Hey, everybody.
Thanks for joining us.
Welcome back.
Sorry about a couple days off.
Has been a little bit of a crazy week here, but it's good to be back with you.
A little bit of catch up. We are.
It was an unfortunate time to take a two day break.
Because we find ourselves in the middle of a story,
and the story is in John chapter four.
Jesus and the woman at the.
Well, where we left off, Jesus has just kind of made himself known,
or at least made the claim in response to the woman who says, I know
the Messiah, the Christ will be coming and he'll explain everything.
And Jesus said, I am he.
And that's kind of a breaking point in the story.
The, the
scene kind of shifts now from Jesus and the woman and a conversation
that they have to a little bit broader conversation that involves more people.
But let me read a few verses here, and then we'll come back and unpack them.
Just then, the disciples came back.
They were astonished that he was speaking with the woman, but
no one said, what do you want?
Or what are you speaking?
Why are you speaking with her?
Then the woman left her water jar
and went back to the city.
She said to the people, come and see a man who told me everything I've ever done.
He can't be the Messiah, can he?
They left the city and were on their way to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him.
Rabbi, eat something. But he said, I have food to eat.
You do not know about.
So the disciples said to one another, surely no one brought him something to
eat. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of the one who sent me.
And complete his work.
Do you not say, four months more?
And then comes the harvest.
But I tell you, look around and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.
The reaper is already receiving wages, gathering fruit for eternal life,
that the sower and reaper may rejoice together.
For here the saying holds true one sows, another reaps.
I sent you to reap for which you did not labor.
Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.
So, again, a little bit of a shift that happens here.
This woman having been,
struck by what Jesus says, and this is John,
gives us these little details, or the gospel does often.
She leaves her water jar.
Remember the whole point of her trip out to the outside of town is to get water.
She leaves her water jar.
She goes into town and says, I met a man who told me everything I've ever done.
Now, if we couple this with the remark
that Jesus made to her that she's had five husbands
and now has another man who's not her husband.
You might read that to say they were pretty interested in that conversation.
I don't know if that's intended.
But whatever it is, she she grabs the attention, gets
the interest of these people, and they are on their way to see him.
Interestingly enough,
she is toying
with this thing that Jesus has said
he can't be the Messiah, can he?
And, again, this this is a John question.
This is a gospel question.
Can he be the Messiah?
This is the choice that characters throughout this gospel have to make.
Is he the one and, John slips it in here, I think pretty well.
Michael and John is doing in this storytelling
some of the things that we've already
talked about up to this point, but it's worth reiterating it's
to make sure that we're all on the same page here.
Look here in verse 27 right off, where John's going to just straight up
editorialize and say that the disciples, when they see Jesus,
they're astonished. Why?
Because he's speaking with a woman.
We've already mentioned
in the set up to this story that this is an abnormal part of this encounter.
But here, John is giving us insight into why this encounter is so strange.
Note that what the disciples don't know, but we,
the reader do know, is that it's not just a woman, it's a Samaritan woman.
It's not just a Samaritan woman.
It's a woman with a very complicated past
and all of that is sort of hanging in the background here of this text.
What will the disciples do?
Or what's their response
when they find out the extent of Jesus's engagement with this woman?
But fascinating.
And it's worth noting in a book that cares so much about testimony,
about witness, about what you see in Jesus,
and specifically about how that drives you to say something about Jesus.
I want you to know this.
Verse 29, come and see a man.
That's an invitation to action.
Come and see.
And with all of the time that we've already spent friends talking
about seeing Jesus revelation, light, God incarnate, right.
We've had all of these conversations.
We're only up to chapter four here already in John.
Our eyes are now sort of attuned to our we're we're looking for these moments
and resonances where the idea of revelation is put forward.
Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done.
It's not just come to look with your own eyes, but it's also come encounter
one who has knowledge and insight that they shouldn't really have.
And this is the kind of miracle that Jesus has done in this story.
And I don't think that this story is often framed as a miracle story.
It's often more framed as a kind of,
Jesus encountering and teaching kind of story.
But but it all hinges on this idea
that this woman was going about her normal, everyday business.
She starts talking to this man who says things that at first just sound
silly or then argumentative, and she responds as such.
But then suddenly when it gets personal, she's moved.
And then when she's moved, she leaves that place, literally leaving the jars.
And then she goes, becomes the first non-Jewish witness
or testifier to the one that she has seen.
And Clint, I think you're exactly right to point out, this question.
Can it be I right, can he be the Messiah?
Can this be the one that is not just the question that this woman is asking.
It is, I think, as John writes, this book, the question
he wants us to be asking like her,
if Jesus has done this, can he be the one?
What does that mean?
What are the implications?
It this is an amazing way to now turn this story
towards how it's going to land in our hearts,
and not just be descriptive of what happened.
Yeah.
Michael, if you could, could you flip over to the end of chapter
one about verse like, 4344 I think in there, 45 and six, maybe.
So we've already kind of seen a pattern for this story.
Remember when Jesus finds Philip,
Philip goes to his brother
and he says, we found him.
And then he says, can anything good come from Nazareth?
And look at the answer, come and see.
This is very much a discipleship story, a call story.
This woman goes to people she may or may not have been estranged to.
We don't want to assume that, but it's possible that the way
the text is written gives us some of that information.
And and she says, come and see.
We may have found the Messiah.
Can he be the Messiah?
Can something good come out of Nazareth, come and see?
And then you have this little discourse.
John, does this, fairly regularly puts a kind
of theological discourse into the middle of a story, uses the.
That's kind of a bridge or a transition here.
It's about the harvest and and the fields being ready.
I think it probably makes the most sense to read that
in terms of people being hungry for truth, ready to accept the gospel,
ready to be told the good news that that people are responsive and
and aware of their need and wanting to turn to truth.
And so here we have that as a set up to the rest of the story.
Let me jump back in here in verse 39, and we'll just kind of finish
this part of the story.
We, we
go back now to the focus on the woman and the Samaritans.
Many Samaritans from the city
believed in him because of the woman's testimony.
He told me everything I've ever done.
So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them.
And he stayed there for two days, and many more believed because of his word.
Then they said to the woman, it's no longer because of what you said
that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.
Now, this is really interesting.
I think, Michael, you know.
It's possible
that you would look at a gospel like Luke that tells stories of,
you know, the Good Samaritan and, and say that in some ways,
Luke is the most sensitive to reaching outside of Judaism.
But here in just the fourth chapter,
on the very front part of Jesus ministry,
we have a story in which a Samaritan village is largely converted,
who come then to say, we know this man is truly the Savior of the world,
and we don't just know it because of what you said.
We've heard it for ourselves.
We know it for ourselves.
It's easy to read by that detail because we don't always get, as modern
readers, the distinction between Jew and Samaritan and etc. etc.
this is a phenomenal,
fascinating passage that John, this early in the gospel,
puts one of the larger conversion stories that we've seen so far,
and that we may see for a while and and lands it in Samaria
at the testimony of a woman who Jesus would not even be expected to talk to.
I mean, this is this is a really, really interesting story. And,
shocking in ways that I think can easily be
missed if if we don't back up and consider the context.
It's really an important moment here that these Samaritans
see the truth of who Jesus is, and that matters in John.
It's a big deal.
And John and the fact that they're outside of the boundaries
a little bit is significantly important.
I think in a in a way that's a little bit surprising inside this book.
It's surprising in this book.
And as you said, and I want to just emphasize this early in this book,
this is a shocking way to tell a story of Jesus's ministry.
And I don't believe that there's any other gospel that includes this story.
Correct me if I'm wrong on that, Clint. I don't believe. So.
And and it's certainly uncharacteristic for the other gospels
to include a story of this kind of conversion
so early in their gospel accounts, the idea that there's,
there's Jesus, of course, a
bringing in his disciples, but that the emphasis that John gives
so early in this book, of course, we've
already had that going into the temple, turning over tables.
We've already had some of the calling of the disciples here.
We've had that amazing encounter with Nicodemus, which leads us to
your John 316 tax rate, is that we've had this in our background, our context.
Now we come to this story, and Jesus doesn't
just go to get a cup of water
from a culturally untouchable individual.
That would be shocking enough.
He stays with her community for two days.
He he he resides there in teaching for two whole days.
Clinton, the the cultural
snafu of this alone is shocking
that the the inappropriateness for a Jewish man to behave like this.
That being said, and
even more so, the fact that here now
some of the most willing converts
to Jesus Christ as Lord, the exact language here,
Savior of the world, are not even within the Jewish community.
That is a that is a strong, strong statement in the course of a book
in which Jesus is already been frequently
at odds with the, as I quote, the Jews.
And that's only going to continue as the book goes on. So,
let's not read past this as oh, that's an interesting story.
No, no, this is an entirely intended
to, at the beginning of this story, be a lightning rod to our attention,
to say that anyone who takes a moment to hear the teachings of Jesus
and to really ask the question, can this be anyone,
is capable of finding themself, calling Jesus Savior of the world.
And that is an amazing spiritual truth
that John is laying right at the beginning of his book.
I think if you were reading this, one of the one of the challenges
of reading the Scripture is that we often kind of know what it says.
But but if you were reading this with fresh eyes and you were reading it in
Jesus context, in other words, if you understood the sensitivities
of Jews and Samaritans and locations and controversies and conflict,
this would this would be a shocking that you would be asking yourself,
oh, so he's he he came for the Samaritans.
Yeah. He's a he's a Samaritan Messiah.
He's the why is the Messiah staying two days
in a place where most Jewish religious people wouldn't be caught dead
and certainly wouldn't lodge what's happening here?
And I think that's it.
It's hard for us to resonate or be troubled by those questions,
but it's good to be aware of them, because it's the way in which John is framing,
introducing us to the
idea that Jesus is whatever we expect him to be,
not that he is something fundamental different
than taking a side on a team
or weighing in with one against the other that Jesus
is going to continue to surprise us at every turn.
And again, I know that as we read this, it
may or may not seem surprising, but I assure you it is.
If you if you understand what's happening here, it is.
Shocking.
And some of the lesson I do think is given right here in the red letters,
you know, don't say four months more than comes the harvest. No.
But I tell you, look around now, see how the fields are ripe
for harvesting, you know, and if you have ever lived in an agricultural community,
how foolish would you be in July to say, look around you.
The fields are ready for harvest now. No they're not.
The crops are barely even a quarter of the height that they need to be,
let alone dry enough to harvest. Right? So what are you saying?
Jesus?
Once again, the vision that we have
of the mission that he has come to fulfill is impoverished.
We are looking at the fields as if they're one thing, but
really, the field was never the physical produce.
It was always the work that Jesus came to do, to proclaim himself
and for others to be converted or turned to the new Kingdom.
And Jesus.
In living this out with literally within the Samaritan village,
the community that he lived in for two days, this acceptance of their hospitality
and their acceptance of his true identity as Savior of the world.
It's a nod to how the world is bigger and the mission is stronger.
And and the calling is far more universal than what any of us have considered.
And John is going to back that up story after story.
So don't just hang that on this story.
There's going to be more excellent examples of this to come.
But this is a powerful beginning to a gospel that wants us to know.
Some of the chief and earliest witnesses of Jesus
are not the people who Jesus came from.
It is rather the the, the whole world that Jesus came to save.
He is, after all.
And they make no mistake about he is called the Savior of
the world, not just Savior of the Jews, Savior of the world.
And that matters. Yeah.
And what were we told in in John 316, God gave his only son that whoever
that and this, he did not condemn the world,
but that the world through him might be saved.
And I think it's a good reminder and a good challenge, Michael, that
the fields Jesus references are often not the ones we're thinking of. And,
John does a
beautiful job of of challenging us with that.
I find myself, as we go through this book, continually,
by the way that John writes it, I feel like you can empathize
with how the disciples must have heard it that first time.
What are you talking about?
The fields are right.
No, they're obviously not.
And I think if you if you slow down, you give time to text like this,
they'll confront you and they'll give you no matter how many times you've read
them, they'll give you a new opportunity to encounter again
the truth of who Jesus is.
And maybe you too will ask why he can't be the Savior of the world.
Kenny. Well, and again, don't don't miss.
In John the disciples say, why is he talking to this woman?
In John, Jesus knows that he he always knows the the subtext.
And so then he says, because the fields are ripe.
And then he says, we're going to stay here for a few days
because they want to know more. Yeah.
And they end up proclaiming him savior.
It's a beautiful story. It really is.
Thanks for being with us here today, friends.
We will continue on in the book of John.
More beautiful stories to come.
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who might find it helpful in their own study.
Thanks for being with us today. See you tomorrow. Thanks, everybody.