Jan 24 2021 John 4 - Nicodemus Contrasted with the Woman at the Well - Jesus Elevates

Thank You, Lord, for this opportunity to be with You – to worship You – You are our defender. We can’t defend ourselves; we don’t need to defend You – You are the great defender. Our help comes from You. As we go through difficult times, and we know there are those who are going through difficult times in our church – You comfort us in all of our trouble. You come to bring healing, comfort, and encouragement. We ask that we would be able to experience that in our lives.

John 4:1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John-- ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. ⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria.

The people of Samaria were the primary object of first century Jewish racism. They were of the lowest social status, outcasts, impure, and considered immoral.

One problem – they were Jewish relatives – kind of like first cousins once removed!

We are looking at the Woman at the well – and this will take 2 Sundays to go through – this is jam-packed with stuff. We, in this, see the genius of John’s holy spirit-led writing.

They call this an ironic contrast – and it needs to be read in comparison and contrast to the story of Nicodemus –

We will see these as we go through it

Nicodemus is a person of reputation. The Samaritan woman is a woman of ‘reputation’ as well – but the lowest of the lowest class.

Insider/Outsider

Night/High Noon

Nicodemus failed to understand – but the Woman understood and proclaimed it to others.

Nicodemus was a possible seeker – while the woman was a true worshiper

John 4:5

⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

2 big hyperlinks – Genesis 24 – Abraham’s servant who leaves their land to go to the land of Abraham’s relatives to find Isaac’s a wife.

The second is Exodus 2 – flees to Midian and comes to a well and becomes Moses’ wife.

Boy goes on journey – stops for a drink – boy marries girl!

Jesus, tired, sat down by the well.

Jesus’ humanity is as unmistakable as His deity. He got tired – He wept. He is completely human, and completely God.

Then we have this contrast with the Nicodemus story – high noon – the heat of the day. This is significant in the contrast.

Customarily, the women would go out to collect the water from the well.

The normal time to go would be in the morning or evening when it was cool

Also, women would never go alone – first for protection, but also for fellowship. This woman is all alone – and this tells us a lot about her – a woman of bad reputation – no one else would go with her. She couldn’t go at the normal time.

We will see (next week) – she had had FIVE husbands, and the one she was with now was not her husband. The way the story is told, this woman is viewed as an immoral woman.

Even the immoral ‘people’ viewed this woman as immoral.

Jesus, in talking to her – asking questions – would you give me a drink? Is very important in numerous ways – He takes this woman of shame and guilt and lifts her up to a new level of value and worth.

In the gospels, especially Luke and John, Jesus continually elevates the status of women. He is the great equalizer. Read Luke- how often are women the hero of the story? You will be amazed!

And His plan is to life and elevate this woman’s status.

In the gospels, Jesus is continually inviting outsiders to be insiders. How do we do this? How can we elevate the social status of people? As Christians. Ask yourself, - who are the people who need to be elevated. As Jesus is sharing the kingdom of God – or the gospel – it is inseparable from Jesus elevating the social status of a person – the two work hand in hand.

This is about the person’s real life – making it worth something – and many times, He does that first and the salvation follows – look at Zacchaeus. He is hated by His Jewish neighbors.

But Jesus lifts him up in front of all his neighbors – and then his salvation follows.

I think we need to ponder and explore how we can do what Jesus did today – elevate – connect – make inseparable people’s status –

I think the churches who do this will be doing great kingdom work going forward.

How do we do that in our context?

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

There are a lot of layers here – Jesus is going to break down so many barriers – the first – between Jew and Samaritan – then the one between men and women – a Jewish man would not speak to a Samaritan woman. Jesus is continually disrupting the Jewish religion system – in the temple, turning water into wine – and here with this woman.

Religious systems become stagnant and fixed – and need to be disrupted.

The other thing about this question – implied – How can you ask me for a drink? She is thinking – my reputation precedes me…

There is only one reason a Jewish man would talk to a Samaritan woman in the middle of the day – and I’ll let you figure that out…

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

Here is this theme of water again – water into wine, Nicodemus and being born of water – we are gaining a greater understanding of water in the NT

¹¹ "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

She has another question - how can you get water without a bucket?

One of the disciples probably had a bucket – but didn’t leave it with Jesus.

We cannot underestimate the boundaries and traditional morals that Jesus crosses in his interactions with this woman. It would have been deemed inappropriate.

And what he is about to do – to drink from the Samaritan woman’s bucket…

They would not eat off Gentile plates – and Jesus is like, eh, give me that bucket.

For a Jew, to touch something unclean, they would become unclean and have to go through the purification process – and when Jesus touches something unclean – He makes the unclean thing clean.

And that is what Jesus has done with our lives. He touches this woman and makes her whole and clean in this conversation.

She begins to tell her ancestry – she calls Jacob her father. And through Joseph, these people came – and that is how the relationship comes in with the Jews. But again, like Nicodemus who was all about his ancestry – she thinks that her connection to Jacob and Joseph is her salvation.

Jesus enters the circle of the marginalized.

¹³ Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." ¹⁵ The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

So the woman, like Nicodemus, is still thinking physical, when Jesus is talking spiritual.

Nicodemus is an insider, person of high status – and this woman, an outsider and of low status – and to God – that is wholly irrelevant. He doesn’t look at people and put them in places of status or position. No one is more valuable than anyone else.

Now to the practical from this interaction between Jesus and the woman

Jesus is doing ministry – evangelism – from a place of need and a circumstance where He needs help. He has no way of getting water to meet His need – at least from a human perspective. And He recognizes that this is a perfect situation to share the good news.

When Jesus sends the seventy out on their first mission trip – take no money – take no extra cloak – you go to a town and you depend on people! You depend on THEIR service to YOU!

Our tendency is to want to speak from a posture of strength, success, and superiority – but we falsely believe that it makes us more effective in sharing the gospel when we have everything all together and we are in the superior position.

Jesus and Paul both emphasize that ministry is to be done out of need and weakness. The gospel is not a self-help program.

We do it like this – before Jesus – I was a failure and a loser – NOW, I am a great guy, a success, and a winner!

Think of the blind beggar – I was blind and now I see. That is a totally different story to I lost 50 pounds and so can you!

He doesn’t say, I was blind but now I understand how to see.

I was a sinner. I am forgiven.

I was lost – God found me.

I was unlovable – and God loves me.

That is all

IN the gospel, we are not telling people how to lose weight, but how to lose themselves.

Jesus through Middle-Eastern Eyes – by Kenneth Bailey – a great book for seeing Jesus in His context.

Kenneth Bailey: “Jesus was a true servant because He was at the mercy of those whom He came to serve... This weakness of Jesus, we His disciples must share. To serve from a position of power is not true service but beneficence.”

Our tendency is to want to get others dependent on us spiritually – to become their spiritual benefactor – to minister from a place of superiority – and Jesus refuses to do that.

“In our day, a style of mission appears to continue to flow from the developed nation to the developing world that affirms the strength of the giver and the weakness of the receiver.”

That is a powerful statement!

When we went to Honduras – it is so easy to feel like you have something superior to give – and you don’t – you have much to learn.

Mission and ministry through need and weakness is not a technique or strategy – it is born out of deep humility and knowing our own debt to God. The ones who do this well are the ones who understand the debt they owe God.

God the Word – Logos – had no need of anything – until – Phil 2 – He did not regard equality with God something to be grasped but emptied himself – the word became flesh – and as a human – He had human needs.

To minister out of need and weakness starts by having the same mindset in ourselves that was in Jesus – to consider others as more important than ourselves – to lay aside our own rights and privileges – and respect for the outcasts and outsiders – to elevate the social status of others – and to love them enough to have relationships with them.

We need to become wounded healers – to minister out of our wounds – we think we need to be healed before we can help, but we help FROM our wound – FROM our weakness – not from strength, not from power. We can never minister from an attitude of personal superiority.

We know that 2020 was one of the most disruptive years most of us can remember. Disruptive to church in so many ways – and just people’s lives in general.

One thing that must come out of this – Christians have thought way too much about having power and strength in order for the gospel to have influence – and I think we need to go back to ministering from a position of powerlessness.

Lord, teach us that – and the humility of Jesus. You could have just made water flow – but You chose to minister to this woman out of a place of weakness – humility – which can be chosen – not a personality – we choose it when we lay aside our privileges as servants .