Three Minute Bible

John 4:20-21

“‘Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’ ‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ‘”

As we work through our study of John we find the author pointing again and again to Jesus’ connection with the Father and His omniscient perspective. In this amazing moment of time, Jesus sits alone with a woman beside an ancient well. As we pan back from the scene we see a community of people near the well and the two mountains nearby that Moses caused the Israelites to read God’s blessings and curses from. (Deuteronomy 11:29) The landscape around is desolate looking until we pan farther back and take in the view of the Jordan River valley, the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. The beauty of the landscape under the brilliant sunlight might just take our breath away, but Jesus sees even farther.  Continue reading “Worship”

John 4: 19

‘”‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet.’”

What do you say to someone who you have never met before yet knows your darkest secrets?  When we stand before God at the final judgment we will have a similar experience. Everything we have said and done will be exposed before God. The difference between now and then is that like the woman at the well, now we think we can hide our flaws.  Continue reading “Prophet”

John 4: 17-18

“‘I have no husband,’ she replied.

Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.’”

When Jesus tells the woman to “Go, call your husband and come back,” she is confronted with a conundrum: Make up a story to explain her lack of husband, or tell him she’s been married and divorced so many times that she had a serious rejection complex.

Continue reading “Confession”

John 4: 15-16

“The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’”

He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’”

Dealing with God is always a bit disconcerting. After all, He knows everything there is to know. Continue reading “Knowing”

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?

Continue reading “Metaphor”

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”