too many silent who ought to be eloquent. What right have we to be silent while souls are sinking? I remember some years ago Captain John Kelsey and nine seamen in the big New Haven schooner, Wallace Ward, were caught in a storm. For five weary days and nights the men had battled with the waves and were worn out with the loss of sleep. The pumps choked, the rigging was torn and the cargo listed.

The men were in despair when one of the sturdiest of the lot said, “Captain we’re done for, good-by.” Mrs. Kelsey, putting her head out of the cabin and waving her hand, said, “For God’s sake, men, do not surrender! Stick to the pumps. You are not cowards. Work as long as strength will remain and help will come.” To show that she meant what she said she sprang herself to a pump and with almost superhuman strength and energy she went to work. The men were encouraged; they caught her spirit and fought as if they had been fresh at the pumps. But all seemed to be of no avail; the boat settled into the water, when suddenly the ship “Themis”, seeing their despair, rescued the crew and landed at Philadelphia the last one.The weakest man, the most timid woman in all the crew of Christ, can lend a hand or speak a word, and to do either, looking to Heaven for help, is to see salvation come.