Sermon Tone Analysis

"The woman [at the well] said to [Jesus], ‘I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ).

When He comes, He will tell us all things.’

Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’”[1]

God appointed Moses to deliver His people from bondage.

Not surprisingly, Moses was reluctant to accept the daunting task of facing the sole superpower of the day by himself.

Moreover, the reluctant leader expressed grave concern that the Hebrew slaves to whom he was sent would accept him as God’s appointed spokesman.

Therefore, he questioned the Lord God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His Name?’ what shall I say to them” [*Exodus 3:13*]?

It was not an illegitimate question, for it would naturally be expected that Moses would know something about the God whom he claimed had appointed Him.

The people had lived without witnessing the Lord’s might for over 400 years.

The Lord responded to Moses fears by revealing His Name, “I am who I am.”

God expanded on this response by commanding Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you” [*Exodus 3:14*].

God continued by instructing Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’

This is My Name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations” [*Exodus 3:15*].

It is a convention in English that “The Lord,” when spelled with capital letters, represents the Divine Name, YHWH, which is here connected with the Hebrew verb */hayah/*, “to be,” in verse fourteen.

In effect, the True and Living God identifies Himself by His existence.

He is the self-existent One.

It is enough to say, “God is.”

Thus it was that in the days of His flesh when Jesus walked among men, whenever a Jew would hear a reference to “I am,” he would understand that the reference was to the Living God.

In light of this knowledge, it is amazing to discover the number of times Jesus referred to Himself as the Great “I Am,” especially in the Gospel of John.

During the course of the coming year, occasionally as we prepare to observe the ordinance of the Lord’s Table, I propose to look at Jesus, the Great “I Am,” in a fresh light.

Through studying the accounts provided by the John, we will endeavour to discover a fuller understanding of Jesus according to His own estimate.

Today, we want to look at the first reference the Master made to Himself as the Great “I Am.”

In order to fulfil the proposed study for this day, we will need to review the full account of the record of Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well.

She was an outcast, but because she met the Living Saviour her life was transformed and she became a powerful and effective evangelists.

Oh, that each of us were as successful in introducing friends, family and neighbours to life in the Master!

It is a healthy thing for the people of God to renew their understanding of Jesus’ nature.

We become so engrossed in the daily routine associated with life in this world, that we sometimes forget Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

This day, my desire is to focus our attention, if only for a short while, on the Master, recalling who He is and remembering what He is able to do.

It is my purpose to encourage us, especially as we worship Him on this day.

*God, Who Offers Refreshment* — “A woman from Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’

(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’

The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.

Where do you get that living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob?

He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of 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 of water welling up to eternal life.’

The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water’” [*John 4:7-15*].

The account begins in a straightforward fashion with John recounting an incident that was rife with the potential for conflict.

Jesus did not shy from confrontation, but He did not deliberately seek out such confrontation.

John had been thrown into prison, and the Pharisees received a report that Jesus was gaining more disciples than John, which necessitated in their mind the need to examine His credentials.

Their actions could only lead to conflict, and the Master was not yet ready for that confrontation.

Conflict would come soon enough.

Therefore, he led the disciples northward, away from Jerusalem.

I don’t want to leave the impression that Jesus’ move northward was mere expediency; He had a divinely appointed schedule, and He could not jeopardise the appointment toward which He purposefully moved.

His journey would require either that he go west, across the Jordan to avoid Samaria, or that He move directly through the region of Samaria.

Jews avoided the Samaritans, considering them to be lesser beings with a mongrel religion.

The creation of the Samaritan religion began centuries before Jesus’ ministry in Judeah.

The Assyrians employed a policy of resettling conquered populations.

This ensured that conquered nations would remain compliant so they would be incapable of mounting a revolt against the conquerors.

When the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 b.c., the populace was deported and the land was resettled with settlers from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim [see *2 Kings 17:24*].

Those whom the Assyrians placed in Samaria did not worship the Lord God, and thus we read that “the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them” [*2 Kings 17:25*].

The Judean lions certainly got their attention!

When the King of Assyria was notified of the problem of the lions, he commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land” [*2 Kings 17:27*].

His theology of multiple gods over the differing nations led him to view the lions as a religious problem.

In his mind, all that was needed was for a religious leader who knew what the gods of the local territory demanded.

When the priest arrived in Bethel, he taught the people how they should worship the Lord [*1 Kings 17:28*].

However, the people did not forsake their previous practises.

Rather, we read, “But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived.

The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.”

What is especially tragic is the commentary that follows.

“They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places.

So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

“To this day they do according to the former manner.

They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel” [*1 Kings 17:29-34*].

What developed was a syncretic religion designed to placate the Lord without rejecting the old practises.

It is not unlike modern efforts to synthesise religion that permits same-sex marriage and worship of God, or that condones murder of the unborn while assuaging the soul through seeking the God of life.

This misbegotten, adulterated religion was obnoxious and odious to observant Jews.

It was neither fish nor fowl, pig nor pup—though carrying some of the trappings of worship accepted by the Living God, it commingled truth with error to produce a religion which though soothing feelings of guilt did nothing to address mankind’s root problem.

Understanding the genesis of the Samaritan religion, you have some understanding of the horror in the mind of observant Jews whenever they encountered Samaritans.

Time had done nothing to nudge the religious practise of the Samaritans toward the truth.

When this woman came to the well, it is quite likely that she had passed the disciples as they made their way toward town.

It is possible that only moments before she arrived at the well she had even received a taste of Jewish hostility toward Samaritans.

At this stage of their lives, it is doubtful that Peter or the others would have moved off the path for a woman—especially a Samaritan woman.

It is even possible that she had been shoved aside as the body of Galileans had marched pass.

If this is the case, we can readily understand her terseness toward the Master.

Arriving at the well, the woman was startled to hear Jesus ask her for a drink.

This woman had not come earlier when the other women of the village would have met at the well.

Water was required for the household chores; therefore, the women of the village would gather at the well early in the morning to draw water.

This also permitted opportunity to visit for a brief while before their busy days began; but it was now about noon.

This woman came alone.

It was obvious that she either avoided the other women or was unwelcome by them; otherwise, she would have been there much earlier to permit her to visit with the other women of the village.

When Jesus asked for a drink, the woman tartly responded to the polite request, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria” [*John 4:9*].

She touched on two points that should have excluded Jesus speaking with her—she was a Samaritan, and she was a woman.

I have no reason to doubt that her tone was acrid when she responded to His request.

However, the Master did not respond to her provocative tone, turning His request rather to a subject that was of far greater importance to Him and of infinite value for her.

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” [*John 4:10*].

After a rejoinder from the woman, Jesus would continue by noting, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of 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 of water welling up to eternal life” [*John 4:13, 14*].

The woman, not fully understanding what Jesus offered, requested that He give her this water.

“Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water” [*John 4:15*].

It seemed a boon to her, and if she would never again thirst and never again need to come to the well, it was a gift more precious than anything she might otherwise imagine.

She was earthly and not spiritual, but I wonder if we would have responded any better than she did.

You and I know, because we have read the account, that Jesus was offering something other than water that is commonly drunk by thirsty people.

He was offering the Water of Life.

Had she been even casually familiar with the Scriptures, she would have known of the refreshment God offers His people, and how He often refers to that refreshing as though it were water.

Isaiah wrote, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” [*Isaiah 12:3*], anticipating the words Jesus would speak to this woman, and offer to all mankind.