Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
John 4:14b
“Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
There is a danger in reading a passage too closely: it is possible to lose sight of the larger context. There is also a reward in reading a passage under a microscope like we are doing here: There are hidden treasures in each passage that can be missed if one passes by too quickly. Continue reading “Danger!”
John 4:13-14a
“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.’”
How does someone who has experienced life in heaven explain what it is like to someone who has never been there?
John 4: 12
“Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
The woman’s first question in verse 11 belies her intelligence. She states the obvious. Jesus clearly is not carrying any water nor does he have any means of drawing water from the well. Her second question is much different. Continue reading “Greater than Jacob?”
John 4:11
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?”
An experienced fisherman can usually tell the difference between a “nibble” and when the fish is definitely “hooked” on the line. In the same way, there is a point where a person’s interest in something overcomes their suspicions or hesitation and they are said to be “hooked.” Continue reading “Hooked”
John 4: 10
“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’”
The subjunctive mood is a way of speaking that is characterized by being very indirect. My dictionary describes the word as meaning, “…what is imagined, or wished, or possible.” In this English translation of John’s writing, Jesus does not even refer to himself directly. He does not say, “I can give you living water!” or “I could give you living water!” Instead, he refers to himself in the third person: “He would have given you living water.” Continue reading “Subjunctive Mood”
John 4: 9
“The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)”
Of all the ways that Jesus could have started a conversation with the woman at the well, it is hard to imagine one that would have had the same effect as asking for a drink of water. John’s parenthetical statement, “For Jews do not associate with Samaritans” speaks to a kind of cultural prejudice that was every bit as prevalent and strong as any we know today. Yet here is God, in the form of Jesus, asking one of his least worthy creations for a drink of water. Continue reading “Cause and Effect”
John 4: 8
“(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)”
If you have ever been in a play or worked in theater, you know the meaning of the phrase, “stage right.” It refers to the stage area to the right of the stage as seen from the audience’s point of view. To “exit stage right” is to leave the stage from that side.
In this scene the disciples “exit stage right” as it were, and allow Jesus a rare moment to be alone. Continue reading “Stage Right”
John 4: 7
“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’”
One of the advantages of being God is that you know everything. Jesus, of course, is one with God. As John writes in Chapter 1 verse 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Knowing everything means that Jesus … well …. knows everything. Continue reading “Fishing”
John 4: 5-6
“So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.”
In this passage we are following Jesus and his disciples as they travel north into Galilee from Judea. In a sense, Jesus is leaving the “Big City” area around Jerusalem and heading north into the small towns of the country. To get where he is going he travels back through distant memories of the land as it was when Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, lived there. Continue reading “Deep Waters”
John 4: 4
“Now he had to go through Samaria.”
Since the days following the reign of Solomon, the people of Judah looked upon the Northern Tribes of Israel as sinful because they had replaced the worship of God in the temple at Jerusalem with the worship of two golden calf idols.
In the time of Jesus Samaritans probably looked upon the Jews as stuffed shirts. Continue reading “Perspective II”