Thoughts on John 4

Today’s reading: 2 Kings 5; John 4

The Samaritan woman at the well was exactly the kind of person we would likely write off as uninterested in Christianity, but she was one of the only people that Jesus directly revealed His identity to, and she responded immediately and in a big way!

If you aren’t familiar with the cultural/political context, the Jews and Samaritans strongly disliked one another. The Samaritans were “half-breed” Jews; Israelites who had been left behind during the exile, but who had intermarried with non-Jews. They also followed a partial/inaccurate version of Judaism, working from the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), but not recognizing any other Scriptures past that, and having integrated some practices from other religions into their worship as well. When the Israelites returned from the exile and started rebuilding the temple/Jerusalem, they told the Samaritans that they had no part in the work (because they were not fully Jewish and their theology was not orthodox), so the Samaritans actively opposed the rebuilding efforts of the Jews. This all laid the groundwork for centuries of growing animosity continuing on into Jesus’ day.

So when Jesus is speaking to this Samaritan woman at the well, He is not speaking to a well-informed Jew with proper theology, just needing a little nudge toward how to be saved, He is speaking to an enemy of the Jews with a bastardized theology of Yahweh and abhorrent religious practices.

On top of that, even among Samaritans, this woman would have been considered a sinner and therefore probably very uninterested in/unconcerned about religious things. While the Samaritans’ beliefs were not orthodox as far as the Jews were concerned, they did still hold to the Torah, which contains the Jewish laws, meaning they had a similar moral framework to the Jews. Jesus calls out that this woman has had five husbands, and that the man she has now is not her husband. So while it doesn’t sound like she is a prostitute, she certainly isn’t concerned about sexual purity, especially since the Torah contains strict laws about sex outside of marriage. 

So when Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well, He is speaking to a woman who follows a wrong/abhorrent religion, and who clearly isn’t even all that concerned about that system, and yet it is to this very woman that Jesus makes His most direct/clear declaration of His identity as the Messiah.

There are other places Jesus implies He is the Messiah or doesn’t correct someone else who says it, but even those are rare occurrences. But, unless I am mistaken, this is the only place where Jesus Himself takes the initiative to declare Himself to be the Messiah. It was not to the well-informed Jew, Nicodemus, nor was it even to His disciples, but to this sinful Samaritan woman that Jesus directly declared Himself to be the Christ.

And how does this sinful, unorthodox woman respond? By running into town, telling everyone about Jesus, and bringing them all out to meet Him! On top of that, how does this community of wrongly-believing people respond? They excitedly welcome Jesus and respond, in mass, to Him.

My point in all of this is that we don’t know who will respond to the gospel, or how they will respond to it. We tend to think it is the already religious person who wants to hear more, or who will be more inclined to listen, while we assume the more sinful/non-religious person will not want to hear what the Lord has sent us to offer, but so often it is exactly the opposite. So often it is the religious person who thinks they already have the answers and don’t need to hear what you have to say, while it is the sinful/non-religious person who recognizes there is something missing, feels their need for something more, and is open to hearing what answer they might be missing.

Let’s not decide for people whether they will be interested and open to the gospel or not. Let’s not decide that someone’s lifestyle or belief system makes them unfit for salvation. Jesus revealed His identity most directly to the most unlikely of people, and the impact on eternity was great. Let’s follow our Savior’s wisdom in this rather than our own!

Lord, give us your eyes to see whose hearts you have been preparing for your gospel, and give us the humility to boldly follow your Spirit wherever He is leading us to go, no matter how much that may or may not align with our own understanding.