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John 4:16–22
“Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews’ ” (vv. 21–22).
John’s gospel makes it clear that many different kinds of people were attracted to or at least intrigued by Jesus during His earthly ministry. We have already contrasted Nicodemus, a respected spiritual leader, and the Samaritan woman, a social outcast (John 3:1–15; 4:1–26). But despite their many differences, Nicodemus and the woman had one key thing in common: both of them needed spiritual rebirth. And just as Nicodemus did not understand Jesus’ teaching on this subject at first, the Samaritan woman also was perplexed by our Lord’s instruction. She thought Jesus was offering her an abundance of physical water such that she would never have to visit the well in Sychar again (4:7–15).
The woman’s misunderstanding explains why Jesus changed the subject with her, as we see in today’s passage (vv. 16–18). She could not understand the spiritual nature of the water Jesus offered unless she first saw her desperate need of soul renewal, so Jesus directed the conversation to her sin. Our Lord asked her about her husband, drawing from her a confession that she had no husband, and then He displayed supernatural insight into her sordid past. The Samaritan woman was living with a man who was not her husband after having had five husbands who had died or had divorced her. On the surface, her comment that she had no husband was correct, but it hid the fact that she was living in sin. Jesus, being God incarnate, exposed her sin to draw her attention to her need of the Savior.
On account of Jesus’ divine insight, the woman recognized that Jesus was more than a mere man. At the very least, He was a prophet (v. 19). And this prompted her to change the subject. Jesus was a Jew, and the Jews worshiped God on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The Samaritans, however, worshiped on Mount Gerizim, near where Jesus met with the woman, because they held to a corrupted version of the Old Testament religion and accepted only Genesis–Deuteronomy, with alterations, as Scripture (v. 20). The woman probably brought up that theological debate to divert Jesus’ attention from her sin.
Jesus did not engage the woman in debate, though He acknowledged the correctness of the Jews’ position by reminding her that salvation comes from the Jewish people (because the Savior is Jewish. Yet, however correct the Jews were on the place of worship under the old covenant, a new order was breaking in and even worship itself would be changed (vv. 21–22).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman is instructive for our own evangelistic encounters. People will not see their need for the Savior if we do not talk about sin. When we preach the gospel, we must set forth Christ as the answer to our estrangement from God, not as an add-on whose only purpose is to make our life better in the here and now.
For Further Study
- Isaiah 1:27; 66:22–23
- Malachi 1:11
- Acts 10
- Romans 12:1