Gtcotr/ss111421
Have you ever tried to encourage someone you love and care about to do what is right … only to have them change the subject … or worse yet, insult you and start pointing out where they think you are missing it?
When people feel challenged, they often attempt to either withdraw or sometimes they begin to attack those who are trying to help them. It is human nature to protect ourselves. However, at times people try to protect themselves from the only truth that will set them free.
This morning we are going to read about a woman who needed help only she didn’t see herself as needing help. Jesus went to see her on purpose. He wanted to save her and set her free, but she became defensive … tactfully defensive … but defensive nonetheless. She first tried to change the subject by finding some high-ground on which she could stand and protect herself. She threw out a hot-button issue in her attempt cover what she was doing with smoke and mirrors.
When that tactic didn’t work, she insulted Jesus and His whole family and finally, she summarily dismissed Him and everything He said. We also going to take a look at what Jesus had to say about all of this and hopefully, we will learn a lesson or two ourselves this morning that will help us with the things we need to change about ourselves have from time to time. You know, opening up a can of worms or changing the subject won’t fix the problem.
While you turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 4, allow me to set the stage for what the Holy Spirit will share with us today.
The
Time:
· About the best we can figure, the account of John 4 took place sometime in April of the year AD25, give or take a year or so.
The
Background:
·
Jesus
was 30 ½ years old.
·
He
had just attended the Feast of Passover in Jerusalem for the first time since
He began His public ministry about 6 months earlier.
·
Jesus
had done many miracles in the Galilee prior to attending the Feast in Jerusalem.
While in Jerusalem, He continued to heal and teach people, and astound the
religious leaders with His wisdom.
·
Many
who were at the Feast of Passover from all over the world believed Jesus was
the promised Messiah and were baptized by His disciples to affirm their faith
and to follow Him and His teachings.
·
When
Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that He had more followers than John
the Baptist, Jesus felt it was best for Him to return to the Galilee instead of
staying in Jerusalem at that time.
·
Jesus
wanted to go through Samaria on His way back to the Galilee and so He and His
Disciples left Jerusalem and headed north towards the city of Sychar.
o In earlier times the
city was called Shechem.
o It sits between Mount
Gerizim and Mount Ebal.
o Today the major city
there is known as Nablus.
o There we find the
first altar ever built to Jehovah in the Land of Canaan by Abraham, as recorded
in Genesis 12:6&7.
o This is the same place
where Jacob bought a plot of ground.
o The same plain where we find the tomb of Joseph wherein lays his bones which were carried by the Children of Israel during their exodus from Egypt and for their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness before entering and conquering the land of Canaan.
o This is the site of
the altar built by Abraham just at the base of Mount Gerizim in Sycar.
o The City of Samaria
sits just a quarter mile up the side of Mount Gerizim overlooking this plain.
o Joshua led the
Children of Israel to this very spot where the whole congregation pronounced a
blessing on Mount Gerizim as commanded and recorded in Deuteronomy 11 & 27,
and Joshua 8.
o The Samaritans took
the words of Moses to mean they should continue to worship Jehovah on this
particular mountain. This is one of the main reasons why the Jews and the
Samaritans disagreed in Jesus’ day, as they still do in our day, as to which
place is the right place to worship Jehovah.
o This is also where
Philip the Evangelist held the first recorded revival after Pentecost. The
whole city was saved, water baptized in the name of Jesus, and filled with the
Holy Spirit.
o Finally to note,
Jacob’s well is also in that place. People still come to draw water and to
worship there today.
· Jesus knew when He left Jerusalem that spring that He needed to go through Samaria … someone had an appointment with Him, only they didn’t know it yet.
Let’s just read the story – I can’t tell it better than John does.
John 4 NKJV
1 ¶ Therefore, when the Lord
knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples
than John
2 (though Jesus Himself did
not baptize, but His disciples),
3 He left Judea and departed
again to Galilee.
4 ¶ But He needed to go
through Samaria.
5 So He came to a city of
Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his
son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well.
It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman of Samaria came to
draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
8 For His disciples had gone
away into the city to buy food.
9 Then the woman of Samaria
said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan
woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said to
her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’
you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said to Him,
“Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You
get that living water?
12 “Are You greater than our
father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his
sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered and said to
her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14 “but whoever drinks of the
water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
15 The woman said to Him,
“Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go,
call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered and
said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no
husband,’
18 “for you have had five
husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke
truly.”
19 The woman said to Him,
“Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 “Our fathers worshiped on
this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one
ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman,
believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in
Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 “You worship what you do
not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23 “But the hour is coming,
and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth;
for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
This Samaritan woman knew Jesus was a Jew. Upon finding Him to also be a prophet who knew her past and her present situation, perhaps she felt a little uncomfortable, maybe judged or condemned, or embarrassed … who knows? But for whatever reason, this woman decided to change the subject … so, she brought up a very divisive topic …
John 4:20 “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
Let’s get the attention off of the fact that I’m a flirtatious, man-stealing, adulteress with loose morals and no shame, and let me move myself onto a “high-ground” issue that I can defend and, if anyone else hears us, they will be on my side as well. The woman just wanted to get the light off her.
It’s the age-old smoke and mirrors tactic – “My high-ground move, trumps the truth.” Only … it never does. Changing the subject won’t change the truth.
Notice the first thing she does in her own defense? She insults Jesus!
“You Jews …” she said.
There
are few things more insulting than being robbed of your personal identity,
marginalized, treated as though you don’t have a brain or don’t think for
yourself, and being lumped into a group of people that the person talking does
not like.
·
You
Jews …
·
You
Blacks …
·
You
Hispanics …
·
You
Whites …
·
You
Asians …
·
You
Democrats …
·
You
Republicans …
·
You
Christians …
· And so on … “you’re all the same!”
Notice Jesus does not just let it go …
John 4:22 “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.”
· Basically: “Don’t be dissing the Jews lady … if I wasn’t for the Jews there wouldn’t even be any salvation!”
Then Jesus told her that God was looking way beyond whether or not a person was a Jew or a Samaritan and way farther than whether a person worshipped in Samaria or in Jerusalem
John 4:24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Not really having a comeback and probably feeling a bit out-argued, the woman again tried to move to high-ground where she could change the subject, find a safe place, end the conversation, and dismiss Jesus.
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
What is she saying? She is indicating that we can keep talking but we really won’t know who is right until the Messiah gets here. When He comes, He will settle this issue. What she is really saying is, “shut up!”
This woman is not acknowledging Jesus is right, in fact, it is just the opposite. She has successfully moved the light off of the fact that she has had 5 husbands and is living in adultery at this very moment with a man who is married to another woman. She must think herself clever. Real clever … right up to the moment Jesus revealed Himself to her as the promised Messiah. All of the sudden, her opinion was worth a lot less.
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Jesus said … This is not just another opinion … “I am God!” My words are the Truth. I believe this is the point she realized in her heart He was Christ.
What
does this account teach us today?
·
The problems of this world are not an excuse for my problems.
·
The Word of God is not just another opinion.
·
Changing the subject won’t fix the problem, but an honest
conversation with Jesus will.
