CHAPLAIN’S PAGE – THE WOMAN AT THE WELL
MOST of us are familiar with the story of Jesus’ meeting with the woman of Samaria by the well, and the ensuing conversation between them. This is recorded in St John’s Gospel, 4:1-30.
When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
(Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria.
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.
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.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
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.
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.
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?
Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself and his children, and his cattle?
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
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.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband.
For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband.. in that saidst thou truly.
The woman saith unto him, 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.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
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. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 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? The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city and saith to the men,
Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
You may simply be thinking that it is rather a touching story, although we don’t even know the woman’s name. However, there are spiritual truths here, which can help us to understand our Christian beliefs with greater clarity.
Part of this conversation is geographical; for in verse 20 the woman speaks of the Hebrew fathers worshipping in the exact place where they were talking. She then reminds Jesus that He had just told her that men should worship at Jerusalem. At that point she was understandably confused, and Jesus goes on to explain that the time would come when men would not be worshipping in either place, but, instead, would worship in spirit and in truth. His next statement has caused much confusion even to this day.
“Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.” – (verse 22)
Most Christians have accepted these words without much thought and believe that we must turn to the Jews in order to be saved. How can this be when it was they who rejected our Saviour? Even today they await the Messiah’s first Coming. It was they who demanded His death and exclaimed (Matthew 27:25)
Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
And again, they cried out (John 19:15);
But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
A definite denial if ever there was one!
How then, can we turn to them for salvation? Could it be that the translation in the King James’ Bible is slightly misleading? A number of other Bibles, incidentally, have very similar wording.
In view of the facts noted above, that the Jews wanted to be blamed for the Saviour’s death, we see something further in the text which is noteworthy; they were so certain that He was guilty of blasphemy, that they wanted their blood guilt to go forward to future generations, hence “His blood be upon us, and our children”. This being so, how is it possible to turn to them for salvation?
By comparing various translations of the text, there is only one which makes our Lord’s words clearer. This is in the Ferrar Fenton Bible, first published in 1903. Verse 22 is rendered thus:
“You pay homage without knowledge: because the salvation comes from among the Judaeans”.
This makes much more sense, because what Jesus was saying was that He was that salvation; obviously it could not have been the people who put Him to death. Confirmation that this is the correct understanding of the text is found in John 4:25 and 26;
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
The people at that time knew that they were descended from Abraham and were steeped in the Law and the Prophets, but were blind inasmuch as they did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. They failed to comprehend that He fulfilled all that the Prophets had written concerning Him. There can only be one reason, that their understanding had been dulled so that they should not know the truth.
Paul confirms that this is so in Romans 11:25;
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
This blindness upon the Southern house of Judah was caused by the intervention of Jehovah. We may well enquire, why so? Jeremiah, writing in c. 629 BC, supplies the answer in chapter 3. Four times the Holy Spirit revealed to him that Judah would be punished because of treachery. It is of interest to note here that partial blindness also happened to the Northern House, inasmuch as they have lost trace of their lineage. The reason why is found in the same text. They are referred to as “backsliding”. This state of affairs will continue until such time when the heathen nations will enter the kingdom. At that time “All Israel”, i.e., the Northern and the Southern Houses, will be saved. (Ezekiel 37) This wondrous event will take place when Jesus, the Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, returns to set up His Kingdom.
Romans 11:26 and 27 says:
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
May that day come soon!
However, we have not yet finished with the difficulties that our Lord’s words have caused for Christians; not only Christians, incidentally, for the whole world is confused concerning the identity of the Jews, and their role in world affairs.
Some who are reading this may now agree that Jesus was not actually saying that we must look to the Jews for salvation. Hopefully, you will agree that He was saying to the woman that He was the salvation.
You may be thinking that as Jesus was a Jew, then what He said was, in effect, still correct. Have we not all been brought up to believe that He was a Jew? Even the woman at the well thought that He was. Did not the Holy Spirit inform us in John 1:11;
He came unto his own, his own received him not.
Here, indeed is conclusive evidence that Jesus was a Jew – or is it? Sometimes we need to clear our minds of what we have been taught to believe, and to make a new start. It may be necessary to remove preconceived ideas and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us in all humility.
You may find the next statement difficult to accept, that is, that if Jesus was Jew, He could not be divine. Hopefully, you believe that Mary was a virgin, for we are told so in Isaiah 7:14,
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Clearly, Joseph was not His natural father. We now need to know, who supplies the blood to the growing child in the womb. Is it the mother? Certainly she supplies the nourishment and all that is necessary to make a complete baby, but the mother’s blood supply and the baby’s are quite separate. The father supplies the building blocks of the baby’s blood.
Luke 1:35 says;
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God
“Overshadow” is from the Greek EPISKIAZO, variously meaning “to envelop in a haze of brilliance”, and, figuratively “to invest with preternatural influence”. As Mary did not supply the blood of Jesus, we must, therefore, conclude that it was supplied by God the Father. His blood was, therefore, divine, not human blood. Indeed, it could not be otherwise, for human blood was tainted from the moment of the Fall in Eden. Again, it would not he possible if His blood were to be human for the Lord to fulfil the conditions of Passover. Peter confirms this in I Peter 1:18, 19;
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Paul says, in Hebrews 9:14;
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
These two texts stand by their own testimony to the fact that our Saviour’s precious blood was divine, and not human. To understand the mystery of the Incarnation, we may break it down as follows:
(1) The body of Jesus, flesh, bones and organs, were supplied by Mary and were therefore human.
(2) His spirit was also human.
(Scripture tells us that He “increased in wisdom” – Luke 2:52 – If His spirit were divine it could not increase. Immediately before His death on the cross He cried out “Father, into Thy Hands I commend my spirit” – Luke 23:46 – These words were in fulfilment of Psalm 31:5 – “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me O Lord, God of Truth”. If His spirit were divine, it would not be in need of being redeemed).
(3) His blood was from His Father, and therefore divine.
(4) His nature was both divine and human. His human nature was that of mankind before the Fall, therefore, a perfect nature.
This great truth was understood by the Reformers, hence when formulating the 39 Articles of Religion, they set down in the 2nd Article;
“The Son, which is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of man”.
Before closing, we need to look again at John 1:11;
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
How do we understand this text if Jesus was not a Jew? Some will say that the first verse of Matthew’s Gospel plainly tells us that Jesus was Jewish, doesn’t it? Look at verse 16;
And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
If we accept the virgin birth, then this genealogy has no bearing on Christ. Notice the wording –“the husband of Mary”, not the father of Jesus. lt is the official registration of Jesus’ birth in the name of His foster father.
In the widest sense we could say that He came unto His own, for He came to earth in a human body, and He became lower than the angels. (Hebrews 2:7).
Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:
In another sense He also came unto his own people, for His human mother, Mary, was of the tribe of .Judah, of the line of David. Through her He has the right to take up the Throne of David at His Second Advent. Joseph, His foster father, although also of the line of David, was of a branch that was barred from the throne through a forbidden part of the family.
Both Joseph and Mary were of David’s family, therefore it is correct to say that Jesus was born into David’s family, but it does not make Him a Jew.
Our wonderful Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, is far beyond the confines of the human race and the corruptible blood lines. He is Eternal, from everlasting to everlasting.
If the foregoing has cut across some of your previous beliefs, do not dismiss it lightly. Pray for guidance, and conduct your own study. This is the only way to deepen your knowledge of those things which really matter in life.
