BSIDES | JESUS WHERE HE SHOULDN'T BE

THE TEXT - JOHN 4:5-26

So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)

This Samaritan woman is not of good standing in the community, for if she was, she would not come at noon day, the heat of the day.  She would come to the well at customary, cooler times in the day with a group of women. 

Jesus prompts her to reveal her truth when he asks about her husband. And she replies that she does not have a husband. 

She has had 5 husbands.

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 no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”

The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

QUESTIONS FOR GROUP OR HOUSEHOLD REFLECTION

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IF YOU LOOK AT A MAP, SAMARIA IS ON THE WAY BETWEEN JERUSALEM AND GALILEE, WHERE JESUS WAS TRAVELING. BUT SAMARIA IS NOT A PLACE THAT JEWS WANT TO BE.

EVER SINCE THE ISRAELITE JEWS RETURNED FROM EXILE, THERE HAS BEEN HOSTILITY BETWEEN THE JEWS AND THE SAMARITANS.

WHEN ASSYRIA ATTACKED ISRAEL AND EXILED THE JEWS TO BABYLON, THE SAMARITANS SETTLED IN THE CENTRAL REGION OF THAT TERRITORY. NEAR MT. SOMER, FROM WHICH SAMARITANS DRAW THEIR NAME. 

SO WHEN THE ISRAELITES WERE ALLOWED TO RETURN HOME, THEY FOUND THEIR HOME OCCUPIED BY SOMEONE ELSE. AND THE CONFLICTING DEEDS OF WHO OWNED THE LAND CAUSED HOSTILITY FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.

1. The Samaritan woman was isolated from her community because of tragic circumstances.
   How does death and tragedy isolate individuals?
   What can we do to welcome them back to authentic community?
2. Has Jesus ever showed up where he wasn't supposed to be in your life?
   What happened?
3. In what ways do you identify with the Samaritan woman?
4. Where do you need for Jesus to show up right now? 
   Where will you be found if Jesus comes looking for you?