24th Jan 2011

John 4:1-26 – Jesus Talks with the Samaritan Woman

• “Why Here and not There?”
• Jesus rejects some of the normal Jewish behavior here by taking a more direct route to his destination through Samaria.
• The geographical area was normally avoided in order to avoid its inhabitants – the Samaritans.
• The Samaritans were like the spiritual poor cousins of the Jews. They were the descendants of Jews who had intermarried with the pagans and the Jews had come to detest them.
• They lived a kind of Judaist half-life.
• They did not believe that Jerusalem was the center of worship to God but Mount Gerizim, the called themselves the ‘Keepers of the Law and only saw the Pentateuch as authority and rejected the rest of the Old Testament.
• Not only does Jesus mix with a Samaritan, talk to them and even ask them for something but the Samaritan in question is a woman.
• All of this is not that terribly surprising when we understand that Jesus was a lover of all people and saw them all as equal. It is not surprising because we know He was not a coward, he did not bow to the peer pressure of His followers in order to keep them happy.
• But…
• There is one puzzle.
• Jesus is called to the lost sheep of Israel. We usually see this as simply the Jews.
• And yet the only time he explicitly tells anyone that he is the Messiah is to a Samaritan.
• The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

• Why?
• Why here in Samaria and not there in Jerusalem?
• Probably because the Samaritans view of the Messiah had far less political or militaristic overtones as it did in Jerusalem.
• Jesus was therefore able to speak freely and clearly here because people would not add to His words their own extra baggage and interpretation to fit their needs.
• Could this be the case in our lives?
• Could that be why God has to sometimes take us to different places to speak clearly to us?
• Different geographical places, or emotional places or circumstantial places?
• Would He have to do that in my life if I attached less personal baggage and self-centered interpretation to the things He says?
• Even here what He is fully saying is missed.
• Jesus uses the phrase ‘”I am” the phrase God uses to reveal Himself in the Pentateuch. Invoking Remez here and elsewhere in John’s Gospel His full meaning is still missed.
• He directly reveals Himself as the Messiah and indirectly reveals Himself as God.
• But the Samaritan woman in her underdeveloped faith does not see it.
• Praying I will.