Leave the poor woman at the well alone!
John 4:1-42John 4:1-42
English: Good News Bible (UK) - GNB-UK
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
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1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was winning and baptizing more disciples than John.
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3 So when Jesus heard what was being said, he left Judea and went back to Galilee;
4 on his way there he had to go through Samaria.
5 In Samaria he came to a town named Sychar, which was not far from the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. : ;
6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw some water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.”
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9 The woman answered, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan — so how can you ask me for a drink?” Jews will not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use; or Jews will have nothing to do with Samaritans. : ;
10 Jesus answered, “If only you knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you haven't got a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get that life-giving water?
12 It was our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well; he and his sons and his flocks all drank from it. You don't claim to be greater than Jacob, do you?”
13 Jesus answered, “All those who drink this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring which will provide him with life-giving water and give him eternal life.”
15 “Sir,” the woman said, “give me that water! Then I will never be thirsty again, nor will I have to come here to draw water.”
16 “Go and call your husband,” Jesus told her, “and come back.”
17 “I haven't got a husband,” she answered.
Jesus replied, “You are right when you say you haven't got a husband.
18 You have been married to five men, and the man you live with now is not really your husband. You have told me the truth.”
19 “I see you are a prophet, sir,” the woman said.
20 “My Samaritan ancestors worshipped God on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we should worship God.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
22 You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes.
23 But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants.
24 God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
26 Jesus answered, “I am he, I who am talking with you.”
27 At that moment Jesus' disciples returned, and they were greatly surprised to find him talking with a woman. But none of them said to her, “What do you want?” or asked him, “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar, went back to the town, and said to the people there,
29 “Come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. Could he be the Messiah?”
30 So they left the town and went to Jesus.
31 In the meantime the disciples were begging Jesus, “Teacher, have something to eat!”
32 But he answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 So the disciples started asking among themselves, “Could somebody have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” Jesus said to them, “is to obey the will of the one who sent me and to finish the work he gave me to do.
35 You have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest.’ But I tell you, take a good look at the fields; the crops are now ripe and ready to be harvested!
36 The one who reaps the harvest is being paid and gathers the crops for eternal life; so another who sows and the one who reaps will be glad together.
37 The saying is true, ‘One sows, another reaps.’
38 I have sent you to reap a harvest in a field where you did not work; others worked there, and you profit from their work.”
39 Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I have ever done.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days.
41 Many more believed because of his message,
42 and they said to the woman, “We believe now, not because of what you said, but because we ourselves have heard him, and we know that he really is the Saviour of the world.”
WP-Bible plugin
Someone recently told me that the woman at the well should be used as an example of how to evangelise – Christ wasn’t confrontational, and he didn’t go condemning the woman as a sinner.
Ray Comfort, who those who’ve chatted to me about evangelism probably know I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with, also uses this incident as an example of how Christ evangelised: he confronted the woman with her the law, by showing her that she’d sinned. All well and good, but I have a problem with both these arguments.
See the thing is, Jesus didn’t just confront the woman with the law: he told her that she was an adulterer. He actually knew this, despite the fact he wasn’t an acquaintance. He showed her that he was the messiah. Now, if the Lord ever grants me the ability to tell complete strangers their sins, and thus demonstrate the great power of our holy God, I will most certainly use it in his service to bring others to him – after I’ve finished freaking out, anyway. But really,t hat’s not a realistic option right now for me, or for most others.
In Luke 18:18-25Luke 18:18-25
English: Good News Bible (UK) - GNB-UK
The Rich Man
18 A Jewish leader asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life?”
19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone.
20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; respect your father and your mother.’ ” : ;
21 The man replied, “Ever since I was young, I have obeyed all these commandments.”
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one more thing you need to do. Sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”
23 But when the man heard this, he became very sad, because he was very rich.
24 Jesus saw that he was sad and said, “How hard it is for rich people to enter the Kingdom of God!
25 It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”
WP-Bible plugin, we see an example in which Christ uses the essence of the first commandment in talking to the rich young ruler. Now isn’t this a better example of how Christ did things, and one we can actually use? Maybe. But then this does beg an interesting question – how did the early church evangelise? Now, to me this is a far more important question – Christ may be the head of the church, but he’s also God. And as shown, we generally can’t just go using all his methods.
In acts, Peter is very confrontational in witnessing at the temple. And at Pentecost. In fact he’s rather confrontational throughout. Paul on Mars Hill gives a simple gospel presentation, beginning with an apologetic in which he takes advantage of the extreme religious nature of the people of Athens to explain the difference between the false gods and the one true God. Stephen rebuked the Sanhedrin, drawing on Jewish history to show that they had over and over again rejected and disobeyed God. He was confrontational in his witness even against men who wanted to kill him!
The Ethiopian eunuch was convinced by scripture after it was explained to him, although we don’t know exactly what was said. However, he was convicted by scripture. I suppose we can say this was not so confrontational.
There isn’t a set rule, pattern, or method through which we should evangelise. But what we can safely say is that a certain Samaritan woman is dragged up all too often as an example, almost as if we’re trying to avoid admitting that sometimes the direct and confrontational method is required.
Or am I just talking nonsense again?
I’d definitely have to agree with you here.
As you know there are many people, both in the Church and out, who don’t think critically so maybe a lot of this is just people repeating common phrases. Then some are those evangelists who really think they are being direct and confrontational but they’re just sign carrying jerks with dopey t-shirts who shout at you with megaphones (don’t get me wrong, I think there may be a place for street preaching but it’s not for everyone). Where was I going with this….? Oh well, let’s just blame it on Dispensationalism.
Matt
7 Mar 09 at 1:30 pm
Just thinking… could the woman at the well incident actually be reverse of the WOTM method of “law before grace” because Jesus offered the woman the living water firstly?
Matt
27 Mar 09 at 12:41 pm
That’s actually a really good point.
Obviously Ray would argue that Jesus called her out as an adulterer before announced that he was the messiah, but it does seem that either point of view is valid.
I dunno, I’ll have to think about that one.
Stephen Whitehead
28 Mar 09 at 10:23 am
for a start jesus never called this woman out as an adulterer he was simply testing the womans honesty. in previous scriptures concerning divorce jesus goes back to the begining stating that in the begining he who made them (God) made them male and female nothing more (no arranged marraige or anything like that) but simply one man, and one woman. he then departed from them, leaving them as man and wife NOT husband and wife (please read the scripture) there is a difference between the two the former relate to couples who simply live together (common law) and the latter (husband and wife) refers to to those who are married..as a man can marry his wife see deu ch 24..when a man taketh unto him a wife..and marry her etc..at that point he is known as her husband, and this is his title..HUSBAND. also read the story of the man who made a supper (lk ch 14v16-20)ppa to v20, which proves the point that a man camn marry his live-in partner if he so wishes (read the complete story)
paul, (corin ch7) speaks about relationships an acknowledges both types (v29) he’s not speaking about two people whom he knows but is stating that whatever type of relationship that you are in (wether it be man and wife..or husband and wife,) be single minded towards the lord (or) set your mind on things above (v35)attend apon the lord without distraction. in v39 paul goes on to state that if a womans husband be dead, she is at liberty (free) to marry whom she will, he does not put any restricion on the amount of times a WIDDOW can re-marry. in the old testament from the books of isaiah onwards (ch1v17)he continues to utter the words JUDGE THE FATHERLESS, PLEAD FOR THE WIDDOW. the reason why the woman at the well IS NOT an aduterer (as commonly preached by many backslidden churches)is because he knew that this woman now has a man that is not her husband, and at the same time is not anyone else’s husband either, simply because they are NOT husband and wife, but are simply MAN AND WIFE..two people who simply live together.. not married so unlike the man in the luke story (who along with the rest were rejected) he chooses NOT to marry his wife.now, what about the half that has never been told?..well this woman is a widdow possibly having been previously married giving birth to children in previous marraiges…each husband died so, she re-married each time possibly to provide her children with a father figure in their lives. after the last husband died, she decided not to re-marry again, but chose to live with her presen partner..what a righteous and honest woman indeed, she didnt lie about anything but simply told the master the truth, she knew he was a prophet, and thats why she didnt lie to him (unlike many today)
wayne
19 Jul 09 at 7:27 pm
I’m a little confused by your response, I must say.
The parable of the banquet doesn’t mention anything about marrying live-in lovers. It has someone saying he just got married, but afaict that’s the most that’s said on the matter. Chor:7:29 says that men who are married should live as if they are not, referring to single-mindedness. Again, no mention of extra-marital relations. In fact he seems to be talking assuming that those who are unmarried are single.
Ok, so I’ll grant you that the woman at the well -could- be judged as her not being in an unlawful situation, however the old testament laws do seem to suggest that a widow should be remarrying, not living in a relationship. And a woman put out without a divorce certificate being remarried would have been an adulteress, although there’s noe vidence that such is the case.
Hmm.
Do you have anything to back up your points which I’ve found difficulty with?
Stephen Whitehead
20 Jul 09 at 9:48 pm