EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
John 4:1-3. These verses form an historical introductory note prefixed to and explaining our Lord’s ministry in Samaria. He left Judæa to avoid conflict with the Pharisaic party.
John 4:2. Though (καίτοιγε = howbeit, and yet).—This word is intended to indicate a partial correction of the report recorded in John 4:1 (vide also John 3:22; John 3:26). “Why did not Jesus Himself baptise? Just because He was the Lord, and as such reserved to Himself the baptism of the Spirit. By leaving the baptism of water to the apostles, He rendered this rite independent of His personal presence, and so provided for the maintenance of it in His Church after His departure” (Godet).
John 4:3. He left (ἀφῆκε).—This is not the verb usually employed. ἀφίημι means “to leave a thing to itself,” “to leave it alone,” etc. (vide Westcott, Reynolds, etc.). Here is fore shadowed the awful word of doom of Matthew 23:38.
John 4:4. He must needs, etc.—If He wished to go directly and speedily to Galilee the way through Samaria was the most direct; and Jesus, we may be assured, did not share Jewish prejudice as to this route (Luke 10:30-37). We, however, may conclude that this was a necessity of redeeming love. Samaria was a district of Central Palestine which took its name from the city built by Omri (1 Kings 16:24). It was colonised by Assyrians in the reign of Esar-haddon, the Assyrian king, after the conquest of Israel (2 Kings 17:24). The colonists were a mixed race, including five tribes or nations, each of which brought with them their own divinity, the worship of which they conjoined with the worship of Jehovah. Their only sacred books were the five books of Moses. The later Jewish prophetical and historical books they did not receive or acknowledge.
John 4:5. Sychar (Συχάρ).—This name has given rise to no little controversy. It was long supposed that either Συχάρ was simply an erroneous reading for Συχέμ (Acts 7:16), and that Sychar was therefore Shechem, the modern Nablous; or that “the change of the name to Sychar is due to the contempt shown for the Samaritans by the Jews, who charged the Samaritans with the worshipping of an Idol (שֶׁקֶר), Sychar, or falsehood, from שָׁקַר (fefellit) (Habakkuk 2:18). Lightfoot derives it from שָׁכַר (inebriavit)” (Wordsworth’s Greek Testament). But Shechem and Sychar were distinguished in ancient times (e.g. by Eusebius); and a Samaritan chronicle of the middle ages contains the name of a town called Iskar. In the Talmud also (see Westcott) a place called עין סוכר, i.e. the fountain of Soukar, is mentioned; whilst in recent years a spot has been discovered within half a mile or so of Jacob’s well called El-’Askar. If Nablous anciently extended nearer to Jacob’s well than it does now, this place might have been in reality a suburb of Shechem.
John 4:6. Jacob’s well (πηγή, עין, a spring).—The well is still called ’Ain Yacûb. Maundrell over two hundred years ago described it as 105 feet deep; but in 1886 it was found to be only 75 feet, and contained no water. It lies just under the side of Mount Gerizim. The sixth hour.—It has been much debated whether the Evangelist in his notes of time reckons according to the Jewish or Roman mode. According to the latter mode of reckoning, it must either have been six o’clock in the evening or morning. But as the time of year was December–January (Tebeth), it would thus, had it been evening, have been dark when the incident occurred, and there is nothing in the narrative to indicate that night had fallen. And it could hardly have been six in the morning, as there is no indication that the Lord and His disciples had been travelling over-night or very early in the morning. All the circumstances seem to point to the noontide hour, and to show that John used the Jewish time-reckoning.
John 4:8. To buy meat.—I.e. food.
John 4:9. The woman knew He was a Jew probably by His dress, but it may be also by His accent. It has been pointed out that the words of the question asked by Jesus in Aramaic would be תני לי לשׁחת (Teni li lish’ḥoth), whereas the woman would have said לשׂחת (lis’ḥoth) (vide Judges 12:5-6).
John 4:10. If thou knewest (or hadst known) the gift of God.—I.e. the gift of His Son (John 3:16). Had she known this in place of waiting for Him to ask, she would have been first with her petitions. Living water.—No doubt the woman had some faint conception of the spiritual meaning of our Lord’s language. Such imagery would be quite clear to Jews (John 7:37-38; comp. Zechariah 14:8; Jeremiah 2:13, etc.).
John 4:11. The well is deep.—Vide note on John 4:6.
John 4:12. Our father Jacob.—The Samaritans considered themselves to be descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, i.e. Joseph. The woman is conscious of a hidden meaning in our Lord’s words, but she does not fully comprehend them. Whence can He obtain this living water? Not from Jacob’s well; it is deep, and He has nothing to draw it with. And besides, could He give her water more sacred, more blessed, than this ancient well afforded?
John 4:15. Come hither to draw.—διέρχωμαι, come all the way hither, seems the idea expressed (see Westcott).
John 4:16. Go, call thy husband, etc.—Jesus knew by His divine insight the character and life of this woman; and His question, though at first sight a strange one, was put with the intention of revealing her to herself and leading her to repentance.
John 4:17-18. The woman answered, etc.—The mystical interpretation of this passage must be noticed. Hengstenberg and others contend that this must be interpreted nationally and spiritually of the Samaritans. The five husbands mean the five idols of the original idolatrous settlers, the gods of Cuthah, Babylon, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim; and that He whom thou hast is not thy husband is to be held to refer to Jehovah, whom the Samaritans claimed now to be their God, but on whom in reality they had no covenant claim. And there certainly seems to be some foundation for the interpretation in the fact that the conversation almost immediately turned on the validity of the Samaritan faith and worship. It has been pointed out that the idols mentioned in 2 Kings 17:30-31, are seven. It might, however, be maintained that the double idols of Ava and Sepharvaim might each be considered one. There may therefore be a double meaning in our Lord’s words, understood by His Samaritan auditor. But a calm survey of the passage seems to lead to the conclusion that the narrative must be taken, primarily at least, in its obvious and literal signification.
John 4:19-20. Thou art a prophet.—The emphasis is on Thou (σύ). “The first thought in the Samaritan’s mind is that the connexion of man with God has been authoritatively restored” (Westcott). Hence the woman’s question in John 4:20. Nothing could be more important than a decision on that point. Our fathers.—Probably refers to Deuteronomy 27:4-5, where in the Samaritan Pentateuch Gerizim is substituted for Ebal. But the reference might also be to the patriarchs in their connection with Shechem. No temple existed on Gerizim, however, it would seem, till the times of Nehemiah.
John 4:21-22. Woman, believe Me, etc.—Although our Lord directly answers the woman’s question, pointing rather to a higher universal worship which should supersede all local cults, He yet makes it plain that Jerusalem has hitherto been the centre of true worship. Ye worship that which ye know not.—They rejected the continuous revelation God gave of Himself in the prophetic word and the history of His people. It was only a partial idea of God as revealed which they had, and therefore their worship was necessarily imperfect. But to the Jews the progress of revelation tended to the recognition of God as the Father (Psalms 103:13; Jeremiah 31:9; Malachi 1:6; Malachi 2:10), the great truth finally established and made luminous by the Incarnation.
John 4:23. In spirit and in truth.—“Worship involves an expression of feeling and a conception of the object towards Whom the feeling is entertained. The expression is here described as made in spirit, the conception as formed in truth.… By the Incarnation men are enabled to have immediate communion with God, and thus a worship in spirit has become possible. At the same time the Son is a complete manifestation of God for men, and thus a worship in truth has been placed within their reach” (Westcott).
John 4:24. God is Spirit.—πνεῦμα ὁ Θεός.
John 4:25. Which is called Christ (ὁ λεγόμενος Χριστός).—This is evidently one of the Evangelist’s interpretations of Hebrew terms for his Gentile readers. Messias.—The Samaritans seem to have had an expectation of a coming prophet and deliverer founded on the promises in the Pentateuch (Genesis 3:15; Numbers 24:7; Deuteronomy 18:15); and probably to some extent influenced by Jewish belief. The modern Samaritans expect one to come whom they call הָשָּׁחֵב, Ha.sbaḥev (from שׁוּב, to return), which signifies the one who brings back, or the one who returns or restores. Taken in connection with John 4:42, this statement of the woman would seem to imply an imperfect but so far true conception of the functions of the coming Messiah.
John 4:26. I that speak, etc.—“This is the great ἐγώ εἰμι (‘I am’) that recurs throughout John’s Gospel” (Luthardt).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— John 4:1-26
The woman of Samaria.—The dispute between John’s disciples and a Jew was apparently only an outstanding incident, significant of deeper under-currents of feeling. It tended, perhaps, to produce an outbreak of the latent hostility toward Jesus in certain quarters. Even in Galilee itself there seemed to be indications of a feeling of opposition to the popular enthusiasm for Christ (Mark 2:5-6, etc.). The Baptist had now been cast into prison; and on Jesus the full stream of Pharisaic hatred, which had formerly been divided, was now turned. And the hatred was all the greater because Jesus made and baptised more disciples than John (John 4:1). Therefore, in the circumstances, Jesus for the time withdrew from Judæa, practising a precept He afterward laid down for the disciples (Matthew 10:23).
I. The necessity for His going through Samaria.—
1. It was not an absolute material necessity. Strict Jews would have avoided it by going through Peræa. Those who wished to make a speedy journey, however, required to take this direct route. This did not seem to be the sole reason why Jesus chose it; for He remained two days at Sychar.
2. The “must needs” be is no doubt to be found in the incidents that follow. It is a divine necessity for Christ to save thirsting souls.
3. How does this mission to Samaria agree with the command to the disciples in Matthew 10:5-6? It was a command applying only to that special mission (Acts 1:8). And although the Saviour was sent specially to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24), yet He never withheld His saving power from those ready and willing to receive it.
II. Christ’s meeting with the woman of Sychar.—
1. In the heat of the day (for even in winter, the best time for travelling in Syria, the midday sun is often very hot, and walking fatiguing), Jesus came, wearied, to Jacob’s well (Genesis 33:18-20; Genesis 49:21-22; Deuteronomy 33:28-29), near a village or suburb of Shechem called Sychar, now called El Askar, about a mile from Nablous (Shechem).
2. Jesus had journeyed on foot. The common fund evidently did not admit of hiring animals for all His company, and He therefore went with them afoot. He shared with His disciples the common fatigues and hardships of the way.
3. He sat thus, wearied and footsore, by the well, whilst the disciples went for provisions to the neighbouring village or town. He was truly human—the Son of man as well as the Son of God. He knows our toils, trials, wearinesses, and can sympathise with us in our troubles (Hebrews 4:15).
4. While He thus sat “a woman of Samaria” came to draw water. It was not the usual hour when women came to draw water, and this particular woman must have come there at that time for some especial need, perhaps also to avoid publicity, which she had reason to do. Our Lord entered into conversation with her, showing that He was free from rabbinic prejudice and Jewish exclusiveness. He asked from her a draught of water, as the disciples had probably taken with them the vessel for drawing water (John 4:11). The Saviour’s request was a real request. The sinless needs of His human nature were as ours (John 19:28; Matthew 8:24).
III. Christ leads the woman to desire the living water which He can give.—
1. Whilst the Saviour’s request was a genuine one, it also afforded Him an opening for offering this poor woman a richer gift.
2. The mere fact of doing a kindness to another leads us to take a more than ordinary interest in that person. A way is often found into the soul of a man by giving him the sense of an ability to be helpful to others. It awakens a kindly feeling toward the person helped. Here we have an example of but one of the many ways in which Christ brings sinners to Himself. Something connected with our daily duty may be made a turning-point in our life. As the man at his daily work found the treasure in the field (Matthew 13:44), so often in the pursuit of our daily duty the Lord may give us the privilege of bringing to light heavenly riches.
3. The woman was astonished at our Lord’s request. His costume (most probably His accent) proclaimed him a Jew; and, considering the relation between Jews and Samaritans, the request was a strange one (vide Note, p. 124), although we may be sure it was granted (Luke 10:33).
4. Jesus soon showed that He was no ordinary traveller, not simply a liberal-minded Jew, as He said to her, “If thou knewest the gift,” etc. (John 4:10). The water of Jacob’s well was truly a divine gift flowing for all; but there is a richer, fuller spring, giving enduring satisfaction, “living water” drawn from the ever-fresh, never-failing springs of eternal love and grace (Psalms 36:9; Psalms 87:7; Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 41:17-18; Isaiah 55:1).
5. The woman now realises that here is some one far above her, and she addresses Him courteously, Sir. But she does not yet quite comprehend His meaning. Moreover, her pride of race and religion is up in arms; and perhaps some idea of a special sanctity in this well is in her mind as she replies, “Art Thou greater?” etc. (John 4:12).
6. The answer of Jesus reveals to the woman a well of deeper depth than that of Jacob. He opens up to her gaze the deep spring of eternal love and grace. He who drinks from Jacob’s well, or any earthly spring of material joy, shall thirst again. “But the water that I shall give,” etc. (John 4:14), shall be an inner source, never failing, of satisfaction (Isaiah 55:1). And thus, too, that other prophetic word is fulfilled: “The Lord shall … satisfy thy soul in drought,” etc. (Isaiah 58:11). All fountains of earthly satisfaction cannot satisfy the soul, which needs a supply not from external sources only, but deep in itself, ever flowing through faith, and which is checked only by unbelief. It is living water, flowing from the source of all grace (Ezekiel 47), full and abounding for spiritual satisfaction, springing up unto life eternal. It is Christ, and His Spirit and gospel (John 7:37-40).
IV. From the well to the mount of service.—
1. The woman of Sychar, although perplexed by the words of Jesus as to the gift of living water which He could bestow, realised evidently that there was some deep meaning under these words. At all events, she realised that such a gift would be a valuable one, and in her heart a great desire for this gift was awakened (John 4:15).
2. And Jesus would fain give her this boon; but there was needed first a preparation of heart and life for its reception. Hence our Lord’s answer, although fitted to lead toward this end, would be unexpected, and, we may believe, at first unwelcome to the woman. It revealed the poor sinful woman to herself, and gave her a glimpse of the nature of Him with whom she was speaking. She had apparently lived a loose and evil life, and now Jesus brought it up before her suddenly—not simply to shame her, but with a view to lead her, and her partner in sin, to repentance. Probably her former husbands had discarded her for her wicked life. She made no attempt to cover or conceal her sin.
3. We are not, therefore, to consider the apparently strange turn given to the conversation as merely “a woman’s ruse” to escape an unpleasant and unwelcome turn in the conversation. In all probability this woman (who possessed evidently some force of character) had grown dissatisfied with her past life, but found no help and guidance toward higher things in the religion and worship of Samaria. She was evidently of the number of those who were vaguely longing for the bright new era of Messiah (John 4:25). And the thought might well come to her, “Here was one who was evidently a prophet—might He not decide this question, and give her some definite clue as to what was the truth?” There must have been some such feeling in her mind, else Jesus would not have followed the turn in the conversation, which indeed led up to the end He desired to reach. “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain” (Gerizim), etc., said the woman.
4. The answer of Jesus was truly prophetic. He had to convince the woman that the Samaritan religion and worship were erroneous, and that in the Jewish Church alone at that period the true Object of worship was adored and the way of salvation known. But, at the same time, He had to show that all merely local cults were soon to pass away, giving place to a universal, rightly directed, and true worship, when men should everywhere worship the Father (see homily on John 4:20-24).
5. In her answer to our Lord the woman of Samaria showed a deeper and truer conception of part of Messiah’s work than did the Jews. She realised that He was to come as the Revealer (John 4:25). And Jesus, recognising in this poor woman’s heart a receptivity not common in Israel, revealed Himself unto her (John 4:26). Not prejudiced like the Jewish rulers and the mass of the Jewish people, she willingly received His word. In haste, excited and rejoiced above measure at this great discovery, leaving her waterpot behind in her excitement, thus forgetting the object of her visit to the well, or having otherwise realised it (above, John 2:4), she hurried to Sychar to communicate her important news, and thus became the first preacher of Christ in that place.
John 4:7-26. A soul awakened and enlightened.—In this conversation of our Lord with the Samaritan woman, we find the Saviour employing quite another method than that followed in the case of Nicodemus. Jesus did not use any stereotyped plan in dealing with men and women regarding spiritual things. Each individual case was treated with reference to its own special circumstances and needs. There seems to be a danger of forgetting this in certain quarters nowadays—of forgetting that men cannot be treated spiritually in the mass, and run, as it were, into moulds like molten metal. There is a danger lest those whose feelings have been stirred by emotional excitement may in this state be led to grasp a shadow for the reality. It is better, certainly, that men and women should be stirred up, than that they should remain wholly indifferent. But there is room for much wise and calm spiritual guidance in their treatment. It is needful, e.g., that men should have true views of sin, else they will never have true views of God and salvation. In this conversation our Lord gives an example of faithful and wise dealing with a sinful soul. Most marked is the skill with which the Good Physician of souls led this woman to a desire for something higher—to tacit confession of her sinfulness—to a glimpse of the meaning of the true spiritual life.
I. In this conversation Jesus awoke in her heart a desire for something higher.—The woman of Samaria came to Jacob’s well, with her waterpot, intent only, it would seem, on satisfying material needs. Her life had not been a good one; and possibly, like many slaves of sin, she felt the bondage to be bitter. Even amid her sinful life also she turned her thoughts sometimes toward higher things (John 4:25). The Saviour read her heart, and His very presence helped (as it ever did) to awaken the germ of spiritual life slumbering there, and well-nigh extinct. He effected His purpose of mercy toward her and her fellow-citizens, by leading His hearer through the material occupation of the moment to the thought of the higher spiritual reality. The empty waterpot led Him to speak of the spiritual thirst of men, and to show the divine way in which alone it can be satisfied. The woman knew, as her words show, that Jesus spoke of some other water than Jacob’s well or any material spring. Perhaps it was some vague religious feeling that led her to come to Jacob’s well—some semi-superstitious thought that a blessing might come through drinking from this hallowed spring. But the toil remained—the blessing had not come. Hence she says (John 4:15), “Sir, give me,” etc.
II. Jesus led her by personal revelation to conviction of sin and to feel her need.—The inner look of the Saviour revealed this woman to herself, and at the same time showed her that she stood in the presence of One who knew her altogether (John 4:17-19). She made no attempt to deny her sinfulness. Her tacit acknowledgment was confession. But she showed her sense of her need, and her faith that He could supply it, by at once asking Him for light regarding religion and the spiritual life.
III. Our Lord revealed to her the true spiritual life, and Himself as the way to it.—The woman now in a measure understood what Jesus meant, and desired to know more. He therefore showed her the inadequacy of her present faith, and pointed out the fact that the way of salvation was revealed to Israel. But at the same time He opened to her the vista of true spiritual service, now first fully revealed, of which the Father is the centre, and Himself the revealer of the Father.
John 4:4-26. Our Lord’s dealing with the Samaritan woman.—In order to assimilate all that is beautiful, instructive, and touching in this story, to explain and consider worthily all the precious words spoken by Jesus on this occasion, would go far beyond the limits of our meditation. We shall not, therefore, consider the particulars, but rather the Redeemer’s mode of dealing with souls, as shown in this conversation; and notice the special application the whole may have in our ordinary life. We see—
I. How the Redeemer, starting from a very ordinary occurrence, one of the smallest in human life, knew how to turn the conversation with the Samaritan to the highest truths of His teaching, and the end and aim of His appearance in the world. Thus, not only in the narrower circle of those immediately around us and connected with us, but in that wider circle in which we all more or less move, in which men are not so open with each other as in the narrower sphere of friendship and companionship, even although they are not entirely strangers to each other, we often in conversation linger on trifles, on the petty occurrences of life! And when the talk turns on personal circumstances, how seldom is it conducted in such a way that profitable considerations arise from it, and the heart is moved to turn from those lesser things to things of higher import, etc.
II. Notice how the Redeemer declared Himself to this Samaritan woman in regard to the relations between the Jews and the Samaritans. He left her in no doubt regarding His opinion as to these contending claims. Similar circumstances meet us. There are many divisions of the Church of God. But when through these divisions men become embittered and inimical; when the higher consciousness of the unity of the faith, and the oneness of the Church resting thereon, vanishes; when in place of helping each other toward the knowledge and practice of the true and good they deny to each other insight, right feeling, and love of the divine,—then how unblessed are such divisions! How disastrous also! for thus the Church becomes like a congeries of small states, divided and inimical—an easy prey to the foe. If the Redeemer were asked as to His opinion concerning these divisions, He would point to a time when neither one nor another would exist … and reply that such division can become beneficial only in so far as there is a recognition of the higher unity. But we must also, in imitation of our Redeemer, not suppress our views of the subjects on which we are divided. Yet, fellowship, love, and the power of truth are to be invoked to bring about an agreement founded on better opinions. Men must be brought to an earnest conviction that the blessing of God does not rest on our divisions, but on the unity which lies at the basis of each.
III. Lastly, notice the open avowal of Christ: “I that speak unto thee am He.” We live in an age when many a one is unwilling to say who and what he is, and what his deepest thoughts, etc., are. But when the hearts of men are truly turned to God, when faith and love increase and are strengthened, when men deny themselves to what is of the earth earthy, renounce dissimulation, and desire first of all God’s eternal kingdom which Christ has opened even on earth—then when we meet others like-minded with ourselves, let us openly avow ourselves to them, and thus strengthen and comfort each other whilst pressing forward in our course.—Abridged from F. Schleiermacher.
John 4:10. Divine grace.—This gift of God which the Samaritan woman did not yet know is divine grace. It is a precious gift which we do not ourselves comprehend sufficiently, and which we do not always take pains to seek to comprehend. Hence it comes about that it is frequently received in vain. It is important, therefore, to seek to have right ideas regarding it. Of divine wisdom it is said that she works gently and yet attains her ends with power. So it may be said of grace, for grace works within us as the instrument of sovereign wisdom. Consider then, first, the gentleness, and, second, the power of grace.
I. The gentleness of divine grace.—By this attribute grace touches the sinner and becomes victorious. This gentleness is seen—
1. In this, that grace waits for us. Jesus, wearied, etc., as He was, waited to be gracious to this sinful Samaritan.
2. Grace avails itself of the times and occasions best suited for gaining its ends.
3. Grace is the first to meet us. So our Lord opened the conversation with this woman, etc.
4. What grace wishes to obtain it asks from us—it solicits and invites. The Lord entreated the Samaritan woman to believe Him: “Woman, believe Me,” etc. More, grace asks little from us that it may give much. The Saviour asked a draught of water, that He might offer to this woman a draught from the fountain of living water.
5. Grace accommodates itself to our nature and temperament. This woman showed an inquiring disposition, and the Saviour deigned to converse with her on the themes she introduced.
6. Grace does not involve us in positions of difficulty where it cannot comfort and help us. It is true God by His grace influences us to renounce the world; but only after by grace we have made known to us its vanity and danger.
II. The power of divine grace.—It has always appeared to me, and I am still of the same opinion, that one of the most convincing proofs of the truth of our faith is to see what grace does in certain souls. And if I consider only the conversion of this Samaritan, I should conclude without hesitation that there is a superhuman power that works within us. There is seen a double miracle of the almighty power of divine grace in this conversion—the one in regard to the mind, the other in regard to the heart.
1. There was a miracle of grace and power effected in the mind of the Samaritan. She was an unbeliever and was brought to faith—always a difficult process.
2. There was a miracle of grace in the power that changed her heart. She had lived an evil life, and grace convinced her of its sinfulness.
3. These miracles were evidently works of superhuman power, yet the Saviour of the world wrought them speedily. Her conversion was sudden, and its reality evident.
What lessons shall we learn from this?—
1. Hope all things from divine grace; and however great seems to be the effort needed to bring one back to God, have confidence.
2. If God in His mercy has brought you out of the estate of sin, imitate the zeal of the Samaritan, and labour like her to bring in as many sinners as you are capable of affecting, above all those who have been accomplices in your sins. Say with penitent David: “Come and hear, and I will declare what God hath done for my soul” (Psalms 66:16), and therefore what He will do for you also. Inspire us with such zeal, O God, and with Thy Holy Spirit.—Abridged from Bourdaloue.
John 4:21. The true sacredness of places of worship.—The natural tendency of men to localise worship and consecrate certain spots as sacred is checked by the true knowledge of the spirituality and omnipresence of God. His manifestation of Himself specially in Israel was suited to the childhood of the race, and to the fact that Israel alone was then consecrated to His service. But by the Incarnation the barriers of exclusiveness have been thrown down, and from every race and nation the spiritual Israel is being gathered in. So that everywhere in the Church—the congregation of the faithful—which is Christ’s mystical body, an acceptable worship ascends to God (1 Peter 2:5). Are we to say then that our churches—places of worship—are to have no special sanctity in our eyes; that they may be used for other and secular purposes, like ordinary buildings; indeed that churches may be dispensed with altogether, and men worship the Father in solitary stillness?
I. The place of worship is consecrated by the communion of true worshippers with each other.—The mere stone and lime of a religious edifice may not be more sacred than other stone and lime. Yet from the fact that the worshippers meet there in praise and prayer, united in their acts of devotion to God, the place acquires a sacredness in their sight which belongs to no other place. There the divine word has been faithfully preached for many generations; there many a one has been led to conviction of sin and settled peace; within those walls have come the weary and have found rest, the troubled and perplexed and have found comfort. There our fathers have worshipped, and have said, “It was good for us to be there.” All these memories awaken our gratitude and thankfulness, and should make our united supplications rise with more fervour and power to the throne of grace. And all this will make the place of communion sacred and dear.
II. The place of worship is also, for the most part, the place of closest fellowship and communion with our Saviour and our God.—It is so, indeed, only because the congregation statedly meet there. Hence many a church building is called—and well called—a Bethel, a place where God has manifested Himself to His waiting people. Wherever God’s people assemble, in the lowly hut amid savage wilds, in the woods, beneath the open sky, or in dens or caves of the earth, they may, and do, enjoy this communion. But in settled communities there is ever a stated place; and that place must and will be hallowed by the memories of heavenly consecration and fellowship; and it would be felt to be a profanation to use such a place for all ordinary purposes. We do not make vegetable gardens or sow corn on the spots where our loved ones lie buried. These spots are kept sacred to their memory. And shall we not also consider that place as hallowed where first the name of Christ was named upon us—where often in the sacred rite of His own ordinance we have entered into communion with our risen Lord? This is not mere sentimentality. It is a sense of the fitness of things which dictates this feeling.
III. Our places of worship are specially prepared for the purpose of social public prayer and praise.—They are set apart from the distractions of the world. “The loud vociferations of the street” do not enter them; and all the accessories should tend to distract the mind and heart from earth, so that they may be fixed on heavenly things. The art—both in the furnishing and the music—should be fitted to aid the soul in its heavenward flight. Whilst here on earth the senses and feelings and emotions are part of our being; and all must be made to contribute to and not hinder spiritual worship. It is difficult to prevent men going to extremes here—of “baldness” on the one hand, of sensuousness on the other. The remedy is to pray for and to exercise the spirit of true worshippers, who worship the Father “in spirit and in truth.”
John 4:20-24. Worship in spirit and in truth.—The subject brought before us in these verses is true worship—its Object, its universality and spirituality. Whether the whole of the conversation between our Lord and this Samaritan woman is here reported cannot, perhaps, be clearly determined. It may be that as in the conversation with Nicodemus, only the salient points are recorded. At all events, we see this auditor of our Lord led upward from her merely material cares to the loftiest of themes. A revelation is made to her of a higher and more heavenly truth than had ever before been made known to man. Not in the groves of the Academy, not in the School of the Peripatetics, not in the “Painted Porch,” was this revelation made—not in imperial Rome, learned Athens, or cosmopolitan Alexandria; but in an obscure district of Palestine, to a poor Samaritan woman, and therefore to a member of a race despised by the Jews and not much regarded by the Gentiles, was this great truth first spoken, by One despised and rejected of men, a weary traveller seated for rest and refreshment by the rand of Jacob’s well. And yet although the truth then proclaimed in all its fulness for the first time among men appeared so lofty and heavenly, yet now it has been made known it is at once seen to be in accordance with reason and with the higher aspirations of the race. And withal it is so simple that even Christ’s humble, uninstructed listener by Jacob’s well seems to have partly caught and assimilated it—a striking example of how great spiritual truths, hidden from the wise and prudent, are revealed unto babes (Matthew 11:25).
I. The object of true worship.—
1. The true worshippers shall worship the Father. By this endearing word the woman of Sychar, and since then all men, had revealed to them a thought which would set them free for ever from all debasing forms and modes of worship. In His personal relation to men God is the Father. On the throne of universal dominion there is seated not merely almighty Power inscrutable, before whom men must needs bend in dread and awe—not certainly divine wrath merely, frowning down on trembling men, and requiring to be appeased by ever richer offerings, costlier sacrifices, and bloodier rites: on that throne sits the God of love, the Father of Him whom He sent to save the race of men, and in whom, new-born, they can come with holy boldness to that divine throne, and say, “Abba, Father.” This great thought, revealed faintly and dimly to Israel, our Lord made fully known, thus elevating and enlarging the thoughts of men regarding God.
2. God is Spirit. In this word the nature, the eternal personal essence, of the Deity is described. There is no limitation in His being. He is not limited by the bounds of time and space, as we are—not to this moment of the world’s history, in this set place in the universe. Even as thought can live in eternities past or eternities future, so the divine Spirit exists yesterday, to-day, and for ever, unbounded by any limit of space or time. And in this description we are also to realise the idea of absolute freedom. It is just this freedom of will that distinguishes man as a free spiritual being: all else in his nature is under the dominion of the forces of the universe. And thus man is in his nature a complex being—strange and perplexing; on this side swayed by the forces around him, on that choosing freely to act, and conscious of the responsibility resting on him in view of his activity. But God has no limitations on the side of nature, for He is the creator of nature, which lies plastic in His hand. Therefore He is “free personality—the supreme conscience.” He knows, He wills absolutely. “He is distinguished from all His creatures, because by an act of His love He has formed them.” And in His activity “none can stay His hand from working, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” He is therefore absolute freedom, the absolute One. And thus in this conception men escape the idolatry of heathenism, with its gods each limiting the other—from the pantheistic dreams of the one substance, from fatalistic materialism. Yet again, the spiritual being is founded on righteousness and truth. It is even by these qualities of their moral being that men rise to be what they are. Without them, as the guiding principles of life and action, men may become worse than the beasts that perish. And these are the eternal and immutable attributes of the Godhead. “Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.” Indeed, without these qualities there can be no true spirituality, no true freedom. Where righteousness is wanting slavery reigns. “This is the God whom Jesus reveals—infinite and eternal, everywhere present and conscious, Lord and Father, merciful and holy” (Viguié).
II. The true manner of worship: it is to be in “spirit and in truth.”—
1. As are men’s gods so is their worship. According to men’s ideas of the supreme Being the form of their worship will shape itself. The pages of the world’s annals have but to be glanced through to reveal how true this statement is to fact. The cruel Moloch will demand a ritual of cruel, even human sacrifice. And on the other hand a cold monotheistic and rational conception of the Deity (such as that of the Sadducees and Samaritans) will lead to a cold, formal, lifeless worship. And the agnostic, who philosophically, and even with a sense of superiority, postulates an “unknown God,” has either no worship at all, or one so ethereal that it remains unseen.
2. But in this highest act of the spiritual life men can only find true satisfaction when they come to Him whom Christ has revealed as the Father. He is no mere abstraction of the intellect—no mere negation—no mere chimera of the human imagination. He has come near—He has revealed Himself in Christ. “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). And therefore those who become His children approach in holy reverence and boldness, with gratitude and love, “as children to a Father.” Their hearts are drawn toward Him; and the spirits He has created rise into loving and joyful fellowship with the divine Spirit.
3. We are thus to adore Him in spirit. Not now by material sacrifices—not by ritualistic posturings, by ascetic penances, nor by any outward or material means merely, is God truly worshipped; but by the rising of the human spirit toward the divine in prayer and praise and spiritual communing. Nor do the true worshippers come in the spirit of servile fear, or for mere show and pretence, to gain favour in the eyes of men, or ignorantly hoping thereby to purchase favour from God. They rather “offer up to God a sacrifice of praise continually,” etc. (Hebrews 13:15). And yet again, the true worshippers are to worship God in holiness and truth. Indeed, the nearer we approach in spirit and in life to the divine likeness, the more true and spiritual will our worship become. The more we learn and know of God, the more will our worship be in truth. Because worship is not an act we can dissociate altogether from our life in general. We cannot in reality say, as some imagine we can, here lies our secular and there our spiritual sphere. They mingle and unite: we cannot separate them. Men cannot lead unholy lives and still truly worship God. Such acts of worship He counts as “vain oblations” (Isaiah 1:10-18). And thus we see how the new spiritual worship may still be expressed in the old symbolic language. There are sacrifices still; but it is our bodies we are to present “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1). There are lustrations and separations still. “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded” (James 4:8). “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:17). And thus serving Him here we shall rise ever nearer to that perfect scene when in the company of the redeemed we shall “serve Him day and night in His temple” (Revelation 7:15).
III. The place of worship.—
1. Great would be the astonishment of the Samaritan woman and of all who heard for the first time this wonderful saying: “An hour cometh when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father.” Until that hour—unless where faintly adumbrated by psalmist and prophet—no universal worship of the omnipresent God had been thought of. Even in the case of Jehovah, although the inspired teachers of Israel had risen to some true conceptions, to the mass He was the God of Israel whose habitation was in Zion. All the gods of the heathen were more or less localised, and their shrines were the holy places of the peoples.
2. But here in a word Jesus swept away for ever all such childish and idolatrous ideas. By revealing the true nature of God, He at once made plain the true spirit of worship, and the fact that the Most High “dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men’s hands” (Acts 17:24-25). “The only temple in the universe is the body of man” (Novalis). “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 6:19). “Thus saith the high and lofty One,” etc. (Isaiah 57:1-15). This is the true temple of God, and thus worship is universal as humanity—nay, is found wherever there are minds to know and hearts to love. At all times then, and in all places, the spiritually enlightened may offer up an acceptable service to God. No longer in Jerusalem or in Gerizim is God to be worshipped exclusively, but in all places where true worshippers meet sincerely and spiritually to call on God and to praise and glorify His name.
“Where’er they seek Thee Thou art found,
And every place is hallowed ground.”
HOMILETIC NOTES
John 4:9. Jews and Samaritans.—The last words (οὐ γὰρ συγχρῶνται) are a remark made by the Evangelist, for the sake of his Gentile readers who might not know the origin of the Samaritan people (2 Kings 17:24 et seq.). It was a mixture of five nations transported from the East by Esar-haddon to repeople the kingdom of Samaria, whose inhabitants had been removed by Shalmaneser. To the worship of their national gods they joined that of the divinity of the country—Jehovah. After the return of the Babylonish captivity, they offered their services to the Jews in the rebuilding of the temple. Being rejected, they used all their influence with the kings of Persia to hinder the re-establishment of the Jewish people. They built a temple on Mount Gerizim. Their first priest was Manasseh, a Jew who had married a Persian. They were more abhorred by the Jews than the Gentiles were. No Samaritans were received as proselytes (Godet). Indeed, strict Jews were forbidden to have any intercourse with their despised and hated neighbours; and they were even forbidden to eat bread prepared by Samaritans: “He who eats a Samaritan’s bread is as he who eats swine’s flesh.” Generally perhaps the prohibition was directed against all prepared foods, as thus defiled. Fruits and vegetables, uncooked eggs, etc., were not included in the prohibition.
ILLUSTRATIONS
John 4:6. Memories of Jacob’s well.—Let us set ourselves down on the edge of Jacob’s well. The Lord had seated Himself there, weary with His journey. The way had been long, and the midday sun hot. He was athirst. Who would grudge this rest to the Son of man? Shall He not be permitted to breathe restfully in this place, whilst behind Him lies Jerusalem inimical to Him, and before Him Galilee rich in labours, and around Him strangers who still had no part in Him? Might He not, drawn thereto by the many memories clustering about this place, take refuge from the harassed present in the peaceful past? In those pleasant shades did not the figures of ancient times live and move? Jacob digging this well, where so oft the patriarch himself, his household and flocks, refreshed themselves. How he gave the village of Sychar to his beloved Joseph; how Joseph here, earnest and chaste, went in and out, solicitous for his brethren; and how at last the bones of this Israelite, royally exalted and dying highly honoured in a foreign land, were brought hither and entombed. But Jesus did not come to revel in such remembrances, although they were so poetically beautiful, but to advance the kingdom of God. He did not come again to bury the dead, but to awake the dead. He did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister; and that where He asked a gift He might bestow one infinitely richer in return.—Dr. Rudolph Kögel, “Predigt.”
John 4:24. Worship in truth.—Behold worship in truth, perfect worship and eternal, beyond which we can neither imagine nor conceive anything further. It is in truth, as the Saviour said, because it is sincerity itself. There cannot, indeed, be either division or discord between the act and the inner disposition. The disposition is here the act. It is the heart which worships, and has always its part therein. There is no place for hypocrisy. This worship is in truth because it is the perfection, the sublime flight, the culminating point, to which the whole being tends, toward which it pants, and where is seen the vision of God. Such a worship defies time and space; it is independent of everything that is contingent and perishing. It is “worship in truth” to-day, to-morrow, for evermore. It is “worship in truth” on our poor earth; but wherever you can conceive of spiritual beings existing can you imagine for them a worship superior to the worship in spirit?… Luminous spheres which dazzle our gaze, worlds innumerable which sweep through the celestial spaces and overwhelm us by your majesty, say, who are those spirits that people and animate your immensities? In our weakness here below we shall doubtless never know in perfect fashion concerning their nature and the mode of their activity. But we know one thing. They are of God, they have come from the creative hand of the Father all merciful and all holy—they are made in His image. And without doubt, if we judge from a comparison of their glorious habitations with our poor world, this divine image will be less obscured and effaced than among us. Therefore will they love more perfectly than we do, hope more perfectly, and do good. More perfect also will be their adoration, with more devotional ardour, more prayer, more fervour, more holiness. They mount up ever toward the Father, and in this come before us. Yet between them and us, unworthy though we be, there is a glorious bond of union, a spiritual resemblance, the sign and image of the Father; and that is our worship. Thus from sphere to sphere, from eternity to eternity, the same aspirations of the soul have risen and will rise toward God. It is the universal thrill, the immensity of joy, the universal attraction of spiritual beings toward the supreme Spirit—the radiant centre of everything that lives. It is the eternal hosanna, the sublime harmony, that ascends to the Lord from all worlds and from all ages. Let us join our strains to these—it is our glory to do so, our patent of nobility, the mark of our exaltation.—Translated from Viguié.
The heart must be made a temple to God, wherein sacrifices do ascend; but that they may be accepted, it must be purged of idols, nothing left in any corner, though never so secret, to stir the jealousy of our God, who sees through all. Oh happy that heart that is, as Jacob’s house, purged, in which no more idols are to be found, but the holy God dwelling there alone, as in His holy temple!—Leighton.
John 4:26. The joy and fruit of sincere Christian profession.—What good fruit did this conversation bear to the Redeemer, as subsequently men and women came to Him, saw Him and heard Him, prayed Him to remain with them, and then testified that they believed no more simply because of the speech of the woman, but because they had heard Himself! How was His spirit rejoiced by the hope that the fields were white to harvest! how gladly He welcomed His disciples with the prospect that He would send them to reap where they had not sowed! how joyously He beheld the accomplishment of His work, and the whole of the way He had yet to tread! Well, my friends, we too can find in similar fashion the strength and comfort which the Redeemer here found—yes, we also, who need it much more than did the Redeemer—if we will not set it aside through over-anxious forebodings. To us also will joyful hope be given when we openly avow ourselves to like-minded fellowmen. Although truly we cannot cast such a widely extensive glance over all that lies before us, but only on a special portion … yet what we thus see partially is also a field white to the harvest. And the hope must arise in us that God will come, that His throne is already set for judgment, and that the time draws nigh when the Sun of the righteous will shine again with noonday splendour. All that is grand and beautiful after which we sigh can issue only from a union of forces, to which each individual truly can only make a small contribution, but must do this from the heart: and the basis of this union of all the good is love and confidence alone. Therefore in all our intercourse with men let this endeavour lie at the foundation of it—to investigate and put to the test wisely and sincerely where even one seems to be like-minded, whose heart we might influence and strengthen in faith and zeal for the day of the Lord.—Translated from F. Schleiermacher.