There is so much in this chapter that one could easily do a lengthy essay; however, this is a mere blog so I will just cover one aspect. First, some background.
The Samaritans
Who are these Samaritans the Jews seemed to look down on so much?
Shortly after king Solomon died the nation of Israel became divided. The real reason for this was Solomon’s unfaithfulness to the Lord. The Lord raised up enemies against Solomon and promised to tear ten tribes away from the House of David. This was accomplished because of the arrogance of Solomon’s successor Rehoboam in Judah and the leadership of Solomon’s enemy Jeroboam in the North. Ten tribes went with Jeroboam and only Judah and Benjamin stayed under the rule of David’s line. Thereafter the Northern Kingdom was known as Israel while the Southern Kingdom was called Judah. (Hence the term “Jews”.)
The Northern Kingdom of Israel went through several dynasties and lasted a little over 200 years before it was conquered and its people deported by the Assyrians. After the deportation people from other conquered areas were transferred to Israel by the Assyrians. These people brought their own gods and forms of worship; however, after a brief time the Lord sent wild animals among the people and they sought out information about how to worship the Lord in order to appease the “god of the land”.
There never was an official “return” of these deported Israelites and thus the idea of there being 10 “lost” tribes was born. When the people of Judah were deported 100 years later by the Babylonians they stayed and captivity some 70 years. After these 70 years were past the people of Judah were officially allowed to return to the land though the records indicate that only a small portion of them chose to do so. When the Jews returned to Judah the people of the North, some of whom were doubtless Israelites returned from the Assyrian captivity, tried to mingle with the returning Jews but the predominate attitude of those in Judah was to have nothing to do with those of the Samaritans and their mongrel worship practices.
Over 500 years had now passed and these attitudes had now hardened in racial prejudice on both sides; a prejudice that Jesus apparently did not share.
If You Meet a Prophet
Let’s skip to where Jesus tells the woman that He knows she has had 5 husbands and the guy she is currently living with is not her husband. This pretty much blows the woman away. How can this guy know these things? (We know it was a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit.) She concludes that Jesus must be a prophet, and while this wasn’t a full revelation of who He was it was correct in as far it went.
What would you do if you met a prophet, a real prophet. I’m not just talking about someone who had business cards made up advertising himself as a prophet, or a star of a “Prophet” TV show, but a genuine this-man-literally-speaks-for-God prophet? It is very likely that what most people would do is not too far off of what this woman actually did. Let’s argue religion.
“Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” One of the major points of contention after the kingdom split was where to worship. Jeroboam was afraid that he would lose the people if he allowed them to go to Jerusalem to worship so he set up two major places of worship. One was nearby and the woman was essentially challenging Jesus over this point.
Jesus took the conversation in a completely different direction with His answer. “Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
What This Answer Means
The Jews were right about Jerusalem being where they should worship. They were also right about not mixing religions. Salvation is from the Jews and it was important that they remain as faithful as possible to the Lord, the One True God. However, they had gotten off track, as we so often do. They had taken these things and made them about racial issues and divisions that created isolation and exclusiveness.
God’s commands concerning intermarriage had never really been about race. The only people He specifically forbid the Jews to intermarry with were the Canaanites and then He made it clear that the reason was because they would be drawn away to worship the gods of that land. Even then there were exceptions as evidenced by Ruth from Moab and Rehab from Jericho both being in the lineage of the Christ.
Jesus’ answer transcended the woman’s somewhat petty question. It isn’t about which race is best or who has the most pure doctrine (as important as doctrine may be). God is looking for those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
What This Answer Did
Unburdened by the constraints of race, class, and religion a wonderful thing happened to this woman. She saw Christ.
Jesus’ answer immediately turned her thoughts to the Messiah who was to come. Once Jesus saw she was there He knew she was ready. Apart from His disciples this woman is the only person we have recorded to whom Jesus identified Himself as Messiah the Christ.
She not only believed but she shared Him with others. There didn’t seem to be a lot of woo-woo going on here but the power behind her testimony was such that essentially the entire village came to believe in Jesus.
And the lesson is? If we were less concerned about being right and more focused on revealing Christ more people would see Him and be won. What a concept!
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