Many believed because of His word

John 4:5-42 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; ⁶ and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷ There came a woman of Samaria 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 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am 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 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? ¹² You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” ¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” ¹⁶ He 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 correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” ¹⁹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

²⁷ At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” ³⁰ They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” ³² But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work… ³⁹ From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹ Many more believed because of His word; ⁴² and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Today’s text, the account of the woman at the well is a familiar passage and often commented on or taught from. Many people will cite this account, this encounter which Jesus had with the outcast Samaritan woman as another example of Jesus openness to such people. It is assumed this woman was not well thought of by the other women of the town because of her lifestyle choices, that’s why she was getting water in the heat of the day rather than when the other women did. In addition Samaritans were viewed as lower class people by the Jews, as the text says: “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)    Jesus did indeed seek to strike up a conversation with this woman. He looked passed her ethnicity and her lifestyle. Jesus, being one with the omniscient Father knew all the unlovely things about this woman, yet also being one with the Father, Jesus responded to this woman’s true need, the need for salvation. That is after all why He came, He says: “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

What many people who cite this and Jesus many encounters, associations and interactions with these people, sinners and outcasts of society, often fail to recognize or mention is that Jesus did not close His eyes to or ignore this woman’s lifestyle of sin. While He did not treat her as an outcast, He also did not ignore, accept or condone her sin. Jesus confronted her sin. The woman thought she could hide her sin from Jesus, telling a half truth:    “I have no husband.”    Jesus didn’t allow her to continue with the deception of a half truth, He said: “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’;  for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”       This begins to open the eyes of the woman to the revelation of who Jesus is, she says: “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.”   Jesus, knowing the Father’s heart and will, continues to reveal Himself, who He is:   The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

 Jesus challenged both the woman’s lifestyle of sin and the notion of theological debate about who was right regarding worship.    “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father…   But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.  God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”      Jesus let her know the truth, He revealed Himself to her saying:   “I who speak to you am He.”  In John 14:6 Jesus declares more about the truth, saying: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”          That is the truth as Jesus declared it. For each person regardless of their lifestyle, ethnicity or religious ideology, Jesus is the way to the Father, He is the Messiah, their Savior. Jesus took advantage of the encounter He had with the woman at the well, not simply to be her friend, but to reveal Himself, who He was, the Messiah. It was through Jesus love, compassion and acceptance that the opportunity for change happened. But love, acceptance and compassion were not the result Jesus sought, they were the means to the end.

What was the end result?   The text says:    So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men,  “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”  They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.         If indeed this woman was an outcast, a woman of poor reputation among her own people, then we must assume that there was a discernible change in her, something must have been different about her that she would have influence to convince others to seek Jesus. It is the discernible difference in people that is the result that the Father desires for their lives. The love, the compassion, the acceptance of people as they are is the means to that end. Our love is to be a demonstration of God’s love. Romans 5:8 tells us how God’s love is demonstrated:   God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.        The end result of the love and compassion, the acceptance of people is that they would see Christ, and the cross, the true demonstration of God’s love.

What was the final result of Jesus encounter with the woman at the well? Was it that she felt accepted and loved? The final result of Jesus encounter with the woman was that through His love and acceptance:   From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” ^… Many more believed because of His word;  and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”    Through the encounter with the woman at the well, through the love and acceptance Jesus showed her, through His challenging her with the truth and revealing who He was/is; the Messiah, the Savior of the world, both the woman and many others were saved.

Jesus tells His disciples: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”   That day the will and the work of the Father was to bring salvation and change to an entire town. A change wrought through an encounter with an outcast woman. Was it a random unplanned encounter? Or was it a divine encounter, preordained by God the Father to fulfill His will?  What is our food for the day? What random or divine encounters await each of us today? We may only know if we will love and accept those who come into our paths today. If we live as a revelation of God’s love and if there is a discernible difference in us, a change that will cause others to also want to see Christ.