The Samaritan Woman – John 4:1-42
This message is a part of our series on the Gospel of John.
Find the rest of the messages in this series here.
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How many times have you had the experience of looking everywhere for something, only to realize that it’s right there in front of you… This chapter is all about missing something bright and beautiful right in front of you…
When we think of Jesus, I’m afraid we think of the pictures that became modern of him, the pictures where he las long hair, and he looks very pale for a Jew, and he looks very clean and weak…
This passage takes place in the seeing that many of the passages take place in- Jesus traveling. Walking and journeying and needing to take a rest because he’s been traveling hard and far by foot… In this context, Jesus stops at a well to rest and the disciples make their way into the village to buy some food.
A woman stops by the well to draw some water, even though it’s in the heat of the day, and Jesus asks her for a drink…
Read John 4:9-26
This chapter is all about missing something bright and beautiful right in front of you…
In 1987, George Johnson wrote that scientist had found a brilliantly bright star. It was the equivalent of 10,000 stars and the size of the star was equivalent to the orbit of the earth. However, this star is not visible to the human eye because it is clouded by an “impenetrable cloud of cosmic dust.” Scientists were only able to see this star by using infrared telescopes.
Imagine something so big and so bright, and we can’t see it. Imagine something so obvious and we do not notice it.
There is something big and bright out there and we do not see it because of all the stuff, all the little things that cloud our mind and block our view!
What’s on display here is God’s grace. John is showing us Jesus in multiple different settings with all types of different people and showing that will all of them he is giving them the wonderful truth of who he is and showing them the joy and peace that can be theirs in Him…
Jesus talked with this woman… A a few things about this woman made her an undesirable person to be associated with.
- She was divorced 5 times and living with another man.
- She was a Samaritan.
- She was a she…
None of this held Jesus back from having a conversation with her, and none of this held Jesus back from getting real with her…
Jesus went right at the heart of what was going on in her life…
She was going to wells, looking for water to satisfy her thirst and she never found what would satisfy her…
She was now on her 5th man.
There was shame there. There was baggage there.
There was junk hidden there, and Jesus went straight at it.
I love what I once heard Matt Chandler say, “Jesus stays in his lane, but all the lanes are his.”
There is no place in your life and in your heart that is off limits to Jesus and because he is so committed to your freedom, he will go there without apology.
In His grace he will lay his hand upon the thing in your life that is keeping you from experiencing joy and he will ruthlessly pull that up and bring it into the light.
I love that John captures this part of the exchange.
When Jesus puts his finger on the brokenness of her heart, she swiftly maneuvers to put the focus of the conversation onto a theological debate.
She shifts the focus to some church issue.
People will use church drama, doctrinal issues, and the imperfections of other christians as an armor for their wounds.
Haven’s splinter story…
Jesus offers this woman grace, this adulterous samaritan, he offers her grace and there’s this bright and beautiful supernova of God’s grace on display here…
God’s grace is so powerful and his mercy is so mighty, that it comes flooding into the junkyard of our hearts and it sweeps away all of the garbage and scrap metal.
This woman was missing the grace that was right in front of her and then, when it tried to come flooding in she put up barriers, but Jesus kept coming at her with truth, conviction, grace and love.
The second half of this passage looks at what the disciples were missing. When they got back they were surprised to see Jesus talking with this woman, they were looking natural eyes…
They didn’t see the woman’s soul, just her status…
They didn’t see the need around them either…
Read John 4:27-35
An African Impala can jump 10 feet into the air and can clear spaces of 30 feet. Yet they are kept in zoos by walls that are only 3 feet tall. Why? Because the impala will not jump when it can not see where it will land.
What is vision? Vision is really a form of Faith, or trusting in God. Because when we speak of this kind of vision, we talk about seeing something that cannot really be seen…
There have been times, especially in the past year when I’ve felt like I’ve had to jump before I can see the other side…