[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast, Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Okay, so I got a couple of questions last week, if you don't remember. Last week we Talked about the 10 plagues and we kind of went through that extensively and we talked about how each plague was an attack on a different Egyptian God or goddess and how God basically humbled the Egyptians through that systematic takedown of the Egyptian religion. And so we went through that and we also talked a little bit about Joseph and kind of the mummification process and embalming and we talked a little bit about that. And so a couple of follow up questions that I got, I did some research on this week. One of them was, you know, we talked about that the Egyptians didn't like hair, that a lot of them chose to get rid of it. But some of the pictures that we were looking at last week, you guys probably noticed this as well. Some of the mummies had hair on them. And so I did a little bit of research this week on Egyptian hair practices, I guess you could call it. And so here's what I found out and we'll just, these are just a quick couple of follow up questions and then we'll dive into tonight's lesson.
One of the reasons why the Egyptians did not have hair a lot of times was because it was hot.
Egypt's a hot place. It's right off the Sahara Desert. And so shaving the head reduced the possibility of having lice.
It helped with sweating, it helped with discomfort in that hot, arid area of the world.
Smooth skin made it easier to stay clean in a sandy environment.
And it also having the ability to be well groomed or being clean like that signified wealth and status in their culture. So that's why who shaved men and women? Upper class Egyptians like nobles, priests and officials were the ones that practiced, probably did it the most.
They would like shave their heads and then wear wigs. And this was like a practice that followed all the way up until the 1700s. Right. A lot of those upper aristocratic people even wore wigs during that time frame. And so women did it too. It was a fashionable thing. It was done for special occasions.
Women did shave less frequently, but kept their hair short.
Priests. Priests were required to be completely shaven. Head, face, body. It was a sign of ritual purity in Egyptian culture. Specifically when they were serving in the temples. And they repeated this frequency every three days. They had to go and reshave.
And this is noted by Herodotus. He was a Greek historian.
He's somebody that we talk a lot about. Him and Josephus are two of the popular ones.
And so he makes this note.
And so those guys were probably the ones that were always shaved. Commoners and laborers, those guys.
Many of those guys just kept their natural hair.
Some of them had beards.
I guess it said that they wore short cropped hair. So it sounds like they all look like Paul McCartney.
I don't know if that's true or not.
Let's see. I mean, I think that's really. That's pretty much it.
So, for instance, like the mummies that we looked at with like the pharaohs and things, they would shave for specific rituals, but then they would let their hair grow back out. So, you know, they might shave for this ritual and then not do it for a while. So that's why they had hair. Hair has something in it called keratin, which is actually a natural preservative. And so that's why when we look at these mummies, you might see that everything else on the body looks pretty rough, but the hair is still really well preserved.
It's because it's able. Through that keratin, it's able to last a lot longer. And so I didn't show this picture to you, but like Ramses ii, for instance, his hair is still like reddish. It's got like a reddish tint to it and it's like full head of hair. It's really cool that that survived, you know, thousands of years.
So I think that's everything I got on Egyptian hair. If you have any follow up questions to that, let me know. I'm happy to research it. I learned a lot this week about that. The other question was who was responsible for the cleanup after each of the plagues? Unfortunately, I wasn't able to really find a definitive answer on this. Everything that I read seemed to point to the fact that it was probably the Egyptian people that were having to clean up. So not only was it a slap in the face that each of these gods or goddesses was being just decimated by each of these plagues, but then the Egyptians, the very people that believed in them, that worshiped them, then had to go behind and then clean all this up. Right? The frogs, I'm thinking like, man, how many frogs did these people have to pick up?
Thinking about the livestock, how difficult that would have been to have had to remove all those livestock and all that cattle, the cleanup after the locusts and the hail. So all of those things, it seems to point that the Egyptian people were the ones that were responsible for doing that. That's not 100% proven throughout history, but that's what they think. So again, if you have any other questions, let me know.
I'm happy to dive into those. So tonight we're going to be discussing the Samaritan woman at the well. So we're going to be jumping into the New Testament, but we're going to talk a lot about some Old Testament history that kind of plays into this event that takes place between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. And so our goal for this evening is to understand this encounter between Jesus and this woman. And we want to look at it in context, Biblical context, political context, social and historical.
I listen to lots of podcasts. It helps me stay focused when I'm working. And so I love, as of last week, you know, I shared that I love professional wrestling. So I listen to professional wrestling podcasts when I find the time. And one of the ones that I listen to, they always talk about, you know, the backstories of all these events that have gone down and taken place. And one of the quotes that's used is context is king, which means context. You got to have that context to really understand, like the crux of what's going on. And so that's the goal for tonight.
You've heard this story many times. Hopefully tonight we can look at some of the background, some of the context that has built to this moment, give you a little bit better understanding. It's really helped my understanding as I've studied this week.
So first thing we're going to do is we're just going to do a quick read through of John chapter 4, verses 1 through 26.
And I'll be happy to, I'll do that and then we'll discuss, we'll kind of break this down. So if you've got your Bibles, feel free to turn to John chapter four. And we'll start with Verse one.
So it says. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.
Though Jesus himself did not baptize. But his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. But he needed to go through Samaria.
So he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of the ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob, Jacob's well was there.
And Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well. And it was about the sixth hour, and a woman of Samaria came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone into the city to buy food.
Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
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, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?
Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I may not thirst or come here to draw. And Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. And the woman answered and said, I have no husband.
Jesus said to her, you have well said. I have no husband. For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. And that you spoke truly. And the woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. And you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know.
We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
For the Father is seeking such a to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. And the woman said to him, I know that that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. And when he comes, he will tell us all things. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, am He.
Okay, so that is the interaction that takes place between Jesus and the woman. And so let's start to break this down specifically with verse three. It talks about how he left Judea and departed again for Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town called Sychar. And hopefully I'm saying that correctly. I apologize if I'm not. And this was near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. So here's a couple of maps to kind of help with our understanding. This map on the right is a map that is what they believe to be the routes that were taken by Jews when they were going from Judea, which is down here in the south, where you see Jerusalem, up to Galilee, which is in the north up here by the Sea of Galilee. So right in the middle of that is Samaria.
And this is where our story takes place, right in this area.
So usually when they traveled, the Jews had three routes they could take to get north, or if they're going south, you could go straight through, which is this white dotted line.
That was the least popular route because there were lots of problems between the Jews and Samaritans, which we're going to talk about.
The other route that was an option was the route on the right, which is that red dotted line. And so you'd have to kind of cut across the Jordan river, go up a little bit, and then you cut back over.
And that was in an effort to avoid going through Samaria.
I think it said that it would take about five to seven days to travel that one.
And the other option, the third option, would be go left, so take the green path, and that would take you by the Mediterranean Sea. And so I couldn't find, like, a timestamp as far as, like, how many days it would take you to travel that. But, I mean, it looks to be roughly the same as the red. So five to seven, give or take.
And so not a lot of Jews chose to go straight up the middle.
They like to take the flanks, so to say.
But what we see from this story is that they left Judea, they were departing for Galilee, and they went through Samaria. So they took that white route right up the middle. And so that's kind of how they get to that point.
Now let's talk about the importance of the land, because there was a couple of key things that are brought out in the scripture. As we're talking about the story, we hear Jacob's. Well mentioned. And then we also hear kind of reference back to the land that was given to Joseph by his father, Jacob. So the nod to the land that takes place way back in Genesis 48.
And at that time, this land was known as the land of Shechem. So Joseph, we talked about him a little bit last week about his death and his mummification and the fact that because he was second under command of Pharaoh that he was mummified. He was embalmed as royalty would have been.
And so we know that Joseph was also Jacob's favorite son. We know that Reuben was technically the firstborn, but it forfeited his rights of the firstborn because he committed sin by sleeping with his father's concubine.
And so Joseph was able to receive that extra land through the right of the firstborn that was supposed to be Reuben's, but was given to Joseph through that blessing. And so it was Joseph's bones that were actually eventually buried in this area of Shechem or Sychar in that area.
Now, there's mention of some mountains in this area. And I don't know if you guys can see this.
Both maps have this. So you've got Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, I think, is how you say those.
And so here's the importance of those mountains. The Samaritan woman says, our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.
So she's making reference to this Mount Gerizim, which is where at one point in time, there was a Samaritan temple there where the Samaritans worshiped.
And Mount Gerizim rises adjacent to the other mountain, Mount Ebal. And this is in the heart of this area of Samaria that you can see on the map. And so it stood, you know, these mountains stand near the ancient city of Shechem, which is.
It's on this map over here. You can see it. It's right up that dotted line.
And so historically, this, the ancient city of Shichem, was a central landmark for covenant ceremonies and religious observances in the Hebrew scriptures. The name Gerizim appears significantly in the Old Testament. And there's a lot of Old Testament passages where it's closely tied to themes of divine blessings, covenants, or the covenant worship. And so there have been archaeological surveys that have uncovered remains on this mountain of, you know, remains where they can tell that there was something there of a religious nature which would kind of go back and be related to that, the fact that there was a temple there at one point in time.
[00:15:02] Speaker C: Adam.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Yes, sir.
[00:15:03] Speaker C: From where they were seating there at Jacob's. Well, they could see Mount Gerizim from there.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Oh, really? Very cool.
Yeah. So I've got pictures on a couple of slides later.
I think there's a building around the well currently.
Obviously there wouldn't have been back then, but that's neat that they could have seen that. So that makes.
That adds some context for sure.
So Josephus, we drop his name quite a bit, Jewish historian. So he wrote about a Sumerian temple that once stood on Mount Gerizim, providing again, documentary support that there was something, a long standing religious significance for the Samaritans on this mountain.
Now, in Deuteronomy, Mount Gerizim is designated as the Mountain of Blessing.
And so following the Israelites entry into the Promised Land, half the tribes stand on Mount Gerizim and the other half stand on the other mountain, Mount Embal. And the ones that are on Mount Gerizim pronounce blessings. The ones that stand on Mount Ebal pronounce curses.
And in Deuteronomy 27:12, it says, when you have crossed the Jordan, these must stand on Mount Gerizim to bless. And he's talking about the specific tribes that were to go and stand on Mount Gerizim to offer blessings.
This command from Moses emphasized the gravity of obedience and disobedience. So Mount Gerizim symbolized the favorable outcome, right, for those who would seek to please God within the new covenant. And then Joshua later fulfilled this instruction in a joint ceremony, which is what I just talked about, where he had them kind of go stand on both mountains. Now, over the centuries, Mount Gerizim also became a critical point of religious identity for the Samaritans.
They regarded this as the appointed place of worship. And this is one of those big divides that set the Samaritans and the Jews apart is because the Samaritans saw Mount Gerizim as the designated place where they were supposed to worship.
That's where they believed they were supposed to offer their sacrifices and worship, whereas the Jews believed it was the Temple, the Temple Mount there in Jerusalem. And So in John 4, you know, the Samaritan woman refers to a dispute between Samaritans and Jews over the proper location of worship. That's why she's saying that is because, you know, she says our Fathers worshiped on this mountain. She's referring to Mount Gerizim, that temple that was there.
And we already talked about the archaeological evidence that's there.
So around the 5th century BC, after the Babylonian exile. So that's after the northern tribes would have been taken off. And then you've got the Babylonian exile with the southern kingdom. The Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim. And so again, this rivaled the Jewish temple that was in Jerusalem. It deepened the hostilities between the 2.
In 128 BC, there was a Jewish Hasmonean ruler named John Harkanis, I believe is how you say his name. He actually destroyed the Sumerian temple that was on this mountain. But the Samaritans continued to revere the mountain as the holy place that they were supposed to worship. And so, again, just. I know this is a lot coming at you, but it's just background. History helps kind of give you a better understanding of this conversation that Jesus is having with this woman. And it gave you plenty of time to look at these amazing maps that I found this week. So I was proud of these. And they're not grainy, they're nice and clear. So I don't know if I can replicate that from week to week, but this week was a good week for maps.
All right, so we've kind of talked a little bit about the, you know, the context, the background of the story. Let's look at the political and the social importance related to what's going on.
So I wanted to give you just a little bit of an origin story as it relates to the Samaritans. I don't know how much you know about them, but their history traces back to that ancient northern kingdom, the ten tribes of Israel. So this would be after the split of the United Monarchy. Right? You had Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
And so around 722 BC, the Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom and deported many Israelites. And so one of the things that the Assyrians would do is they. This was to help quell revolutions. This was to help keep kind of order and power in place, is that they would. They liked to basically uproot total populations and move them to another area. And so they wouldn't move everybody, but they would move a large number. So a lot of the.
That's kind of why they're known as the lost tribes. A lot of people got uprooted and then taken off into other parts of the Assyrian Empire. And then the Assyrians would bring other groups and kind of plant them in that area. And it was again, it was to stop revolution. It was to keep people in check.
And this was a popular method by them. And they were very successful with it because before the Babylonians, like, they were the top dogs of the world in that area of Mesopotamia.
And just a side note, the Assyrians were also the ones that their capital city was Nineveh. So if you've ever wondered why Jonah was a little like sketched out about going to Nineveh, that's why. Because, you know, they had a bad reputation about how they treated outsiders and about what they did to people and what they did to conquered people. So they had sort of a bad rap. He kind of wanted to stay away from them. So that's why Jonah was willing to like go to the other side of the known world at the time to avoid going to Nineveh. So, but back to this. So when the Assyrians took over those 10 tribes, that northern kingdom, there was intermarrying that took place. And so Israelites who remained in that land became co. Mingling commingled with the Assyrian group that was there and other groups as well. And so from that point forward, the people that lived in this area was known as the Samaritans. They became the Samaritans.
And so we can talk a little bit about their religious beliefs. Their main sanctuary was on Mount Gerizim, which we already talked about. They believed that that was the true holy place that had been chosen by God for them to worship rather than the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
And so again, this ties back into that deep divide that was between the Samaritans and the Jews. And I think we already talked about.
All right, so this is probably not news to you, but the Jews viewed the Samaritans because the Samaritans were intermixed with the Syrians and other groups. The Jews viewed them as ethically impure. They viewed them as religiously kind of on the fringe. So to say Samaritans saw Jews as like second class citizens.
And they believed that these Samaritans had corrupted the true faith by not only by intermarrying with the Syrians, but also by trying to recognize the fact that the mountain mount Gerizim where they worshiped was the true place of worship and not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Yes, yes, sir, absolutely.
[00:22:13] Speaker C: 2 Kings 17.
This story of how it happened is chronicled. And verse 33 says, the people that were in the land there that they had mixed with, they feared the Lord, yet served their own Gods according to the rituals of the nation, from among whom they were carried away.
That was the rub.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: Yep. I heard it was like. It was kind of like they still worshiped the same, but they were. It was. I mean, obviously it was warped by all these other religions that they tried to bring in and add to it. So thank you for that. You're going to have to come to class every week, Ronnie.
I want to start having conference calls with you on the weekly as I prep.
This is great.
All right, so a little bit of the political history that I haven't already talked about. Let's see, we talked about the fact that Samaritans were considered ethically impure.
Alright, here we go. Most Jews would avoid contact with Samaritans altogether. So again, that map that we looked at, that the Jews were willing to go like five to seven days out of the way to not have to go through Samaria is, I think, a good indication of this also. The fact that we have the story of the good Samaritan that Jesus talks about is another key indicator that this was an issue that was facing the world at this time. And so, and then if we look in John 4. 9, it even explains Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Like, she was completely shocked that he was even talking to her. But then the fact that, you know, that he would even ask her for something was quite shocking. And so for Jesus to stop and ask for water and then to engage in this deep conversation with her spiritual conversation, it broke a lot of social and religious barriers.
So I guess we can kind of move into that. Right. So a man at this time speaking to a woman in public was something that was looked down upon. So in Jewish culture at the time, men did normally not speak to women alone in public, not even to their wives in some stricter circles. So, you know, a man and woman having a conversation like this, this was not commonplace. And the fact that it was taking place in the middle of the day like this, in broad daylight. Right. They believe it was around noon, was a very big deal.
Not only because it was a man and a woman, but it's a Jew and a Samaritan. So there's all these social constructs that are being broken down by this conversation, which is really cool to see.
Rabbis, you know, Jesus was considered a rabbi in particular, would have avoided such interactions like this to protect their reputations.
And so for Jesus, being a Jewish rabbi, to speak at length with a Samaritan woman, and not only a Samaritan woman, but we know about her past. Right. We know that where she's coming from, again, was highly unconventional, and it would have been scandalous by those that would have seen this taking place.
And then, you know, we talk about the woman's social status. She comes to the well at noon, which is the hottest part of the day.
It's believed that most of the women would have come to that well in the morning time when it was cooler to get the water for the day. And so this suggests that she was probably an outcast in her community.
Not only is she a Samaritan, but she's also, you know, she's lived a pretty rough life, which is pointed out by Jesus in this conversation. So the fact that she's willing to go here during the hottest part of the day, she's trying to avoid people. She's trying to avoid the crowd.
You know, she's not looking for confrontation. She's not looking to have conversations with people.
And Jesus later reveals that what we read is that she'd been married five times and was currently living with the man that was not her husband.
So this would have marked her as not only morally marginalized, but also socially. So she's got a lot going on in her life that would have put her on the fringe. And again, points to the reason why she's willing to go in the middle of the day like this and not want to be around everybody else.
But the cool thing that we see about this interaction with Jesus and her is that Jesus still treats her with dignity.
This was probably something that she had not seen much of, if any, someone that's a Jew treating her with dignity and then engaging her in this theological conversation.
And then he also reveals to her that he's the actual Messiah. And he makes this a spiritual lesson.
She's talking about the water from the well, but he kind of turns that on her, and he's talking about, look, what I can give you is living water. It's something that you'll never thirst for again. And so Jesus does a masterful job of offering that to her, giving her that option for eternal life.
Jews would have not expected Samaritans to understand or receive God's truth. I think we get caught up in this, too. Sometimes we think, you know, we see somebody and we're like, I don't know, should I say something to them? Should I not? I don't even know if. I don't even know if they would really understand what I'm trying to say. You know, are they going to get it? And I think we have to remember it's not for us to make that decision. Right.
I think one of the. One of the things that we can see throughout this interaction is that the importance of planting seeds.
However, we can do that through our actions, through our words.
If we're able to plant those seeds, you know, God's going to be able to do wonders with that. So it's important for us to do that, to not try to marginalize somebody in our own minds, but to offer it to them, just to give it a shot.
And so that's something that we can learn from this interaction. And so Jesus not only speaks with her, but entrusts her with the revelation of his identity. You remember in John 4. 26, he says, I who speak to you am he. And even more shocking, she becomes.
I guess we could call her one of the first recorded evangelists in John's Gospel, because what she does is she goes back to her town and she's telling everybody that she believes in Jesus. And she's like, you guys need to come see this.
And so this was shocking because Jesus crossed basically three cultural boundaries at once.
So. So there's the Jew versus Samaritan boundary that he completely obliterates just by having that conversation with her. There's the man versus woman boundary that he destroys because he's willing to converse with her in broad daylight. And then there is the fact that he's this righteous rabbi, and here he is talking with this sinful lady that has been living in sin. And so there's that moral stigma that comes with that. And so, you know, other rabbis or, you know, guys that were Pharisees would have never, ever have taken part in this. But Jesus was willing to do that. And so instead of avoiding her, he honored her.
And with one of the deepest theological conversations that we see in Scripture. And I think this is important because it shows how the Gospel. Right. If we're willing to plant those seeds, it shows how the gospel can break down barriers, whether it's ethnic barriers, it's gender barriers, it's moral barriers.
The gospel is for all. And again, it's important for us to just plant those seeds.
And Jesus definitely does that in this situation.
[00:30:05] Speaker C: Adam, I'm talking too much.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: No, you're good. You should be teaching this class.
[00:30:09] Speaker C: I think there is a significance in verse four, how intentional he was in going through Samaria. He knew they needed the gospel. It said he needed to go through Samaria. I think that word is significant.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: Yeah, very much so. I think I have.
Maybe it's on my Next slide. Let's look.
[00:30:31] Speaker D: Adam, if I could add something all of my life, and I've heard that story since I was a little boy, I pictured this humble woman who was happened to be at the well and started recognizing immediately the wisdom of this person she was talking to. And then about 10 years ago, I heard an Ethiopian Christian man teach this lesson.
He had a different, completely different perspective.
He said, up until Jesus said, go get your husband, this woman was antagonistic to Jesus, which would be normal.
Oh, you Jews think you're better than we are.
Who are you?
A man talking to a woman and a Samaritan woman. And then even when he talked about the water.
Oh, give me some of this water so I don't have to come back here.
I'd never thought about it like that before, but that would be much more normal socially.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:32] Speaker D: Than for this humble truth seeking woman to have appeared at the well at noon and Jesus just happened to be there.
So I'm trying to underscore through that what you said about it cuts through all of this, the gospel and the right attitude. Presenting the gospel cuts through the social arguments, the racial arguments, even the sexual arguments.
You, a man talking to woman. All of it cuts through all of it.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: That's a great point, Adam.
[00:32:03] Speaker E: I think another thing that has helped on my commentaries, this whole passage, it highlights how quickly the Jews themselves have divided themselves. They're the ones responsible for all these nationalistic and racist sort of.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: They did this.
[00:32:17] Speaker E: It goes back to Jesus reaching out.
Earlier in verse two, you pointed out that, you know, she was maybe the first evangelist.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: She goes out.
[00:32:27] Speaker E: That's part of the story too. Verse 2, it points out to us in the text that's on purpose. Think where it says the Pharisees heard Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples. There's a point there again too. Jesus is planting that and that whole ripple effect where he's transforming. She goes and does it. And that's different than a lot of rabbis. And come to that point of Jesus, he went out of his way to be there for this problematic woman, this problematic person who was troubled by society, her own choices, what society drove her to, and he knew that. And I think that's a great point because to me that's the mic drop moment when it gets to that verse when he says, okay, go get your husband.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah.
[00:33:15] Speaker E: Well, now we have something and that's so big because we try to sanitize it and it's hard, you know, you gotta have a lesson like this when you have kids and you have a lot of different ages and groups. It's hard to cut through to some of the themes that are really going on here with what this woman's going through. But it's life. It's reality. And Jesus, I think to her, I have to imagine in her mind, that was earth shattering because he said, I know. I know exactly what I'm doing.
Yes. I am a rabbi talking to a woman, a Samaritan woman. A Samaritan woman who's been married five times. Exactly.
And to me, that vulnerability that he's telling us today, there's no boundary. You're no better or worse than any.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: Other person on this planet.
[00:33:57] Speaker E: And until you do that, because, you know, he's not talking to the Jews or Samaritans here, he's saying, this is an individual basis.
And until you guys get that. I think he's trying to get that. We do it today with nationalism and all these identities that we have. We just run rampant with what we have to call ourselves and what we have to be. And Jesus says, you gotta cut that out. At the end of the day, these are all fine, but you can't heal until you realize you're broken.
[00:34:27] Speaker B: So I just think that's a powerful moment.
[00:34:30] Speaker D: To me, it's so important that we remember that these people in the Bible were people.
They had kids and sick parents and lost jobs and had things stolen and, you know, just like we do.
So to think that this woman would have.
Would have been dealing with. Yet Jesus continued to deliver that message with care and concern and not judging, I think that's. To me, that's the story here. That's the lesson.
[00:35:00] Speaker B: Yeah, great comments, y'. All. The whole thing is that Jesus was honoring God through everything that he was doing. I mean, because it all points to the glorification of the Father, and he picks hard people to do that through a lot of times. Yeah, yeah. I almost believe, like, the Pharisees would have been the ones that founded those alternate paths. You know, we study so much about them. You know, they would have been. Yeah, we're going. Yeah, we're going right or left and then. And I also understand, as far as, like, the antagonistic side of the woman. I feel like if you've ever raised a teenager, you're taught to in that manner at some point. So.
But, yeah, yeah, great points.
All right. Well, I think we covered everything here that I wanted to kind of COVID And then those are, again, amazing comments. I appreciate all the input.
Let's talk just quickly a little bit more about some of the historical importance. And I think this is where I was kind of going back to is the fact that he said he, you know, he had to go through that area. Like, what Ronnie was saying is that, you know, the Gospel is beginning to expand beyond just the Jews at this point.
Now, we'll ultimately see this as Paul comes into the picture with Acts and we have the Gospel being spread out to the Gentile nations. And so. But we begin to see this with it being spread through Samaria with this Samaritan woman. And so we can kind of see this as the first non Jewish mission field, so to say. And it's important to remember, too, that.
[00:36:41] Speaker C: He'S got a disciple to.
And he's teaching them the lesson right there that the Gospel's got to go to everybody, even these old Samaritans.
[00:36:50] Speaker B: Yep, I know that was hard for them, too, because we know how much, if you've ever read through Acts and Paul's missionary journeys, like, you know, how much Jew and Gentile didn't get along.
So this was like a common theme with the Jews, with the different groups that they were having to deal with. They did not like the fact that what was once solely theirs is now being spread and being allowed for these other groups of people to have. And so that's a good point. So, Ronnie, you're going to be teaching.
I'm going to let you three next week, you guys, let's do a panel discussion up here.
All right, so here is. I wanted to. I found some photos of Jacob's well. Just. That's the well that they believe where this. This encounter takes place. Today, it has a church built over it, or I think it's called. I think it's a church. I can't remember specifically, but again, this was a. This was a sacred site that was tied back into Israel's history to its early days.
And so Jesus at this well, you know, offers something that was significantly greater than what this well, the heritage of this well was offering. Right. He's going to give her living water, something that she could not obtain from just this well. And so we talked about this being the first non Jewish mission field.
This is going to foreshadow what takes place in Acts and throughout the rest of the New Testament where God's word is being spread out into the Gentiles.
There's also, you know, Jesus talks about. There's this shift taking place in the way that worship is done.
You know, up until this point, it's been all about temple worship, right? That was the big dividing line between Jew and Samaritan was that the Samaritan said, no, this mountain, which is where our temple was, this is where we're supposed to worship. And the Jews were like, no, it's the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. But Jesus is like, that's not it. It's in spirit and it's in truth. It's not about all of these, you know, checking boxes and doing all of these routines, but it's about loving your neighbor, it's about treating people fair, it's about loving people, it's about your heart and it's about how you treat each other. And so it's a shift. And so we didn't really get a lot. We talked a little bit about the temple that the Samaritans had built being destroyed, but the original temple that Solomon built was destroyed one time by the Babylonians, rebuilt, and then again it was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans. And so I think the long term legacy here is that even today this story is a testimony, this event is a testimony that shows that the gospel can break through all of these different cultural walls.
So just to kind of close out, I think this is the application, the mic drop application here is that Jesus offers living water to quench the deepest thirst. He offered that to this Samaritan woman, you know, she was there to avoid this confrontation, to avoid everybody. And she ends up meeting Jesus and gets the greatest gift ever.
This day, I think looking at sort of the social aspect, no one is too far gone. It's not our job to analyze that again. We, we need to plant the seeds and let God do the watering, let him do the work there. But it's our job to live through example, right? To live the best we can to follow God's word and then to teach through word and through action.
Every believer, we all have testimonies that giving others to faith.
A year ago today, I was in the ER with a mass in my head. So it's kind of weird, right?
But now I just have a really cool scar. But very thankful that that all worked out and that I'm able to teach tonight. So. Yeah, absolutely.
So my hope is that this scar gives me the opportunity to talk to somebody one day about it and to spread God's word however I can.
So we all have a story like that. We all have something that has happened to us in that way that we can teach and we can spread the love of God.
And then also the gospel, it reconciles. It crosses all of these different boundaries, and it brings us together no matter what that is. And so I think that's the application. That's the mic drop.
Further, further comments.
You guys are a lot smarter than me. I'm just the facilitator.
I'm not as smart as you, but.
[00:41:44] Speaker C: I did ask ChatGPT.
[00:41:48] Speaker B: And I'm pretty sure I kind of agree with it. I think this is one of the first instances where Jesus actually confirms he's the Messiah, like, states it clearly and he chooses to do it to her. I think that's pretty cool. It kind of goes with your book too, right? Sweet.
[00:42:04] Speaker C: And it's not towards you.
[00:42:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the. That's the big thing.
And I always want to use the. Like, I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night. It's like, I guess I can use the.
I don't know where I was going with that. Never mind. All right, you have a great week. Thank y'. All.
