Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 19 April 2015
by Captain Michael Ramsay
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Here we have the famous story of the woman
at the well. John records this first instance of Jesus’ revelation to the world
that he is the Messiah, the Christ, the Saviour of the world. I think it is
thus very significant to whom God chose to reveal this and the result of that
revelation. If you haven’t already, please open your Bible to John 4 and let’s
look at Jesus’ revelation to the world that indeed he is its Saviour. Today we
are going to ask a couple of questions of the pericope:
- What do we know about the first person Jesus chose to reveal that he is the Messiah?
- What is the result?
1. What do we know about the person
Jesus chose to reveal that he is the Messiah?
a. She is a woman (4:8)
b. She is probably in what we would call today a common-law
relationship (4:18)
c. She has had a number of men in her life (4:18)
d. She is a Samaritan (4:8)
e. Other…
a. Jesus chose to reveal that he was the
Messiah first to a woman.
In Jesus’ day and age good synagogue-going
men did not want to be caught alone with a woman, let alone a woman who has had
previous boyfriends lest he be tempted to try something inappropriate or be
accused of such.[1] In our own
world today it is not as extreme but this idea is not entirely foreign. Billy
Graham, a well-esteemed Christian leader, has been open in saying that he has
not been alone with a woman to whom he is not related. Keep above reproach and
remove yourself from temptation.
This caution was even more pronounced then
as the rights, responsibilities, and roles of women in 1st Century
CE Roman occupied Palestine were not the same as they are in much of the world
now. In recent history Turkey, Pakistan, and India have all had women Prime
Ministers. The UK and later even Canada (albeit for a very short time) have had
women Prime Ministers. And some people think that even the United States might
someday soon have a woman leader.
In The Canadian Salvation Army, our current
leader, Commissioner Susan McMillian, is a woman and The Salvation Army’s first
female international leader; Evangeline Booth was chosen General almost 100
years ago.
In Roman Palestine of the First Century
women, however, did not have the same roles, responsibilities, opportunities,
and rights. Women were quite vulnerable to circumstance and the whims of others
in their society. This I think is one of the main reasons for Jesus’
prohibition against divorce: marriage was a key protection for women, who were
otherwise vulnerable in Roman Palestine (Mk 10:11-12, Lk 16:18; cf. 1Cor
7:11-13). Marriage was one of their key protections and this brings us to our
next couple of points.
b. She is
probably not married but rather in what we would call today a common-law
relationship
c. She has had a number of men in her
life
Given that marriage was a main form of
security and protection for women, this woman -who is on her fifth or sixth
relationship- has gone through a lot of insecurity. Now we don’t know anything
about her relationships. We don’t know whether some or all of her previous
husbands died. We don’t know whether they cheated on her or she on them. We
don’t know whether they publicly shamed her or if they abused her. We don’t
know if almost everything was her fault, the fault of the men she has been with
or some combination of the two. We do know however that women did not
have the right to initiate divorces; so if she was legally married five times
then on 5 separate occasions, 5 separate men separated from her one way or
another. We know that she is now in this situation where men are not even
supposed to be seen alone or in public with one such as her. She is relegated
to the margins of society. This woman is vulnerable.
Now this isn’t to say she doesn’t have
friends: Verses 39-42 show that she does. It is just to say that many 'proper'
people would not consider it ‘proper’ to be with her and she certainly didn’t
have opportunities available to her that other ‘proper’ people would. Think of
maybe yourself or definitely our friends here who have had multiple
relationship or are single parents or who have had a child outside of wedlock
and so have to work hard and/or collect social services just to support their
children: you don’t have a lot of money and supports. There are some in this
room who have struggled through similar things: no money, being abandoned,
maybe attacked, and feeling that some people are judging you every time they
see you. This is a little bit about the woman, who in our story here today
isn’t even given a name. She has had a hard run of it!
This is the person Jesus chooses to reveal
the Gospel to out of everyone who he could have revealed it too in the whole
world: she is a woman, ‘living in sin’,
who has had many men – and I submit that this next detail in how she is
described to us may be even more significant than all of that.[2]
d. She is Samaritan
This is where I expect a lot of our Monday
Night Bible Scholars. What is Samaria? Where is Samaria? Who are Samaritans?
We remember that Israel only existed as a
united kingdom for a short time in history (1050-930BCE). King David’s side won
the civil wars but after that there was only one king – Solomon - who ruled a
united Israel and Judah. After Solomon died the tribes of Israel threw off the
yoke of Judah’s rule (1Ki 12, 2Chr 10). The two countries were then on-again,
off-again enemies until and even after the final destruction of both kingdoms
(720, 586BCE). The southern country, Judah, had as its capital city Jerusalem
and their countrymen became known as Jews.
The northern country, Israel, had as its capital city Samaria (since
King Omri in 876) and their countrymen eventually became known as Samaritans.
Now each country was conquered at a
separate time. The Israelites after they were conquered became a dominant
people in Palestine and many of Jews who were conquered later were deported and
in exile they became a dominant people. These deported Jews then returned to
Palestine and some of them claimed a certain racial purity over the Samaritans
who remained in the area but that claim is debatable (Ezra-Nehemiah). One just
needs to look at the genealogy of Christ to realize that the exiled Jewish
bloodlines were not pure anymore than the Samaritans’ or anyone else’s (Mt 1, Lk
3). Some Samaritans, by the way, claimed that same purity for themselves. They
were, after all they point out, the descendants of Joseph the son of Israel to
whom all other tribes were to bow down.[3]
People in these countries historically
alternated between worship of the LORD and worship of Baal or other regional
deities. Samaria, like Judah prior to the exile, focused on the Pentateuch in
their worship of the Lord. Judah when they were exiled, however, began to
include other texts in their worship.[4]
One big religious difference between Israel
and Judah, Samaritans and Jews is referenced in our text today. The Jews dating
back to the reign of Solomon believed that the only proper place of worship was
the temple in Jerusalem. The Samaritans believed, dating even further back, to
the time of Moses, that the sacred site in the Promised Land was Shechem at Mt.
Gerizim. This was a major bone of contention between Samaritans and Jews right
from the time Israel was freed from Judah’s rule (John 4:20).
Now there is even more antagonism and
rivalry about the place of worship: We know that Solomon built a temple in
Jerusalem and that the Jews believed that that was the only proper place to
worship the Lord (1Ki - 2Chr). Our Bible mentions Judah and Israel both getting
in trouble time and again for not removing other ‘high places’, other places of
worship in their country. We know also that Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by
the Babylonians so then they obviously weren’t able to worship there anymore
but did you know that Samaria then built a Temple to the Lord near the sacred
site of Mt. Gerizim where they could worship? They built this new temple not
where Solomon’s Temple was built but where God instructed Moses in Deuteronomy
27 to build an altar. I find it quite interesting that during the so-called
silent years of Greco-Macedonian (Seleucids, Ptolemys) rule, God was still
moving. Did you know the Samaritans’ temple, after Judah’s was destroyed,
existed for hundreds of years as a centre of worship until… not so long before
our scripture today (128BCE)… the Jews invaded Samaria and destroyed the
temple?[5]
Samaria and Judah never really got along but when the Jews invaded and
destroyed their temple you can see how that might be the last straw and you can
see why the woman might bring that up at the well here. Jews and people from
Israel, Samaritans just don’t get along. (How is everyone doing with a
fast-forward version of about a millennium’s worth of history here?)
There is something here too relating to
Jews and Samaritans fighting about where is the right place to worship that
reminds me of a story I heard at a men’s group recently. There were some people
in the US somewhere who were talking one evening and thought that they had
discovered the oldest place in the universe. They then figured that if it is
the oldest place in the universe then that must be where God lives – as it was
the first place to exist. They then spend over $20 000.00 to build the
necessary equipment to transmit electronic impulses or radio waves or something
like that into space; they build a website and offer people the opportunity to
talk to God on-line. To this day, apparently many people have sent messages
into deep space thinking that that is where God is and that that is the only or
best way He will here them. Jesus is basically saying that this is the error
that the Jews and the Samaritans are making in our text today. God is not
confined to Samaria, a temple in Jerusalem or a star in deep space. God is
omnipresent and God loves us.
Jesus points out that the Samaritans
worship a God that they don't know and the Jews worship this same God whom they
do know but Jesus says that there will come a time - and that time is now, he
says - when it really doesn't matter where you worship God so long as you do
worship Him and he proves this by taking the extraordinary step of choosing an
Israelite, a Samaritan, as the first Christian evangelist entrusted with the
Good News that Jesus is Saviour of the world (Jn 4:23). Imagine than that you
are this lady. Here is a man who when you first see him you are probably
thinking, ‘he thinks he is too good for me’. He is a man and men like that
don’t talk to women like me and he is a Jew and Jews are openly hostile to and
or bigoted towards Samaritans but then he talks to you and you listen to him.
Have you ever had something like that happen? You sit angry or cross-armed
because you think the person talking to you is probably so stuck up; wondering
what so-and-so can possibly say that is any good. I know I have. Then they open
their mouth and you think, ‘hey this person isn't so bad’. You know, I think
he's onto something. Amen! He's spot on now! Wow! …And he even knows my very
own heart! I'm going to tell everybody. And this lady does and everyone
believes her! People come pouring into the fullness of salvation because of
this first Christian preacher sharing the Good News of Salvation (Jn 4:39-42).
For those of us in Bible Study: also
according to John who was the first person Jesus commissioned as a preacher of
the Good News after he was raised from the dead? Mary Magdalene, a woman (Jn
20:18). And now who, in our text today, is the first recorded evangelist to
preach Jesus as the Saviour of the world? This Samaritan woman is the first
Christian preacher and she is a woman and later the first person after the
resurrection Jesus commissions to be a preacher of the Good News is Mary
Magdalene - also a woman - and some people today say that woman can’t preach:
try to figure that one out!
There is no prohibition against women
preaching here. There is no prohibition about poor people preaching here. There
is no prohibition against people who have less than perfect lives preaching
here. We are all called to preach the Gospel and we all commissioned to share
the Good News. So my question for us today: When have you taken the same
initiative as this ostracized Samaritan women, who was looked down upon by Jews
and ‘proper’ people? When have you taken the initiative of this marginalized
divorced woman who was 'living in sin'? When have you taken the opportunities
God has given you to lead others to salvation: If not yesterday, then how about
tomorrow?
It doesn’t matter who we are. It doesn’t
matter what we’ve actually done. It doesn’t even matter who other people think
we are or what other people say we’ve done, Jesus loves us and Jesus loves them
and Jesus wants you and Jesus wants me to tell everyone we know that - no
matter what they’ve done and no matter what other people think they have done -
Jesus doesn’t worry about that so much as Jesus loves us and he loves them and
he wants us all to be a part of his kingdom both now and forever more. So when you go from here today, I encourage
you to find at least one other person this week and tell them how much Jesus
loves them and just like the Samaritan woman invite them to meet Jesus. And if
you are here today and you have never met Jesus come chat with me or someone
else now at the mercy seat or right after the service, if you prefer, and we’ll
introduce you.
Let us pray.
---
[1] Cf. Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary,
Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/II. The Public Ministry of the Word
(1:19-12:50)/A. The Beginning Ministry (1:19-4:54)/8. The Samaritan ministry
(4:1-42)/a. The woman at the well (4:1-26), Book Version: 4.0.2
[2] Cf. N.T. Wright, John for Everyone Part 1 (Louisville, Kentucky,
USA: WJK, 2004), 40-41
[3] Cf. K. Haacker, "Samaritan," in The New International
Dictionary of NT Theology, Vol. 3, ed. Colin Brown (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1979), 450-454.
[4] K. Haacker, "Samaritan," in The New International
Dictionary of NT Theology, Vol. 3, ed. Colin Brown (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1979), 455.
[5] Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, The New Interpreter's
Bible, Vol. 9, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press,
1995),563.
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