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John 4 — Commentary 4

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Benson Commentary John 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, John 4:1-3 . When the Lord knew — Without receiving information from any one; how the Pharisees — Whose interest in the sanhedrim was very great; had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John — To shun the effects of their envy and malice, which were hereby excited; he left Judea — After having continued there, it seems, about eight months; and departed again into Galilee — His former place of abode, where the influence and power of the council were not so great, and where his presence was necessary, as the ministry of his forerunner in that country was now brought to a period. It seems the testimony which the Baptist had given to Christ, together with the miracles which he himself had wrought at Jerusalem during the passover, had greatly impressed the minds of the people; so that vast numbers, during his abode in those parts, were continually flocking around him, and many attached themselves to him as his followers; a circumstance which gave great umbrage to the Pharisees. For these men claimed it as the privilege of their sect to direct the consciences of the people, and were therefore enraged to find such numbers of them acknowledging, as the Messiah, one whose birth and fortune so little suited the notions which they had taught concerning the great deliverer of the nation. The evangelist informs us, that Jesus himself baptized not — Perhaps because it was not proper to baptize in his own name, and because it was of more importance to preach than to baptize, 1 Corinthians 1:17 . Besides, it might have given those who were baptized by him occasion to value themselves above others, as happened in the church of Corinth, where the brethren valued themselves upon the character of the persons who had baptized them. Indeed the baptism properly Christ’s was that of the Holy Ghost, with which Spirit John had foretold he should baptize his followers. See Macknight. John 4:2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) John 4:3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. John 4:4 And he must needs go through Samaria. John 4:4-6 . And he must needs go through Samaria — The road from Judea to Galilee lying directly through it. Then cometh he — In the progress of his journey; to a city of Samaria, called Sychar — The original name of the place was Sichem, or Shechem, but now the Jews called it Sychar, which name they used as a term of reproach, intimating thereby that it was the seat of drunkards, see Isaiah 28:1 ; near to the parcel of ground that Jacob — Having purchased it of the children of Hamor, Genesis 33:19 ; gave to his son Joseph — By a particular grant. See Genesis 48:22 ; Joshua 24:32 . The word ?????? , here rendered parcel, is translated by Dr. Campbell, heritage, as meaning, he observes, an estate in land; and that, since the estate here spoken of was given by the patriarch to his son Joseph, to be possessed by him and his posterity, it may be properly denominated heritage. Now Jacob’s well was there — A well so called, as having been used by Jacob and his family, while he dwelt in those parts. See Genesis 33:18 ; Genesis 35:4 . Jesus, being wearied with his journey — For he was subject to all the innocent infirmities of human nature; sat thus — Weary as he was, on the side of the well; and it was about the sixth hour — Or just high noon: so that the heat co-operated with the fatigue of the journey to increase both his thirst and faintness. It must be observed, that in the latitude in which Judea lies, the weather is sometimes exceeding hot at noon, even in December, and on days when the cold has been very severe in the morning. John 4:5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. John 4:6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. John 4:7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. John 4:7-8 . There cometh — At the very juncture of time; a woman of Samaria to draw water — The providence of God so ordering it, that she might have an opportunity of hearing the truth, in order to her salvation. Jesus — With a view to introduce a discourse which he graciously intended should be the means of her conversion; saith to her, Give me to drink — And it is remarkable, that in this one conversation he brought her to that knowledge which the apostles were so long in attaining. For his disciples were gone unto the city — Otherwise they might have assisted him to get water, and he would not have needed to have asked her. John 4:8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) John 4:9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. John 4:9 . Then saith the woman, How is it that thou, being a Jew — As it appears by thy habit and dialect thou art; askest drink of me, &c., for the Jews have no dealings — Or rather, no friendly intercourse; with the Samaritans — They would receive no kind of favour from them. That the expression, no dealings, as Dr. Campbell justly observes, “implies too much to suit the sense of this passage, is manifest from the preceding verse, where we are told, that the disciples were gone into the Samaritan city Sychar to buy food. The verb ?????????? , is one of those called ???? ???????? , once used: it does not occur in any other place of the New Testament, or in the Septuagint. The Pharisees were in their traditions nice distinguishers. Buying and selling with the Samaritans were permitted, because that was considered as an intercourse merely of interest or convenience; borrowing and lending, much more asking or accepting any favour, was prohibited; because that was regarded as an intercourse of friendship, which they thought it impious to maintain with those whom they looked upon as the enemies of God.” John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. John 4:10-12 . Jesus answered — And in his answer shows her that he was not under the power of such common prejudices; If thou knewest the gift of God — Which he is now bestowing on mankind by his Son; meaning the Holy Spirit and its fruits, styled, as here, ????? ??? ???? , the gift of God, Acts 8:20 , and ? ????? , the gift, Acts 11:17 ; and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink — How great a person he is who is now conversing with thee. Instead of scrupling to grant him so small a favour, thou wouldest have asked — ?? ?? ?????? , thou surely wouldest have asked; of him, and he — Without objecting to thee on account of the people unto whom thou belongest; would readily have given thee living water — Water incomparably better than that which thou art drawing. By this our Lord intended to signify his ability and readiness to communicate those influences and graces of the Holy Spirit, which refresh the soul that earnestly desires them, as water refreshes a thirsty person. The influences of the Holy Spirit are termed living water also, John 8:38 ; and water of life, Revelation 21:6 ; and Revelation 22:1 ; Revelation 22:17 ; and clean water, Ezekiel 36:26-27 . The phrase, living water, frequently signifying, in the language of Judea, only springing water, or running water, in opposition to that which stagnates, the woman mistook his meaning and replied, Thou hast nothing to draw with — ???? ??????? ????? , thou hast not a bucket, nor any other instrument wherewith thou canst draw the water; and this well — The only spring hereabout; is deep: from whence then hast thou — Whence canst thou obtain; that living water — Of which thou speakest? Or, what is the extraordinary supply which thou declarest may be had from thee? Mr. Maundrell tells us, that the well, now shown as Jacob’s, is thirty- five yards deep. Art thou greater — “Art thou a person of greater power, or more in favour with God; than our father Jacob — That thou canst procure water by supernatural means? He was obliged to dig this well, in order to provide drink for himself and his family: canst thou create water?” Although this woman speaks of Jacob as the father, or progenitor of the Samaritans, they were in truth not his progeny, but the descendants of those nations which the king of Assyria placed there in the room of the Israelites, whom he carried away captive, 2 Kings 17:24 ; who gave us the well — In Joseph their supposed father; and drank thereof himself — So even he, great and holy as he was, had no better water than this. Observe here, reader, the reason why men are indifferent about the inestimable gift of God here spoken of, the Holy Spirit, and either do not sincerely and earnestly apply to God in prayer for it, or apply without success, is not their knowledge, and their preservation thereby from enthusiasm, but their ignorance, and their being destitute of all true religion through that ignorance. If, as Jesus says of this woman, they knew this gift of God, knew its nature, excellence, necessity, and attainableness, and together therewith the way of attaining it; and that Christ has received it for them, and how willing, as well as able, he is to bestow it, they surely would ask it of him, and he would not fail to give them this living water. John 4:11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? John 4:12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? John 4:13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: John 4:13-15 . Jesus said, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again — How much soever this water may be esteemed, and though it may refresh the body, and allay its thirst for a little while, yet the appetite will soon return, even if it be drunk ever so plentifully. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him — Will find it so reviving and satisfying to his soul; that he will never thirst — Be without refreshment, dissatisfied, or unhappy; that is, provided he continue to drink thereof. If ever his thirst, or his dissatisfaction and uneasiness return, it will be the fault of the man, not of the water. But the water that I shall give him — The Spirit of faith and love, hope and joy, of holiness and happiness; shall be in him — An inward, living principle; a well of water — A fountain, as ???? signifies. A well is soon exhausted. Springing — ????????? , bubbling up, and flowing on into everlasting life, which is a continence, or rather an ocean of streams arising from this fountain. “Some would render the original expression, ?? ?? ?????? ??? ??? ????? , (instead of shall never thirst, ) shall not thirst for ever: but not to urge how much this spoils the antithesis, the expression used, John 6:35 , ?? ?? ?????? ?????? , is not liable to any such ambiguity. The force and truth of our Lord’s assertion seems to lie in this, that the most impatient and restless desires of the soul being satisfied, when it is fixed on God as its supreme happiness, other thirst was not worth being mentioned.” — Doddridge. The woman — Still ignorant of our Lord’s meaning, and understanding him as speaking only of natural water; saith unto him, Sir, give me this water — Extraordinary as it is, according to thy declaration; that I thirst not — Any more for ever, and may be saved the trouble of coming every day so far for water. She seems to have had a mind to turn Christ’s words into ridicule. It therefore became necessary that he should open to her a new scene, and, by bringing her besetting sin to remembrance, touch her in a tender part, as he does in the next words. John 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. John 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. John 4:16-18 . Jesus saith, Go call thy husband — What Christ had said to her concerning his grace and eternal life, he found had made little impression upon her, because she had not been convinced of sin; therefore, waiving the discourse about the living water, he sets himself to awaken her conscience, and proceeds to open the wounds of her depravity and guilt, that she might better understand, and more readily receive, the remedy provided by grace. The woman — Conscious of the sinfulness of the way in which she had lived, but desirous to evade conviction, and thinking to conceal her shame; said, I have no husband — She wished to be thought a maid or a widow; whereas, though she had no husband, she was neither. Jesus said, Thou hast well said — That is, thou hast spoken the truth, in saying, I have no husband; for, I well know, thou hast had five husbands — Doubtless it was not her affliction, the burying of so many husbands, but her sin, that Christ intended to upbraid her with. Either she had forsaken some of her husbands and married others, or by her undutiful, unchaste, or otherwise improper conduct, had provoked them to divorce her; or by indirect means, and contrary to the law, she had divorced them. He whom thou now hast is not thy husband — Either she was never married to him at all; or, which is more probable, one or more of her former husbands were living, so that, in fact, she lived in adultery. John 4:17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: John 4:18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. John 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. John 4:19-20 . The woman saith, Sir, I perceive thou art a prophet — “To find a person who was a perfect stranger, and who, on account of the national animosity, could not be suspected of having any intercourse with her townsmen, or with the Samaritans in general, discovering, nevertheless, the most secret particulars of her life, made so sensible an impression on her mind, that she could not but confess such a degree of knowledge more than natural; and consequently, that the person possessed of it was a prophet, and had it communicated to him by divine inspiration.” Our fathers worshipped, &c. — The instant she perceived that the person conversing with her was a prophet, being glad of the opportunity, and perhaps, also, desiring to shift the discourse to a subject less disagreeable to her, she proposes what she thought the most important of all questions; Our fathers worshipped on this mountain — As if she had said, True, I have been a sinful woman, and have not worshipped and served God as I ought, but if I wished to worship and serve him, I know not where I ought to do it, whether on this mountain, (pointing, probably, to mount Gerizim, at the foot of which Sychar was built,) as the Samaritans say, or in Jerusalem, which you Jews affirm to be the only place where God can be acceptably worshipped. It is well known, and necessary to be recollected here, that Sanballat, by the permission of Alexander the Great, had built a temple upon mount Gerizim, for Manasseh his son-in-law, who, for marrying Sanballat’s daughter, had been expelled from the priesthood and from Jerusalem, Nehemiah 13:28 . This was the place where the Samaritans used to worship, in opposition to Jerusalem. The woman, in saying, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, plainly refers to Abraham and Jacob, (from whom the Samaritans pretended to deduce their genealogy,) who erected altars in this place, Genesis 12:6-7 ; and Genesis 33:18 ; Genesis 33:20 ; and possibly to the whole congregation, who were directed, when they came into the land of Canaan, to put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, Deuteronomy 11:29 . And though Hyrcanus, the son of Simon, who succeeded his father as high-priest, and prince of the Jews, had long ago destroyed the temple which Sanballat built here, (Jos. Antiq., John 13:9 ,) yet it is plain that the Samaritans still resorted thither to worship, having, doubtless, rebuilt it, though probably in a meaner manner. John 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. John 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. John 4:21 . Jesus saith to her — In answer to this case of conscience; Believe me — Our Lord uses this expression only once, and that to a Samaritan. To his own people, the Jews, his usual language is, I say unto you. The hour cometh — Which will put an entire end to this controversy; when ye — Both Jews and Samaritans; shall neither worship in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem — As preferable to any other place: nay, when an end will be put to the worship at both places; and the true worship shall be no longer confined to any one place or nation. As if our Lord had said, Thou art expecting the hour to come, when either by some divine revelation, or some signal providence, this matter shall be decided in favour of Jerusalem or mount Gerizim; but I tell thee, the hour is at hand when it shall be no more a question: that which thou hast been taught to lay so much stress on, shall be set aside as a thing indifferent. Our Lord meant that the approaching dissolution of the Jewish economy, and the erection of the evangelical dispensation, should set this matter at rest, and lay all things respecting it in common, so that it should be perfectly indifferent whether in either of those places, or any other, men should worship God. Observe, reader, the worship of God is not now, under the gospel, appropriated to any place, as it was under the law: but it is his will that men should pray, give thanks, and worship and serve him everywhere. Our reason teaches us, indeed, to consult decency and convenience with respect to the places of our worship; but our religion enjoins that we give no preference to one place above another, in respect of holiness and acceptableness to God. They who prefer any act of worship merely for the sake of the house or building in which it is performed, (though it were as magnificent, and as solemnly consecrated as ever Solomon’s temple was,) forget that the hour is come when there should be no difference put in God’s account; no, not between Jerusalem, which had been so famous for sanctity, and the mount of Samaria, which had been so infamous for impiety. John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. John 4:22 . Ye worship ye know not what — Or rather, as the original words, ????? ??????????? ? ??? ?????? , ye worship what ye know not, that is, ye Samaritans are ignorant, not only of the place, but, in a great measure, also of the very object of worship. They believed indeed, in a sense, in the one living and true God, as the Jews did; drawing their knowledge of him from the five books of Moses, the authority of which they acknowledged. But as they did not receive the writings of the prophets as canonical, or of divine inspiration, it is not to be supposed that they were, in general, so well acquainted with God, and the service he required, as the Jews were. On the contrary, it is probable that they were sunk into a state of gross ignorance in these respects. For, if the writings of the prophets were of importance for conveying to mankind the knowledge of the perfections and will of God, the Samaritans, who rejected all those writings, must, on this head, have been more ignorant than the Jews. Doubtless, many of them were like their progenitors, of whom we read, ( 2 Kings 17:32 ,) that they feared the Lord, namely, after a fashion; but, at the same time, served their own gods, that is, they joined the worship of idols with his worship: or worshipped him merely as a local deity, as is plainly intimated, John 4:26-27 of that chapter, where they twice term him, the God of the land. We know what we worship — Or rather, as the Greek is, we worship what we know, or, we know the God we worship. Our Lord and his disciples, and such Jews as were pious, certainly knew the God they worshipped; and the Jews in general had much more correct ideas of the nature and attributes of God than the Samaritans had. Christ elsewhere condemns the corruptions of the Jewish worship; yet here defends their worship with regard to its object: for we may be right with respect to the object of our worship, even when there is much that is faulty and corrupt in the manner of it. For salvation is of the Jews — All the prophets spoke of the Saviour as one that should come out of the Jewish nation, and that through him the knowledge of the true God, and of the true way of worshipping and serving him, should be communicated to the rest of mankind. For, as the author of salvation came of the Jews, appeared among them, and was sent first to bless them, affording them, in an extraordinary way, the means of salvation; so the word of salvation was of them, and was delivered to them, to be derived from them to other nations. This was a sure guide to them in their worship, and they who followed it knew what they worshipped. As they, therefore, were thus privileged and advanced, it was presumption for the Samaritans to vie with them. John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. John 4:23 . But the hour cometh and now is — The fixed and stated time, concerning which it was of old determined when it should come, even the accepted time and day of salvation. And when our Lord thus spoke, it was coming in its full strength, lustre, and perfection. As if he had said, The thing you are chiefly concerned to know is, that a dispensation of religion is now beginning, under which all languages, countries, and places being sanctified, men are to worship God, not in Jerusalem, but in their hearts, and by their lives; by offering the sacrifice, not of beasts, but of themselves; the thing signified by every sacrifice and service enjoined in the law, and what alone was acceptable to the Father, even under the legal dispensation; when the true worshippers — And what does it avail to be a false worshipper? shall worship the Father — Shall worship God as a Father, even as a reconciled Father in Christ, who hath made them his children through faith in him, ( John 1:12 ; Galatians 3:26 ,) by adoption and regeneration, see note on Matthew 6:9 ; in spirit and truth — In spirit, and therefore in truth: that Isaiah , 1 st, In our spirit, or inwardly in our minds and hearts, adoring his majesty, revering his power, humbled before his purity, confiding in his mercy, praising him for his benefits, loving him for his unspeakable love to us; being subject to his sway, obedient to his will, resigned under his dispensations, devoted to his glory, and aspiring after a closer union with him, and a more full conformity to him. And all this, 2d, Through the illuminating, quickening, and comforting influences of his Spirit; without which our worship is but a shadow without substance, a form without power, a body without a soul: the lifeless image of worship, without truth and reality: nay, a mere lie. For when we ask blessings, which we do not sincerely desire and expect to receive; thank God for favours for which we feel no gratitude; sit down to hear that word of which we neither intend nor desire to be doers, our worship is hypocrisy and a lie: as it is also when we have not within us, during our pretended worship, affections and dispositions suited to his divine attributes, and the relations in which he is pleased to stand to us. For to worship him without reverence and humility, is to say, in effect, that he is not great and glorious, just and holy; to do it without confidence and gratitude, is saying in our spirit that he is not merciful, kind, and beneficent; to worship him without love and obedience, subjection and resignation, is to deny his love to us, and his authority over us, as our Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, Redeemer, Saviour, Friend, and Father; and the wisdom, justice, and goodness of his dispensations: that is, it is to worship him in a lie. For whether we say, by our spirit and conduct, that he possesses these perfections or not, it is certain he does possess them, and our not acknowledging it, and being properly influenced thereby, is, in effect, to deny it, and to affirm he is not the being that he is, and does not possess the attributes that he does possess. For the Father seeketh such to worship him — Desires and approves of such worshippers, and sends his word and Spirit, his gospel and his grace, to form such. The expression implies, 1st, That such worshippers are very rare, and seldom found. The gate of spiritual worship is strait. 2d, That such worship is necessary, and what the God of heaven requires and insists upon. When God comes to inquire for worshippers, the question will not be, Who worshipped at Jerusalem? but, who worshipped in spirit and truth? That will be the touchstone, or test, whereby men’s religion will be tried, and whereby they will stand or fall in the day of final accounts. John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24 . God is a Spirit. &c. — “As a further answer to the woman’s question, our Lord delivered a doctrine which may justly be called his own, as it exhibits an idea of God, and of the worship which is due to him, far more sublime than the best things said by the philosophers on that subject.” Christ came to declare God to us, and this he has declared concerning him, that he is a Spirit, and he declared it to this poor Samaritan woman, for the meanest are concerned to know God; and with this design, to rectify her mistakes concerning religious worship, to which nothing could contribute more than the right knowledge of God. 1st, God is a Spirit, for he is an infinite and eternal mind; an intelligent being, yea, the supreme Intelligence, who by one act sees the thoughts of all other intelligences whatever, and so may be worshipped in every place; he is incorporeal, immaterial, invisible, and incorruptible: for it is easier to say what he is not than what he is. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be perfect, nor infinite, nor eternal, nor independent, nor the Father of spirits. Now, 2d, on this spirituality of the divine nature is founded the necessity of the spirituality of divine worship; for the worship of God must partake of his nature: as his nature is spiritual, his worship, to be acceptable, must be so likewise. If we do not worship God, who is a Spirit, in spirit, we neither give him the glory due to his name, and so do not perform a real and proper act of worship, nor can we hope to attain his favour, and acceptance with him, and so we miss the end of worship. The exercise of faith and love, therefore, and of other graces, must constitute the true spiritual worship which we owe to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and which cannot but be acceptable to him, wherever it is offered, in whatever place, and by whatever person. John 4:25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. John 4:25-26 . The woman saith, I know that Messias cometh — She probably meant from among the Jews. The Jews and Samaritans, though so much at variance in other things, agreed in the expectation of the Messiah and his kingdom. This the Samaritans probably grounded on the writings of Moses, which, as has been observed, they received as of divine authority. It was also, doubtless, strengthened by the slight acquaintance which they had with the writings of the prophets, and by the hopes which they knew were entertained by the Jewish nation, not to mention the general expectation which now prevailed in many parts of the East, that a great prince was soon to arise in Judea; which is called Christ — It would appear from the manner in which this clause is expressed, that it was spoken by the woman; and yet it is manifest that could not have been the case. “Our Lord and the woman spoke a dialect of the Chaldee, at that time the language of the country, and in the New Testament called Hebrew, wherein Messiah was the proper term, and consequently needed not to be explained to either of them into Greek, which they were not speaking, and which was a foreign language to both. But it was very proper for the evangelist, who wrote in Greek, and in the midst of those who did not understand Chaldee, when introducing an oriental term, to explain it for the sake of his Greek readers.” — Campbell. When he is come, he will tell us all things — Relating to the service of God, which it is necessary for us to know: he will supply our defects of knowledge, rectify our mistakes, and put an end to all our disputes, and will make us fully acquainted with the mind and will of God. The woman seems to have spoken this with joy for what she had already learned, and with a desire of fuller instruction. Jesus saith — Hasting to satisfy her desire before his disciples came; I that speak unto thee am he — Our Lord did not speak of himself thus plainly to the Jews, because, as they were full of expectation that the Messiah, when he came, would erect a glorious temporal kingdom, and constitute them a free, happy, and prosperous people, if Jesus had openly professed to be that expected deliverer of their nation, many of them would doubtless have taken up arms in his favour, and others have accused him to the Roman governor. Yet he did, in effect, declare what implied it, though he declined using and applying to himself the particular title. For in a multitude of places he represented himself both as the Son of man, and as the Son of God: both which expressions were generally understood by the Jews as peculiarly applicable to the Messiah. John 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he . John 4:27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? John 4:27 . Upon this came his disciples — Who, as was said before, were gone into the city to buy food; and marvelled that he talked with the woman — Or rather (as the word ???????? is without the article) with a woman, which the Jewish rabbies reckoned it scandalous for a man of distinction to do. And that the disciples were not, in such things, superior to the prejudices of their countrymen, is manifest from the whole of their history. They marvelled likewise at his talking with a woman of that nation, which was so peculiarly hateful to the Jews. Yet no man said to the woman, What seekest thou? — Or to Christ, Why talkest thou with her? John 4:28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, John 4:28-30 . The woman then — Seeing other company coming up to interrupt the discourse, immediately left her water-pot — Or pail, behind her, forgetting smaller things, while her thoughts were engrossed with matters of the greatest importance; and went her way with all haste into the city — Where she published the news in the streets, and said to all she met with, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did — Even the most secret circumstances of my past life. Our Lord had told her but a few things, but his words awakened her conscience, which soon told her all the rest. Is not this the Christ? — She does not doubt of it herself, but speaks thus to excite them to make the inquiry. Then they went out of the city, &c. — The Samaritans, struck both with wonder and curiosity, did not delay, but accompanied her instantly, wishing, no doubt, that her news might prove true. John 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? John 4:30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. John 4:31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. John 4:31-34 . In the mean while — Before the people came; his disciples prayed him, say

Expositors

Expositor's Bible Commentary John 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, Chapter 9 THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. “When therefore the Lord knew how that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples), He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee. And He must needs pass through Samaria. So He cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph: and Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give Me to drink. For His disciples were gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore saith unto Him, How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a Samaritan woman? (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto Him, Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast Thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his sons, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life. The woman saith unto Him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come all the way hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.”- John 4:1-16 . Jesus left Jerusalem because His miracles were attracting the wrong kind of people, and creating a misconception of the nature of His kingdom. He went into the rural districts, where He had simpler, less sophisticated persons to deal with. Here He gained many disciples, who accepted baptism in His name. But here again His very success endangered His attainment of His great end. The Pharisees, hearing of the numbers who flocked to His baptism, fomented a quarrel between His disciples and those of John; and would, moreover, have probably called Him to account for presuming to baptize at all. But why should He have feared a collision with the Pharisees? Why should He not have proclaimed Himself the Messiah? The reason is obvious. The people had not had sufficient opportunity to ascertain the character of His work; and only by going about among them could He impress upon susceptible spirits a true sense of the nature of the blessings He was willing to bestow. To the woman of Samaria He did not hesitate to proclaim Himself, because she was a simple-minded woman, who was in need of sympathy and spiritual strength. But from controversial Pharisees, who were prepared to settle His claims by one or two trifling theological tests, He withdrew. The time would come when, after conferring on many humble souls the blessings of the kingdom, He must publicly proclaim Himself King; but as yet that time had not arrived, and therefore He left Judæa for Galilee. A line drawn from Jerusalem to Nazareth would pass through the entire breadth of Samaria, and quite close to the town of Sychar. Between Judæa, where Jesus was, and Galilee, where He wished to be, the province of Samaria intervened. It stretched right across from the sea to the Jordan, so that the Jews, who were too scrupulous to pass through Samaritan territory, were compelled to cross the Jordan twice, and make a considerable détour if they wished to go to Galilee. Our Lord had no such scruples; besides, the springs near Salim, where John was baptizing, were not far from Sychar, and He might wish to see John on His way north. He took, therefore, the great north road, and one day at noon[11] found Himself at Jacob’s well, where the road divides, and where, at any rate, it was natural that a tired traveller should rest during the mid-day hours. Jacob’s well is still extant, and is one of the few undisputed localities associated with our Lord’s life. Travellers of all shades of theological opinion and of no theological opinion are agreed that the deep well, now much choked with débris , lying twenty minutes east of Nablûs, is the veritable well on the stone rim of which our Lord sat. Ten minutes’ walk north of this well lies a village now called El-Askar, which represents in name and partly in locality the Sychar of the text. Partly in locality I say, for “Palestine was ten times as populous in the days of our Lord as it is at present;” and there is therefore good ground for the supposition that although now but a little village or hamlet, Sychar was then considerably larger, and extended nearer to the well. Coming, then, to this well, and being tired with the forenoon’s walk, our Lord sat down, while the disciples went forward to the town to buy bread. And thus arose that conversation with the woman of Sychar, which has brought hope and comfort to many a thirsting and weary soul besides. That which struck the woman herself and the disciples is not that which is likely to impress us most distinctly. We all feel the unsurpassed delicacy and grace of the whole scene. No poet ever imagined a situation in which the free movements of human nature, the picturesqueness of outward circumstance, and the profoundest spiritual interests were so happily, easily, and effectively combined. Yet the chief thing which struck the woman herself and the disciples was the ease with which Jesus broke down the wall of partition which the hatred of centuries had erected between Jew and Samaritan. To estimate aright the magnanimity and originality of our Lord’s action in making Himself and His salvation accessible to this woman, the marked separation that had hitherto existed must be borne in mind. The Samaritans were of heathen origin. In the Second Book of Kings, chap, xvii., we read that Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, pursuing the usual policy of his empire, carried the Israelites to Babylonia, and sent colonists from Babylonia to occupy their cities and land. These colonists found the country overrun by wild beasts, which had multiplied during the years of depopulation; and accepting this as proof that the God of the land was not pleased, they begged their monarch to send them an Israelitish priest, who would teach them the manner of the God of the land. Their application was granted, and an adulterated Judaism was grafted on their native religion. They accepted the five Books of Moses, and looked for a Messiah-as indeed they still do. The origin of their hatred of the Jews is told in Ezra. When the Jews returned from exile and began to rebuild the temple, the Samaritans begged to be allowed to share in the work. “Let us build with you,” they said, “for we seek your God as ye do; and we sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esarbaddon.” But their request was bluntly refused; they were treated as heathens, who had no part in the religion of Israel. Hence the implacable religious enmity which for centuries manifested itself in all sorts of petty annoyances, and, when occasion offered, more serious injuries. This Samaritan woman, then, was taken quite aback when the quiet figure on the well, which by dress and accent she had recognised as that of a Jew, uttered the simple request, “Give me to drink.” As any Samaritan would have done, she twitted the Jew with showing a frankness and friendliness which she supposed were wholly due to His own keen thirst and helplessness to quench it. But, to her still greater surprise, He does not wince before her thrust, nor awkwardly apologise, or seek to explain, but gravely and earnestly, and with dignity, utters the perplexing but thought-provoking words: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” He perceived the interest of the situation, saw with compassion her entire ignorance of the presence in which she stood, and of the possibilities within her reach. So do the most important issues often hinge on slight, trivial, every-day incidents. The turning-points in our career have often nothing to show that they are turning-points. We unconsciously determine our future, and bind ourselves with chains we can never break, by the way in which we deal with apparent trifles. We do not know the forces that lie hidden all around us; and for want of knowledge we miss a thousand opportunities. The sick man drags out a miserable existence, incapacitated and useless, while within his reach, but unrecognised, is a remedy which would give him health. It is often by a very little that the scientific or philosophical student fails to make the discovery he seeks; one more fact known, one idea fitted into its proper place, and the thing is done. The gold-digger throws aside his pick in despair at the very point where another stroke would have turned up the ore. So with some among ourselves; they pass through life alongside of that which would make all eternity different to them, and yet for lack of knowledge, for lack of consideration, the thin veil continues to hide from them their true blessedness. Like the crew that were perishing from thirst, though surrounded by the fresh waters of the River Amazon that penetrated far into the salt ocean, so we, surrounded on all hands by God and upheld by Him, and living in Him, yet do not know it, and refrain from dipping our buckets and drawing out of His life-giving fulness. How often, looking on those who, like this Samaritan woman, have gone wrong and know no recovery, who go through their daily duties sad and heavy at heart and weary of sin-how often do these words rise to our lips, “If only thou knewest.” How often does one long to be able to shed a sudden and universal light into the minds of men that would reveal to them the goodness, the power, the all-conquering love of God. Yes, and even in those who can speak intelligently of things Divine and eternal, how much blindness remains. For the knowledge of words is one thing, the knowledge of things, of realities, is another. And many who can speak of God’s love have never yet seen what that means for themselves. Certainly it is true of us all, that if we are not deriving from Christ what we recognise as living water, it is because there is a defect in our knowledge, because we do not know the gift of God. In two particulars this woman’s knowledge was defective: she did not know the gift of God, nor who it was that spoke to her. She did not know the gift of God. She was not expecting anything from that quarter. Her expectations were limited by her earthly condition and her physical wants. With affections worn out, with character gone, with no purifying joy, she came out listlessly day by day, filled her pitcher, and went her weary way. She had no thought of God’s gift, no belief that the Eternal was with her, and desired to communicate to her a spring of deep and ever-flowing joy. Doubtless she would have acknowledged God as the Giver of all good; but she had no idea of the completeness of His giving, of the freeness of His love, of His perception and understanding of our actual wants, of the joy with which He provides for them all. Through all ages and for all men there remains this gift of God, sought and found by those who know it; different from and superior to the best human gifts, inheritances, and acquisitions; not to be drawn out of the deepest, most cherished well of human sinking; steadily arrogating to itself an infinite superiority to all that men have regarded and busily sunk their pitchers in; a gift which each man must ask for himself, and having for himself knows to be the gift of God to him, the recognition by God of his personal wants, and the assurance to him of God’s everlasting regard. This gift of God, that carries to each soul the sense of His love, is His deliverance from evil. It is His answer to the misery and vanity of the world which He has resolved to redeem to worth and blessedness. It is all that is given in Christ, the hope, the holy impulses, the new views of life-but above all it is the means of conveyance that brings God to us, His love to our hearts. What, then, can teach a man to know this gift? What can make a man for a while forget the lesser gifts that perish in the using? What can reasonably induce him to turn from the accredited sources round which men in all ages have crowded, what can induce him to forego fame, wealth, bodily comfort, domestic happiness, and seek first of all God’s righteousness? May we not all well pray with Paul, “that we may have not the spirit of the world but the Spirit of God, that we may know the things that are freely given us of God; ” that we may see the small value of wealth or power or any of those things which can be won by mere worldly prudence or greed; and may learn fixedly to believe that the things of true value are the internal, spiritual possessions, which the unsuccessful may have as well as the successful, and which are not so much won by us as given by God? Jesus further describes this gift as “living water,” a description suggested by the circumstances, and only figurative. Yet it is a figure of the same kind as pervades all human language. Water is an essential of animal and vegetable life. With a constantly recurring appetite we seek it. To have no thirst is a symptom of disease or death. But the soul also, not having life in itself, needs to be sustained from without; and when in a healthy state it seeks by a natural appetite that which will sustain it. And as most of our mental acts are spoken of in terms of the body, as we speak of seeing truth and grasping it, as if the mind had hands and eyes, so David naturally exclaims, “My soul thirsts for the living God.” In the living soul there is a craving for that which maintains and revives its life, which is analogous to the thirst of the body for water. The dead alone feel no thirst for God. The soul that is alive sees for a moment the glory and liberty and joy of the life to which God calls us; it feels the attraction of a life of love, purity, and righteousness, but it seems continually to sink from this and to tend to become dull and feeble, and to have no joy in goodness. Just as the healthy body delights in work, but wearies and cannot go on exerting itself for many hours together, but must repair its strength, so the soul soon wearies and sinks back from what is difficult, and needs to be revived by its appropriate refreshment. And this woman, if for a moment she felt as if Christ were playing with her or making her enigmatical offers that could never bring her any substantial good, was immediately made aware that He who made these offers had fully in view the harshest facts of her domestic life. Mystified, she is also attracted and expectant. She cannot mistake the sincerity of Jesus; and, scarcely knowing what she asks, and with her mind still running on relief from her daily drudgery, she says, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” In prompt response to her faith Jesus says, “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” The water which He means to give cannot be given before thirst for it is awakened. And in order to awaken her thirst He turns her back upon the shameful wretchedness of her life, that she may forget the water of Jacob’s well in thirst for relief from shame and misery. In requiring her thus to face the facts of her guilty life, in encouraging her to bring clear before Him all her sinful entanglement, He responds to her request, and gives her the first draught of living water. For there is no abiding spiritual satisfaction which does not begin with a fair and frank consideration of our past, and which does not proceed upon the actual facts of our own life. If this woman is to enter into a hopeful and cleansed life, she must enter through confession of her need of cleansing. No one can slink out of his past life, forgetting or huddling up what is shameful. It is only through truth and straightforwardness we can enter into that life which is all truth and integrity. Before we drink the living water we must truly thirst for it. If the inquiry be more closely pressed, and if it be asked what this Samaritan woman would find to be living water to her, what it was which, after Christ had gone, would daily renew in her the purpose to live a better life and to bear her burden cheerfully and hopefully, it will be seen that it must have been simply the remembrance of Christ; the knowledge that in Christ God had sought her, had claimed her in the midst of her evil life for some better and holier thing, had, in a word, loved her through all her sin, and sent deliverance to her. It is still, and always, this knowledge which comes with fresh exhilarating power to every disconsolate, despairing, fainting soul. The knowledge that there is One, the Holiest of all, who loves us, and who will be satisfied with nothing short of the purest blessedness for us; the knowledge that our God follows us, forgives us, elevates and purifies us by His love, this is living water to our souls; this revives us to the love of goodness, and braces us for all effort. It is not a little cistern that soon runs dry. To the end of a Christian’s life this fact of God’s love in Christ comes as fresh and as reviving to the soul as at first; to us this day it has the same power of supplying motive to our life as it had when Christ spoke to the woman. He further defines the gift as “a well of water in the soul itself springing up to everlasting life.” This peculiarity of the water He would give was remarked upon here for the sake of contrasting it with the well outside the city to which the woman in all weathers had to repair; often wishing, no doubt, as she went out in the heat or in the rain, that she had a well at her door. The source of spiritual life is within; it cannot be inaccessible; it does not depend on anything from which we may be separated. And this is man’s victory and end when within himself he has the source of life and joy, so that he is independent of circumstances, of position, of things present and things to come. It was a commonplace even of heathen philosophy, that no man is happy until he is superior to fortune; that his happiness must have an inward source, must depend on his own spiritual state, and not on outward circumstances. Similarly Solomon thought it a saying worthy of preservation that “the good man is satisfied from himself;” that is, he shall not look to success in life, or to comfortable circumstances, or even to domestic happiness or the society of old friends, as a sure and unfailing source of joy; but shall be at bottom independent of everything save what he carries always and everywhere in himself. Nothing is more pitiable than the restlessness one sees in some people; how they can find nothing in themselves, but are ever going from place to place, from entertainment to entertainment, from friend to friend, seeking something to give them rest, and finding nothing, because they seek it without and not within. It is Christ dwelling in the heart by faith that is alone the fountain of living water. It is His inward presence, apprehended by faith, by imagination, by knowledge, that revives the soul continually. It is thus that God makes us partakers of the life that is only in Him, linking us to Himself by our will, by all that is deepest in us, and so producing true and lasting spiritual life. The woman was blinded by her ignorance on a second point; she did not know who it was that said to her, “Give Me to drink.” Until we know Christ we cannot know God: it is to Christ we owe all our best thoughts about God. This woman, when she had met the absolute goodness and kindness of Christ, had for ever different thoughts of God. So as we look at Christ our thought of God expands, and we learn to expect substantial good from Him. Yet often, like this woman, we are in Christ’s presence without knowing it, and listen, like her, to His appeals without understanding the majesty of His person and the greatness of our opportunity. He does offer largely; He speaks as if He were perfect master of the human heart, knew its every experience, and could satisfy it. He speaks of the gift He has to bestow in terms which convict Him of silly and heartless extravagance if that gift be not perfect; He has, in plain words, misled and deceived a large part of mankind, and especially those who were well inclined and thirsting for righteousness, if He cannot perfectly satisfy the soul. He challenges men in the most grievous and undone conditions to come to Him; He calls them off from every other source and stay, and bids them trust to Him for everything. If a man expects to find in Him all that the human heart can contain of joy, and all that the human nature is susceptible of, he does not expect more than the explicit offers of Christ Himself warrant. Manifestly such offers are at least worth considering. May it not be true that if we were to awake to the knowledge of Christ, we might now find His pretensions to be well founded? He professes to bestow what is worth our immediate acceptance, His friendship, His Spirit. What if it should be now that He seeks to come to our heart with these words, “If thou knewest who it is that speaketh.” Yes, if but for one hour we saw God’s gift, and Him through whom He offers it, we should become the suppliants. Christ would no longer need to knock at our door; we should wait and knock at His. For in truth it is always the same request He urges to all. In His words to the woman, “Give Me to drink,” there was more than the mere request that He would lift her pitcher to His lips. Driven from Judæa, wearied as much with the blindness of men as with His journey, He sat on the well. Everything He saw had that day some spiritual meaning for Him. The bread His disciples brought reminded Him of His true support, the consciousness that He was doing His Father’s will; the fields whitening for harvest suggested to Him the nations unconsciously ripening for the great Christian ingathering. And when He said to the woman, “Give Me to drink,” He thought of the intenser satisfaction she could give Him by confiding in Him and accepting His help. In her person there stands before Him a new, untried race. Oh that she may prove more accessible than the Jews, and may allay His thirst for the salvation of men! His parched tongue seems forgotten in the interest of His talk with her. And to which of us has He not in this sense said, “Give Me to drink”? Is it cruelty to refuse a cup of cold water to a thirsting child, and none to refuse to quench the thirst of Him who hung upon the cross for us? Ought we to feel no shame that the Lord is still in want of what we can give? This woman knew it was a real thirst which could induce a Jew to ask drink from her. Has He not sufficiently shown the reality of His thirst for our friendship and trust? Could it be a feigned desire that led Him to do all He has done? Are we never to have the joy of appropriating His love as spent upon us; are we never with humble ecstasy to exclaim:- “Weary satst Thou seeking me, Diedst redeeming on the tree. Can in vain such labour be”? [11] Some good authorities hold that John reckoned the hours of the day from midnight, not from sunrise. It is, however, probable that John adopted the Roman reckoning, and counted noon the sixth hour. John 4:17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: Chapter 10 JESUS DECLARES HIMSELF. “The woman answered and said unto Him, I have no husband. Jesus saith unto her, Thou saidst well, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: this hast thou said truly. The woman saith unto Him, Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know: for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman saith unto Him, I know that Messiah cometh (which is called Christ): when He is come, He will declare unto us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He.”- John 4:17-26 . In this conversation at Jacob’s well the woman for some time, quite naturally, misses the point of what Jesus says. It does not occur to her that by “water” He means anything else than what she could carry in her pitcher. Even when He speaks of causing a well to spring up “within herself,” she still thinks merely of the domestic convenience of some such arrangement, and begs Him to give what would save Her the endless trouble of coming to draw water out of Jacob’s well. This simplicity has its good side, as also has her obvious confidence in His words. Jesus sees in this child-like simplicity and directness a much more hopeful soil for His message than He had found even in a thoughtful man of education like Nicodemus. He seeks, therefore, to prepare the soil further by quickening within her a sense of spiritual want. This may best be effected by backing her into her actual life. Therefore He says, “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” And in this simple way He leads the woman at once to recognise His prophetic insight into her condition, and to bring His offers into connection with her character and her life. And there was that in her manner of owning Him as a prophet, a frankness and a simplicity in uttering her mind and listening to His explanations, that prompted Him explicitly to say, “I that speak unto thee am the Messiah.” To this unfortunate and ill-living alien woman, then, Jesus declared Himself as He had not declared Himself to the well-to-do, respectable Jewish rabbis. The reason of this difference in our Lord’s treatment of individuals arises from the different dispositions they manifest. Acknowledgment of His power to work miracles may seem at first sight as good a certificate for Christian discipleship as acknowledgment of His prophetic power. But it is not so; because such an acknowledgment of His prophetic insight as this woman made is an acknowledgment of His power over the human heart and life. He who is thus felt to penetrate to the hidden acts, and to lay His hand upon the deepest secrets of the heart, is recognised as in a personal connection with the individual; and this is the foundation on which Christ can build, this is the beginning of that vital connection with Him which gives newness of life. Those who are merely solving a problem when they are considering the claims of Christ, are not likely to have any personal revelation made to them. But to every one, who, like this woman, shows some desire to receive His gifts, and who is not above owning that life is a very poor affair without some such thing as He offers; to every one who is conscious of sin, and who looks to Him as able to deliver from all its foul entanglement, He does make Himself known. To such persons He will disclose Himself when He sees that they are ripe for the disclosure. To such the moment of moments will come, when to them He will say: “I that speak unto thee am He.” This distinction between the chemist who analyses the living water, and the thirsting soul that uses it, runs very deep, and may be commended to the consideration of any who are apt to be carried away by the current of unbelief that characterizes much of our literature. I think it may be said that in writers distinguished by a lack of Christian belief there will commonly be found an absence of what is popularly and fitly called “an awakened conscience.” It will be found that they do not know what it is to look at Christ from the point of view of this woman, from the point of view of a shattered and wretched life, and a conscience that day by day is saying, It is I myself who have broken my life, and doing so I have become a transgressor, and need pardon, guidance, strength. Acute thought, an admirable faculty of explaining and enforcing what is thought, we find in abundance; but we certainly do not find a spirit humbled by a sense of sin and a conscience alive to the deepest obligations. So far as can be gathered from the writings of the most conspicuous unbelievers, they do not possess the first requisite for discerning a Saviour-namely, a sense of need. They lack the prime preparation for speaking on such a subject; they have never dealt fairly with their own sin. We do not consult a deaf man if we wish to ascertain whether the noise we have heard is thunder or the rumbling of a cart; neither can we expect that those will be the best teachers regarding God in whom the faculty by which we chiefly discern God-viz., the conscience-has been less exercised than any other. It is through the conscience God makes Himself most distinctly felt; it is in connection with the moral law we come most clearly in contact with Him; and convictions of God’s Being and connection with us root themselves in the soul that a sense of sin has ploughed. I am far from saying that in deciding upon the claims of Christ the understanding is to have no voice. The understanding must have a voice here as elsewhere. But it is a strong presumption in Christ’s favour that He offers precisely what sinners need; and it is decisive in His favour when we find that He actually gives what sinners need. If it is practically found that He is the force that lifts thousands and thousands of human beings out of sin; if He has, in point of fact, brought light to those in deep darkness, comfort and courage to the desolate and heavily burdened, consecration and purity to the outcast and the corrupt, then, plainly, He is what He claims to be, and we owe Him our faith. If God is to reveal Himself at all, the revelation must be made not solely or chiefly to the understanding, but to that part of us which determines character, and is capable of appreciating character. The revelation must be moral not intellectual. As our Lord’s ministry proceeded He recognised that it was always the simple who most readily accepted and trusted Him; and He recognised that this was a thing to be thankful for: “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” And every one who thinks of it sees that it must be so-that a man’s destiny must be decided not by his understanding, but by his character and leanings; not by his ability or disability to believe this or that, or to prove that his belief is well grounded, but by his aspirations, by the real bent of his heart. We should feel that there was something very far wrong if our faith depended upon proofs that not every one could master, and if thus the clever man had an advantage over the humble and contrite. “The evidence must be such that spiritual character shall be an element in the acceptance of it.” And such we find it to be. The reality and the significance of the revelation of God in Christ are more readily apprehended by the spiritually than by the intellectually gifted. Persons who are either by nature humble and docile, or whom life has taught to be so, persons who feel their need of God, and deeply long for an eternal state of peace and purity, these are the persons to whom God finds it possible to make Himself known. And if it be thought that this circumstance, that simple and docile spirits are convinced while hard-headed men are unconvinced, throws some suspicion on the reality of the revelation, if it be thought that the God and the eternity they believe in are but fancies of their own, it may fairly be replied, that there is no more reason for such a thought than for supposing that the rapture of a trained musician is fanciful and self-created, and not excited by any corresponding reality, because it is not shared by those whose taste for music is unawakened. Convinced that Jesus was

Illustrator

When therefore the Lord knew. John 4:1-42 The first visit to Samaria G. D. Boardman, D. D. — I. THE STORY ITSELF. 1. The memorable halt (vers. 1-6). 2. The surprising request (vers. 7-9). 3. The opened vista (ver. 10). 4. The proud reminiscence (vers. 11, 12). 5. The perennial fountain (vers. 13, 14). 6. The weary request (ver. 15). 7. The merciful wound (vers. 16-18). 8. The everlasting debate (vers. 19, 20). 9. The majestic annunciation (vers. 21-24). 10. The sublime claim (vers. 25, 26). 11. The marvellous wonder (vers. 17). 12. The startling surmise (vers. 28-30). 13. The bidden manna (vers. 31-35). 14. The cheery parable (vers. 35-38). 15. The glorious harvest (vers. 39-42). II. LESSONS OF THE STORY: 1. The duty of seizing opportunities. 2. A model for religious conversation. 3. The true method of quenching the soul's thirst (vers. 13, 14). 4. The spirituality of Christian worship (vers. 21-24). 5. A test of Messiahship (ver. 29). 6. The sense of vocation the true food (ver. 31-34). 7. Harvesting the Church's privilege and duty (ver. 35). 8. The community of Christian fruition (ver. 36). 9. The present the harvest of the past (vers. 37, 38). 10. The power of a single conversion (ver. 39). 11. Spiritual privileges to be cherished (ver. 40). 12. The superiority of personal experience (ver. 41, 42). 13. A pastor's personal invitation. ( G. D. Boardman, D. D. )

Matthew Henry

4:1-3 Jesus applied himself more to preaching, which was the more excellent, 1Co 1:17, than to baptism. He would put honour upon his disciples, by employing them to baptize. He teaches us that the benefit of sacraments depends not on the hand that administers them. 4:4-26 There was great hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews. Christ's road from Judea to Galilee lay through Samaria. We should not go into places of temptation but when we needs must; and then must not dwell in them, but hasten through them. We have here our Lord Jesus under the common fatigue of travellers. Thus we see that he was truly a man. Toil came in with sin; therefore Christ, having made himself a curse for us, submitted to it. Also, he was a poor man, and went all his journeys on foot. Being wearied, he sat thus on the well; he had no couch to rest upon. He sat thus, as people wearied with travelling sit. Surely, we ought readily to submit to be like the Son of God in such things as these. Christ asked a woman for water. She was surprised because he did not show the anger of his own nation against the Samaritans. Moderate men of all sides are men wondered at. Christ took the occasion to teach her Divine things: he converted this woman, by showing her ignorance and sinfulness, and her need of a Saviour. By this living water is meant the Spirit. Under this comparison the blessing of the Messiah had been promised in the Old Testament. The graces of the Spirit, and his comforts, satisfy the thirsting soul, that knows its own nature and necessity. What Jesus spake figuratively, she took literally. Christ shows that the water of Jacob's well yielded a very short satisfaction. Of whatever waters of comfort we drink, we shall thirst again. But whoever partakes of the Spirit of grace, and the comforts of the gospel, shall never want that which will abundantly satisfy his soul. Carnal hearts look no higher than carnal ends. Give it me, saith she, not that I may have everlasting life, which Christ proposed, but that I come not hither to draw. The carnal mind is very ingenious in shifting off convictions, and keeping them from fastening. But how closely our Lord Jesus brings home the conviction to her conscience! He severely reproved her present state of life. The woman acknowledged Christ to be a prophet. The power of his word in searching the heart, and convincing the conscience of secret things, is a proof of Divine authority. It should cool our contests, to think that the things we are striving about are passing away. The object of worship will continue still the same, God, as a Father; but an end shall be put to all differences about the place of worship. Reason teaches us to consult decency and convenience in the places of our worship; but religion gives no preference to one place above another, in respect of holiness and approval with God. The Jews were certainly in the right. Those who by the Scriptures have obtained some knowledge of God, know whom they worship. The word of salvation was of the Jews. It came to other nations through them. Christ justly preferred the Jewish worship before the Samaritan, yet here he speaks of the former as soon to be done away. God was about to be revealed as the Father of all believers in every nation. The spirit or the soul of man, as influenced by the Holy Spirit, must worship God, and have communion with him. Spiritual affections, as shown in fervent prayers, supplications, and thanksgivings, form the worship of an upright heart, in which God delights and is glorified. The woman was disposed to leave the matter undecided, till the coming of the Messiah. But Christ told her, I that speak to thee, am He. She was an alien and a hostile Samaritan, merely speaking to her was thought to disgrace our Lord Jesus. Yet to this woman did our Lord reveal himself more fully than as yet he had done to any of his disciples. No past sins can bar our acceptance with him, if we humble ourselves before him, believing in him as the Christ, the Saviour of the world. 4:27-42 The disciples wondered that Christ talked thus with a Samaritan. Yet they knew it was for some good reason, and for some good end. Thus when particular difficulties occur in the word and providence of God, it is good to satisfy ourselves that all is well that Jesus Christ says and does. Two things affected the woman. The extent of his knowledge. Christ knows all the thoughts, words, and actions, of all the children of men. And the power of his word. He told her secret sins with power. She fastened upon that part of Christ's discourse, many would think she would have been most shy of repeating; but the knowledge of Christ, into which we are led by conviction of sin, is most likely to be sound and saving. They came to him: those who would know Christ, must meet him where he records his name. Our Master has left us an example, that we may learn to do the will of God as he did; with diligence, as those that make a business of it; with delight and pleasure in it. Christ compares his work to harvest-work. The harvest is appointed and looked for before it comes; so was the gospel. Harvest-time is busy time; all must be then at work. Harvest-time is a short time, and harvest-work must be done then, or not at all; so the time of the gospel is a season, which if once past, cannot be recalled. God sometimes uses very weak and unlikely instruments for beginning and carrying on a good work. Our Saviour, by teaching one poor woman, spread knowledge to a whole town. Blessed are those who are not offended at Christ. Those taught of God, are truly desirous to learn more. It adds much to the praise of our love to Christ and his word, if it conquers prejudices. Their faith grew. In the matter of it: they believed him to be the Saviour, not only of the Jews but of the world. In the certainty of it: we know that this is indeed the Christ. And in the ground of it, for we have heard him ourselves. 4:43-54 The father was a nobleman, yet the son was sick. Honours and titles are no security from sickness and death. The greatest men must go themselves to God, must become beggars. The nobleman did not stop from his request till he prevailed. But at first he discovered the weakness of his faith in the power of Christ. It is hard to persuade ourselves that distance of time and place, are no hinderance to the knowledge, mercy, and power of our Lord Jesus. Christ gave an answer of peace. Christ's saying that the soul lives, makes it alive. The father went his way, which showed the sincerity of his faith. Being satisfied, he did not hurry home that night, but returned as one easy in his own mind. His servants met him with the news of the child's recovery. Good news will meet those that hope in God's word. Diligent comparing the works of Jesus with his word, will confirm our faith. And the bringing the cure to the family brought salvation to it. Thus an experience of the power of one word of Christ, may settle the authority of Christ in the soul. The whole family believed likewise. The miracle made Jesus dear to them. The knowledge of Christ still spreads through families, and men find health and salvation to their souls.