John 4

John 4:1-42

Section 3. (John 4:1-42.)Life in the Spirit. We have now to follow the Lord outside of Judea and even of Galilee, to find more receptive hearts in Samaria than in either of these, and His own heart freer than yet in Israel. A significant time it is, and all the more for its exceptional character, even in John’s Gospel. Samaria, spite of the claim put forth to “our father Jacob,” is really Gentile, though with a tinge of Israelitish blood which was worse than valueless, the fruit of mixed marriages forbidden and abhorred. The woman wonders that a Jew should ask but a drink of water from a Samaritan. Yet the spirit of the Lord, escaping from the oppressive self-righteousness of Jewish Pharisaism, finds room to expand in hostile Samaria; and here it is that He is fed with more than common food, and has before Him a view of whitening harvest-fields which we do not hear of elsewhere. This connects clearly with the Lord’s theme with the woman of Sychar, of living water springing up within the soul, which the evangelist, as we have seen, interprets elsewhere of the Spirit to be received in a new way after Jesus should be glorified (John 7:38-39). Thus we are, in fact, on a line of truth characteristically Christian and Gentile; the Lord looking forward, as is plain, and speaking in the parabolic manner usual with Him in such connection; and yet so as to convey as much as could be conveyed of the blessing with which His heart overflows -of that abundant life which He is come to communicate (John 10:10).

1. (1) The Lord Himself calls and prepares the messenger by whom He is going to reach the men of Sychar. Such a messenger He chooses! But it is not exceptional with Him to take up the beggar from the dunghill, so that, as we know, the publicans and sinners followed Him habitually. But here was one not following, but sought out, -a weary and jaded, not conscience-stricken sinner, whose wakening into life is a story which has wakened how many others! May God in His goodness tell it out once more, so that it may still be fresh in repetition, and some like her be attracted by it yet. How suited that it is in His withdrawal for awhile from the self-righteous legalism of the Pharisees that the Lord comes into Samaria, to sow a new field with the Word of life! He withdraws even, as it would seem, from that baptism of disciples in which He has been rather accrediting John’s testimony than giving voice to His own. John’s voice was now hushed in prison, and his rejection had broken up that partial re-establishment of divine relationship with the people at large which the multitudes flocking around him might seem to have effected. It was gone, that dream of pious hearts in Israel: the shepherd was smitten and the sheep were scattered. And though the Chief Shepherd still remained, the open gathering was for the time given up, save of immediate followers needed for the maintenance and carrying on of the divine testimony, until it could be resumed on other ground. With His back thus turned for the time upon Jerusalem, and His face turned toward Galilee, the place connected, typically at least, with Israel’s restoration in the latter days, the two days, testimony in Samaria comes into its place morally, as a picture of the present interval of divine grace to the Gentiles. We shall find, in fact, when we come to the healing of the nobleman’s son in Capernaum, that we have in this a real foreshadow of Israel’s restoration when this interval is at an end. All is therefore in complete harmony. We find, therefore, the Lord now at Sychar (“purchased”) which took its name from the piece of land purchased by Jacob from the sons of Hamor, and given to Joseph, who was buried there. All that Jacob had purchased, therefore, (though he meant it otherwise,) and all that he could give to his best-loved son, was the place of a grave: a good place in which to speak of another gift and another purchase, free to all who desired and sought it, a spring of life instead of a place of death, and of which Jacob’s spring could be at once the type, and (what all types must be) the instructive contrast also. To this spring, which as we learn directly was not free-flowing but shut up in a well, the Lord came, a wearied man, and sat Him down there. It was the sixth hour, under a noon-tide sun, and there a Samaritan woman came to draw water. She too was weary, as her words presently indicate; alone, as He was alone, but only to make the essential contrast greater: she in the sin that isolates necessarily, shamefully, condemningly; He in the unique glory of His Person, of His quest, of His estrangement from the spirit of a world, in which were yet the objects that in love He sought. They were at opposite extremes, -in opposite paths, -and yet they met; not of her will or care, nor knew she what was before her; on His part, of the love which had in it its own necessity: “He must needs pass through Samaria.” Samaria had its name from the city which was its capital, “conservative,” as it may be freely rendered, but in the interests of division. Alas, this went much further than they knew, and was but the expression of a deeper alienation, which could be healed only by Him who should cast Himself into the breach of human revolt from God, and bring back from it. “Give Me to drink” is here the first word of reconciliation, to the woman’s wonder. “How dost Thou, being a Jew, ask drink of me, who am a woman of Samaria?” At once He brings before her God whom she knew not, and Himself in some way identified with the “gift of God” of which He speaks. Had she known, she would have taken the place of the needy one, which she truly was, and have sought of Him as having power and grace. He would not have refused her: He would have given her living water. She does not understand, and His words are veiled as yet, for the water of such a springing well as that by which they were was in common phraseology “living” water. But this from Him in some mysterious way, with no visible means of drawing from that deep well, but as a “gift of God” telling out Him she had not known, in a way how different from her imaginings. The evident intention in all this, however much the terms may be discussed, is to make God in His love shine into her darkened soul, and to draw her by that love to Himself as the representative of God there for need on her part. Her wonder rises, and her eyes are fixed upon Him. She would learn from Himself, who is He? greater than her father Jacob, as it would seem, who himself depended with all his household upon this well alone! And still He draws her on, as He speaks now of the gift that He will give, not such water as she is thinking of; from the well there: “Every one who drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall thirst no more for ever; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a spring of water springing up unto eternal life.” A marvellous advance, and a great miracle surely. Eternal life she knows in some sense. It is not a mere endless condition, but the life of the blessed. And this water, a perennial spring of refreshment within the man himself, springs up to eternal life! How her eyes would brighten and enlarge and fix themselves upon the wondrous Speaker! And yet she seems still to have grasped how little of that of which He is speaking: “Sir,” she says, “give me this water, that I thirst not, nor come hither to draw.” Dull she is, indeed; and little, we may think, has been gained so far. After all, she is thinking still of bodily thirst and of literal water. Yet instructive it is to see the Lord’s way of dealing with such an one. The enigmatic language, -common indeed among the children of the East, yet evidently misunderstood, and left at last without such explanation as (it would be natural to say) a soul like this would require: it is plain that it is not so much the mind as it is the heart at which He is aiming; grace and truth are found in it all, and in this order: both together, and yet grace leading and characterizing; dealing with the heart even before the conscience, which is never indeed forgotten, yet never attacked. How different the manner in all this from that with Nicodemus, a man with so many things in his favor compared with the woman here, and yet with whom the appeal to the conscience is so earnest, so immediate, so seemingly abrupt. Yet after all, the underlying principle is the same, and the very thing which at first seems against Nicodemus is, in reality, in his favor. The woman had yet to be drawn; the teacher of Israel with all his Pharisaism and stiff prejudice, was yet already drawn: the latter could bear to have the conscience searched as the other at first could not. Another thing, however, to be taken into account is just this Pharisaism of the one, while the other, though her conscience needed also to be wakened by the truth, had no false refuge under which to hide itself, and which had to be torn away. Here the advantage was on the side of the woman, the evil of whose life made it a simpler thing to turn away from it all than it was for Nicodemus with his pseudo-saintly one. Hence the one comes quickly into blessing; the other struggles and is held back. But let us look now, apart from all question of the dealing with the woman’s soul, at the truth which is brought before us here. The living water is interpreted for us in the seventh chapter as spoken of “the Spirit which they that believed on Him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” We have, of course, no reason to interpret the same figure differently here from there: so that the living water speaks of the Holy Spirit as come down from heaven, the characteristic of the present or Church-period. The Lord therefore is anticipating a then future time, and hence, no doubt, we find a certain reserve as to the way in which it is spoken of, the veil being more lifted as the time of the fulfilment draws nearer. The figure combines what in the statement as to new birth we had separately, the water and the Spirit. The water as the Word is that through which the Spirit of God works, and the Spirit is thus the life of the Word. The figure of the “spring” gives additional force to this, and especially with the addition “springing up.” Power, freshness continually maintained, are in the spring; and the spring springs up -or “leaps,” a strong expression -“unto eternal life.” What is the connection here between the spring -the Spirit of God in the believer -and the life? It is not surely merely an endless flow that is intended by the expression. Nor is it that the presence of the Spirit of God in the believer is needed for the commencement of life in the soul. Unhappily there is a lack of knowledge among Christians as to the true character of that gift of the Spirit which is characteristic of Christianity. We shall have it all fully brought out by the Lord Himself in His closing words to His disciples in the present Gospel. Here all this is anticipated, as already said, in these pregnant figures; and we must therefore anticipate what is there said, sufficiently to understand what is here before us.

It should take little to convince us that the gift of the Spirit, that indwelling which the Lord promises His disciples there (John 14:17) -“He shall be in you,” -did not precede life in their case, nor bring it by this personal indwelling, but followed it. They were already in possession of life when the Lord promised this, and of eternal life, for there is no other spiritual life: it is eternal life or no life (see John 6:53-54). He declares also that it is eternal life to know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He had sent (John 17:3), that He had manifested the Father’s name to them, and they had received His words, and believed that the Father had sent Him (6, 8). Thus they had eternal life already, when this promise was given. It could not be for them the result of a gift which was to come afterwards. The indwelling of the Spirit necessarily supposes a house in which He could dwell; and it is not until new birth that such a house is formed. Christ received by the soul must be the foundation of it; and where Christ is, the Spirit of Christ can be. He witnesses to Christ, and thus the living waters begin to rise up in the soul, which shall henceforth be its perpetual satisfaction. But how then “unto eternal life”? The water (the Word) and the Spirit have united to produce the life already. The gushing spring of living water has the same elements. The life is in the water; the Spirit is in the Word; but now it is the Spirit personally present, the Divine Witness Himself in permanence. Here all figures must fail to express the fulness of the blessing, infinite as the glorious Person. But it is plain that if eternal life is the product of the Word through the Spirit in the soul, then the satisfying fulness now must be in result to produce the abundance of the life itself in practical experience and power: the spring leaps up unto eternal life.

Here eternal life is an experience, an application of “life” which we are all accustomed to distinguish from “life” as vital power, -the life we live from the life by which we live. But this is eternal life; and, as another has said, “to be complete, it must pour itself into the objective eternity: the eternal rests not till it comes to eternity.” After all, as interpreted by experience, the promise may seem too large. “Shall thirst no more for ever”: what an assurance this is! But how little oftentimes does it seem to justify itself in actual realization. Here comes in the sad reminder for us of how we with our unbelief limit the glorious largeness of the divine promises, and often seem bent upon making falsehood of eternal Truth. Christ speaks according to the fulness of the gift bestowed. As to our enjoyment of it, it is always conditional upon the way in which faith entertains it. We are not to “grieve the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.” But Christ is not going to draw in, in His picture of the Christian, things which are only blots and disfigurements.

Alas for the unchristianity of Christians! but the shame of it is all our own. Eternal life is in us derived and dependent, needing the constant ministry of divine grace to maintain it in its manifestation in us, to develop and perfect it according to God. The full perfection of it is set before us to provoke our longing after it, and the boldness of faith to claim it from God. We are not to expect that it will be realized without the activity of faith and the diligent use of what God has given us as means to its attainment. (2) Let us go back now to the woman. Attracted, wondering, faith in this mysterious Speaker beginning to awaken in her soul, she asks for this gift, pledged to her for the asking. “Sir,” she says, “give me this water, that I thirst not, nor come hither to draw.” She asks, but indeed knows not the gift of God, nor who it is that says to her, “Give Me to drink.” But divine grace that is at work with her will not leave her thus, nor despise the day of small things which is nevertheless that work begun. Her heart is touched, desire awakened, her soul turning towards God; now she must have her conscience reached, that she may realize what her need is and find the satisfaction of it. But with what a gentle hand does He touch the sore that He is going to heal! the worse the sore the more gentle must be the handling. As if He would have her but bring another to share the gift for which she has asked, He says, “Go call thy husband and come hither.” At once her life is bare before her. She shrinks and would cover it: “I have no husband.” True, He says: I know it: “thou hast well said, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.” So it is out. Put into few brief words, no lingering upon it, no upbraiding with it, there it yet lies before her in the light, never to be covered up again. He knows it, has known it, knew it when approaching her at first He had told her of God as she had never known Him. Now it is out, it seems like a confession He has made for her who had not courage to make it for herself. Said plainly indeed, yet not severely, but gently, pitifully, the words are like a pleading for her, a revelation of Himself. Is she not glad to be with Him upon these terms? nothing kept back, as indeed nothing could be kept back, from Him? (3) “Sir,” she says, “I perceive that Thou art a prophet:” that is her seal set to the truth of His words; and then, with that desire which He has awakened, to be (as even she, it seems, may be,) with God -therefore to be right with God, to approach Him in His own way, she puts the question of questions for a Samaritan: Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that Jerusalem is the place where one must needs worship." It surely is not a putting off from her the first question of her sins. Had He not, with full knowledge of them, yet encouraged her to seek from God that gift of His, which she could see better now that He as the representative of God could offer to her? And in drawing near to God was there not a provision for sin, of His own establishment? Little she knew about the meaning of that yet. Little, as yet, did His own disciples know, even though the Baptist had pointed to the “Lamb of God.” Was there not, however, in her heart something beginning which could make her better understand about that spring within the heart, of living water? And here was One who could resolve her doubts, and give her questions a divine answer!

He does; but in a way how different from her expectations, when He sets aside both Gerizim and Jerusalem! To her the poor Samaritan, He makes known what those in closest companionship with Himself were as yet not prepared for. Yet He does not leave the question of Samaritan worship unsettled either; rather it assumes a more serious character: but first He tells her of the transcendent hour at hand which should abolish all outside worship and let men into the sanctuary of God, as children to worship the Father. What a revelation to this woman of shameful life, to whom just a moment before that life had been shown out without a remnant of a veil to hide it! Yet who among the mere children of men was better fitted than she, upon any title in himself, to draw near? And, if God were showing grace, to whom rather than to such as she would that grace manifest itself in more glory? And now it was the Father seeking worshippers. Could it be kept back, the spring of happiness which in her also was beginning to well up, interpreting that former perplexing figure, and already seeking outflow? True, she had worshipped she knew not what; coldly, indifferently, or with spasms of dread in the gloom of the supernatural. And all the while in Israel, though even there the mass might know it as little as she, was the river of salvation. “Salvation” was “of the Jews”: a stream which as yet indeed ran low and narrow between its banks, which the lowly and the thirsty alone knew of, but which was there: soon to burst forth in copious refreshment; salvation, by which men came to know God! And the hour was coming, and now was, -how that announcement must have woke the echoes in her heart! -when the true worshippers (not righteous, not self-approved, yet true) -when the true Worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father was seeking such to worship Him in the only way in which God, as a Spirit, could be acceptably worshipped. Yes, she knew it, or, at least, approved it as He spake it, but too wonderful it seemed; the rush of many thoughts too great. Then as she yet believed not for joy and wondered, the cry arose in her heart for the full Interpreter of all, Messias! was He at hand? Then indeed would all perplexity be ended, all anxiety at rest: “when He is come,” she says, “He will tell us all things.” And He who saw divinely all her heart, as He had seen her life, -seen the craving of her heart, seeking the good that came not, saw His work was done. For her there was but one satisfying good remaining: One for whom now the joy that had arisen in her soul waited as its justification, whom the expected longing of her heart forewitnessed as at hand: Messias, the Christ. There was but one thing more to do: and with His own heart full (as presently He bears witness that it is) yet with the quiet of that supreme contentment in His words, He completes her blessedness: — “I that speak to thee am HE.” Thus is the living water reached for her, if not yet the Spirit of God had come to be the indwelling Spring of it within her. Doctrinally, the connection of the whole is plain; as indeed the Lord’s words carry us on to the day of an opened sanctuary and of Christian worship. Without this the fulness of life in the Spirit could not be expressed, the living water could not spring up. We see clearly also how anticipative, how Christian, in the truth contained in it, the Gospel of John is. We shall notice this more and more as we go on in it. 2. The stream of blessing widens: the woman becomes the messenger of Christ, to tell out in the city the blessedness she has received. The Man who had told her all things that she ever did is One to whom she can freely invite others. She has left her water-pot behind to carry the news of living water; and her tale procures many listeners who come out of the city to find the One who has lighted up with His love this heart so dark. Meanwhile His disciples have come back from the city, where they had gone to buy provisions, and find Him refreshed and independent of the food. In answer to their astonishment, He tells them that His food is to do the will of Him that sent Him and to finish His work. And then He speaks to them of fields that He sees already ripening to a spiritual harvest, and of the common joy of sower and of reaper. In fact, they were to enter into the labors of previous generations, of the prophets who had prepared the way for them, Himself above all the unwearied Worker for the salvation of men. Israel might reject Him, and His labor seem vain in this respect, but here, outside of Israel, He sees the incoming of the Gentiles, while the tardy fields of Judea yet showed no sign. Of this the Samaritans here are now the first-fruits, and there follow two days of fruitful testimony, in which at their solicitation He abides with them; many believing through the woman’s witness to Him, and yet more through His own word; while their faith owns Him as the Saviour, not of Israel only, but of the world. All this shows plainly what is foreshadowed here.

John 4:43-54

Section 4. (John 4:43-54)Israel’s need bared and met with mercy. But John, while he shows us characteristically a Christ outside of Judaism, and the precious truths which are now enjoyed in Christianity, always reminds us that God has not given up His purposes as to Israel, which are delayed but not forfeited by their unbelief. We have seen this in the first division of the book, in the miracle at Cana, where the delay of blessing in their case is accounted for, but as soon as the empty forms of purification are made real (the water fills the water-pots), then the wine, the good wine, is found in them. Now the Lord is found at Cana again, having left the white fields of Samaria for Galilee, and another miracle is wrought, though the subject of it is at Capernaum, not Cana. Judea has rejected Him, but Galilee seems ready to receive Him, and now in the courtier who comes to Him at Cana we find a plain picture of Israel, courtier of the world as she has long been. His condition, as the Lord characterizes it, is just what hers has been: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” But he is in need: his son at the point of death in Capernaum, the city of lost opportunities, to be brought down to hades for its rejection of Christ; death facing him, he turns to Christ as his only hope, and finds the gracious answer of peace and deliverance: “Go, thy son liveth.” He believes, departs, and finds it as the Lord has said to him. His son is raised up, and his whole house is brought to faith with him. It is a simple story; and thus will Israel in her extremity be brought to God. Capernaum will come to Cana, the “village of consolation” be restored to its name upon the ground of “purchase,” Christ manifesting forth His glory. And the time is not far distant now. This rounds off to a complete end, as is evident, the first subdivision of this central portion of the book.