THE SAMARITAN WOMAN

THE SAMARITAN WOMAN

            The account of our Lord's dealing with the Samaritan woman is in some ways full of surprises. When we consider it, we are first impressed with the fact that in beginning to deal with her He left so much unsaid that many of us would consider necessary in such a case. Knowing her and her history well, as events prove, in His approach to her He made no reference whatever to her sin, but did so on the level of common human courtesy. He offered her nothing, but asked for a gift from her.

            We are further surprised that in the course of His conversation, He said so much to her that it is almost certain we should have felt her unready to receive, and consequently should have postponed the saying of these things to a later date. To her He uttered the profoundest things that ever fell from His lips on the subject of worship. This in itself is a revelation of His perfect knowledge of the human soul, and how that under the most apparently contradictory circumstances it has inherently a consciousness of spiritual realities. Indeed, is not that in part at least, what was in His mind, when speaking to His disciples at the moment, He said:

"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest."

            That is, there are possibilities that are not apparent except to those who see most deeply into the mystery of human personality.

            In studying the account, following our method, we will attempt to see this woman, and then watch our Lord's dealing with her.

            If we take a general view of the whole account I think we shall see clearly that this woman had a definite religious background. In the course of her conversation with our Lord, she showed that she had a religious position as she said:

"Our father Jacob, who gave us this well."

            Further, we see that subconsciously, perhaps, but none the less definitely, she had a religious problem which concerned the true place of worship. Finally we find that she entertained a religious hope, "We know that Messiah cometh.”I do not say that as we meet this woman we are meeting with a religious woman, but that she was a woman with a religious background. It is possible that she had made no reference to her religious position or her problem or her hope for long years, but they were all present; and contact with Christ brought to her consciousness or remembrance these facts so long forgotten, ignored, dismissed. In dealing with Him they became vocal. She presents a picture of the condition of thousands of people today. They have a religious background, perhaps some problem dismissed, and it may be some hope accepted, but having no practical bearing on life.

            When she referred to "our father Jacob”she spoke, of course, as a Samaritan woman. The Samaritans belonged to the Northern kingdom of Israel, and the remnant remaining in Samaria of that Northern kingdom, found their center of worship in Mount Gerizim. That fact takes us back in the history to the point when Jeroboam had created a new center of worship around a calf. When he did this, he was breaking the second commandment. He did not desire the people to depart from the worship of God, but for political reasons he wished to prevent their going to Jerusalem. From that time, through the running centuries, Gerizim was their place of worship. They claimed relationship with Jacob, because the center of their life was at the place where was the parcel of ground which Jacob had given to Joseph. In referring then to Jacob she revealed what we have described as her religious background. Everything points to the supposition that she had not lived at all in relationship with that background, but it had remained, and was thus stated in her conversation with Christ.

            Moreover, when she submitted the question as to the true place of worship, she was referring to a problem which had often been discussed. There must have existed in the minds of these Samaritans through all the running years the consciousness of the contrast between Jerusalem and Gerizim; and consequently the very question which the woman raised. And once more, it is a remarkable thing that she referred, without any equivocation, to the hope that the Jew and Samaritan held in common, that, namely, of the coming of a Messiah.

            Having recognized this religious background, we become of course, conscious that this woman was a woman of sin. There is no need to dwell upon the details. The whole sad account is revealed in our Lord's words to her concerning her past. She was evidently a woman who had yielded to passion, and the history of the burning of that passion is found in the statement of Christ to her concerning her past. As she stood before Him her condition was that of one in whom passion had burnt itself out. She was degraded to the level of a common water-carrier, which was the occupation of a slave. Passion burnt out does not mean thirst quenched. That certainly remained, amid the tragedy that characterized her life.

            Then it is impossible to read the account without being conscious of a certain flippancy and evasiveness that characterized her attitude. When Jesus said to her:

"Go, call thy husband, and come hither;"

            She replied, "I have no husband.” In the brief answer she was taking the position which today would be described as that of an emancipated woman, emancipated that is from all restraint and all responsibility (free at last). What business was it of this Jew to say such a thing to her? Because she refused anything like interference, she made this reply, dismissing the question.

            So we see her, a really pathetic figure with a religious background, and yet, having yielded herself to the call of passion, all the deeper things had been submerged and trampled upon. Her relationship to Jacob had no meaning for her that was vital. The problem as to the place of worship was unimportant. The hope she shared with her people in the coming Messiah had no bearing whatever upon her life.

            As we look at this woman the subject of how Jesus dealt with her becomes very vital. To begin with, let us summarize the whole account. He first appealed to her kindness. He then appealed to her curiosity. He then appealed to her feverishness. He then appealed to her sin. He then appealed to her sense of God. He finally fastened upon her hope of Messiah.

            He first appealed to her kindness. He had travelled a long way, and as John tells us, was weary as He sat on the well; and when she arrived, He said to her “Give Me to drink.” She protested with evident wonder at the request coming from Him. She said:

“How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a Samaritan woman."

            It is at this point that John inserts that revealing statement:

“For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."

            The woman knew that Jesus was a Jew, and that He had travelled up from Judea. That He, a Jew, should ask a favor of a Samaritan woman was a perplexing thing to her. At any rate she at once recognized there was something in Him different from other Jews with whom she had come into contact. This was His first approach to her. It was really a revelation of the vital difference between Himself and others.

            This being accomplished, He at once appealed to her curiosity as He said:

“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."

            It may immediately be said that curiosity is really a sign of intelligence. People who are never curious, have lost the first power of gaining knowledge. Thus He had said something to her which brought her beyond the consciousness that He was different from others, and produced within her the sense of bewilderment and wonder. She did not understand Him at all, and evidently thought He was still somehow referring to the water found in the well, for she said:

“Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from whence then hast Thou that living water?"

            He then appealed to the thirst which He knew, was a characteristic of her consciousness.

“Everyone that 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 become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life."

            At this point we look at her again, a woman with a background of religion which had long been ignored, with a life in which the fires of passion had burnt themselves out, leaving nothing but ashes, and she herself a water-carrier, a mere slave. He knew, however much she might hide it, that in her life was a thirst that never had been quenched, and to that He made His appeal.

            Her reply was at once an admission of that thirst and an evasion. She said:

“Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come all the way hither to draw."

            Surely she had already grasped the fact that He was speaking of something far beyond the water that she was able to draw. And yet, owning to a thirst, she attempted to interpret it in the realm of the material as she spoke of having to come to the well to draw.

            It was at this juncture that He appealed to her sin, approaching it with a command, which brought her face to face with it, whether she would, or no.

“Go, call thy husband, and come hither."

            She was not aware of how perfectly He knew the facts of her life, and prevaricating, she said, “I have no husband.” It was then that He flashed upon her a consciousness of His knowledge as He said:

“Thou saidst well, I have no husband; for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband."

            At this point we have a remarkable revelation of the attempt of the human soul to escape, as she said:

“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."

            We see her practically owning to the truth of the things He has said as she declares that He was a prophet; but she will not face the situation, .and turns aside attempting to introduce a discussion in the realm of religion. It is a common device of the human soul, this turning from the challenge that brings it face to face with sin, in an attempt to discuss religion or theology.

            Now perhaps the most amazing thing of all in the Lord's method is revealed. He consented to discuss the question she raised, and in doing so dismissed both Jerusalem and Gerizim as necessary centers of worship. He declared to her that worship consisted in the approach of the soul to God directly and immediately, providing it came in spirit and in truth. He thus showed that worship is not a mental matter finally, but a spiritual; but that the condition must be that of ceasing to attempt to hide anything, the very thing, by the way, she was doing at the time.

            There would seem to be a wistful consciousness of the truth of what the Lord had said to her, as she replied:

“I know that Messiah cometh (which is called' Christ);

When He is come, He will declare unto us all things."

            The advance in her thinking is revealed in the progressive description of Him. First He was “a Jew,” then He had become “a prophet;“ and now, wonderingly, and in the presence of what He had been saying, she did not declare Him to be the Messiah, but said that Messiah would tell them all things. It was then the Lord claimed the fulfillment of that highest conception that had come to the mind of the woman, as He said:

“I that speak unto thee am He."

            We have no record of any reply that she made. Indeed John is careful to say that she went away, and went so quickly that she forgot the reason of her presence. She left her water-pot. Arriving, she said to the people:

“Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did. Can this be the Christ?"

            He had claimed to be the Christ, and she went back with the wonder in her soul as to whether indeed this was so; and she called others to come, and see, and hear, and so she sought final assurance.

            The result was that Jesus stayed in that city for two whole days. We have no record whatever of what He did during that period, or what He said, except as we learn the result was that they declared, “This is indeed the Savior of the world.” We may suppose that He emphasized more fully the things He had said to the woman with courtesy in His approach, the revelation of the fact that God was available to them without the necessity for travelling to Jerusalem, or the climb of Mount Gerizim; and that He had dealt with them concerning their sin, and had offered to them also the thirst-quenching water of life. In their confession they uttered the absolute and all-inclusive truth concerning Him, and that in itself is a remarkable fact, because these were Samaritans.

            In what remains of the account we have a remarkable revelation of the underlying secrets of the life of our Lord, and of why it was, as John stated, “He must needs go through Samaria.” Reminding ourselves that at that time orthodox Jews desiring to reach Galilee, would not travel through Samaria, but went the longer route, crossing the Jordan, and travelling up through Peraea, and so back into Galilee; He, however, must needs go through Samaria; and in His dealing with disciples, we have a revelation of the reason of the “must.” These men had left to go away and provide food. Coming back, to their amazement they found Him talking to this woman. Their respectful reticence is manifest in the fact that they asked Him no question as to the reason of His action. They were concerned for Him physically. They knew He was tired. They knew He was hungry, and they felt that He ought to eat, and they besought Him so to do. It was then that He said to them:

“I have meat to eat that ye know not."

            In other words, He declared that He had sources of sustenance with which they were unfamiliar. When they, thinking wholly within the material, wondered whether anyone had brought Him anything to eat, He said:

“My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to accomplish His work."

            In these words we have a revelation of the true meaning of what He had been doing in connection with this woman. He had been doing the will of God, and accomplishing His work. He had found in her one whose life had been one of dissipation, and who had reached the moment of complete disillusionment, a disillusion­ment which had rendered her flippant and callous. He had so dealt with her as to bring her face to face with her past as to its reality, and leading her forward had given to her unquestionably the thirst-quenching water of life. This was the will of God; this was His work; and in the doing of the will, and the accomplishment of the work, He found the sustenance of His life.

            Having said this, He indicated to His disciples that this also was their work, and in this connection said remarkable things to them. He told them that their work was to be that of reaping, not sowing; and the surprising thing to them was His revelation of the fact that the harvest was ready. Their calculations would lead them to believe that before the harvest there must be much plowing, and sowing, and waiting. He said the fields were already white. The illustration was in the woman herself. The account of the life, with passion burnt out, and an unquenchable thirst, is the account of the very harvest which He had come to reap. We may summarize this by declaring that it is a revelation of the fact that wherever we find, according to the standards of human thinking, desolation and hopelessness, that is the place for the operation of the Savior of the world, and for those who follow Him.

            The account is full of wonder, teaching us many things. Let us close by summarizing in the case of one or two of them. As we look at this woman we have the truth emphasized that the wreckage of human life is always the result of false attempts to satisfy its legitimate claims. What was the meaning of this wrecked life, this spoiled personality, and this burnt out human being? It was all the result of an attempt to satisfy a perfectly legitimate claim of personality by false methods.

            Again, we see that Christ, in spite of all failure, and all degradation, makes His appeal to the deepest things of the spiritual nature, talks to a woman like that about God being available to the human soul wherever that soul may be, independently of any special locality such as Jerusalem or Gerizim.

            We learn further that when He deals with men or women He will be utterly faithful with them. He does not come to heal wounds slightly. He probes life, and makes men face it for themselves. He will reveal sin, but He will do it to the sinner, and not to someone else concerning that sinner.

            The ultimate glory of the account is the promise He made that He will give to the thirsty, burnt-out life living water, and give it in such fashion that it shall be within the life, a well, springing up. If we need the final statement of this truth we pass from what He said to the Samaritan woman to His great call in the Temple later on in John 7:37-38.

“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his inner life shall flow rivers of living water."