As well water is a symbol of either life or death - running water such as rivers or natural springs signify health, purity, spiritual interaction with man (libations, baptism etc.), while stagnant pools of water are both physically dangerous and spiritually symbolic of death.
Text / John 4:1-30 Living Water
At the end of her conversation with Jesus the Samaritan woman left her water jar behind as she went to share the Living Water with her community. This is a great ending to a strange interaction. I wonder how man of us leave behind our old buckets after meeting the Creator.
So what do we take away from this idea of Living Water? Teacher Gary DeLashmutt notes 4 points:
- Living Water is Essential for spiritual life: this Living Water is symbolic of Gods Holy Spirit indwelling our own bodies to know Him.
- Living Water is Available in Abundance:
- phrear :11 - physical, man-made well or shaft
- pege :14 - fountain or well, associated with spiritual depths
- Jesus is the Source of Living Water: He alone has authority to dispense the Holy Spirit.
- Living Water is a Gift: whoever asks receives, not earned but given.
Later on in chapter 7 we see Jesus calling out to the masses at the closing of the Feast of Tabernacles, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."
So thousands of people are crowded around the ritualistic procession of the Priests carrying a pitcher of water from the Pool of Siloam back to the altar as an offering to the Lord. Tradition. Physical symbolism. Familiarity. Holy Ritualism. And Jesus calling it an absolute waste of time. Jesus claiming that only HE can offer such forgiving and living water.
Jesus, a Jewish Rabbi, alone, speaking with a woman, a Samaritan woman, a woman living a lifestyle against Gods design - this is an interaction between God and man that now, through Christ, happens to each one of us. God directly and graciously personally connecting with us in our sin with a desire to pull our hearts and minds back to Him and away from our relationships with people and things that will never bring Living Water.
Text / John 4:19-26 Place of Worship
Location, location, location! It's just as important in the Spiritual world as it is in the physical. However, Jesus blows our understanding of this out of the water.
Historical Background on Mt. Gerazim: After the Assyrians took over the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722bce they brought in various cultures and religions to populate the area. In the 4th century bce, Manasseh, the high priest in Jerusalem, was challenged to divorce his foreign wife or be expelled. Sanballat the Samaritan leader and father of Nikaso, Manasseh's wife, promised the high priest his own temple of the lord, land and power if he would only remain with Nikaso. Manasseh agreed.
Side Note: Both Manasseh and the Samaritan woman Jesus interacted with were placing higher regard on physical fulfillment in their intimate relationships than on their Lord and Creators desire, design and Glory. Somethings in the human condition don't change right? How often do you put sex, money, longings, desires, personal fulfillment and self-esteem before the call of Jesus?
By the time Jesus arrived to meet the woman at the well the temple on Mt. Gerazim had been destroyed by the Jews over 100 years before. The rift between the Jews and Samaritans went pretty deep I would say.
Jesus wasn't worried about rifts. Jesus wasn't interested in temples.
"A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth...God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth." 4:23-24
spirit - pneuma: principle life-giving source, contrasted with the body, symbolic of the heart: the seat of emotion and affection, more than physical action or rite.
truth - aletheia: reality, fact, actual state of affairs - symbolic of the opposite of darkness, evil, partial knowledge in the shadows.
Jesus is beginning to proclaim the drastic change in mans understanding of worship. We naturally desire an object, a location, a ritual, a rite of passage or worthy activity...And here Jesus is proclaiming that the only worthy act of worship is to believe with our hearts, in the depth of a renewed spirit by The Spirit and in actual, knowable truth, specifically Truth about this Living Water in Himself, the Savior and Reconcillor to God the Father!
What does this mean?
You and I no longer have to wait to worship God on a mountain or in a temple or around the mouth of a volcano tossing cows and wild boars into in order to appease his anger.
Nope. We worship God through worshipping Christ and just where you are in spirit and in truth. In genuine heart adoration and knowledge of the truth in our minds.
Challenge /
Have you taken a sip of this Living Water? Have your, like Nicodemus in chapter 3, been born again? This isn't a catch phrase form hippy Jesus movements. This isn't cultish ritualism. This is actual and honest engagement with the God of the Universe on His terms and for your sake.
What personal, traditional, religious, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual temples do you need to tear down in order to actually, intimately, spiritually connect with God? What Truths in Scripture do you need to unpack and build life upon in order to worship Jesus as He has designed?
Come to Him with a pleading heart in the manner of the Official who sought Jesus' presence for his sons healing (4:43-54) but come with the knowledge that Jesus can heal even apart from His physical presence. He is active here and now in ways we cannot yet see.
Mt Gerazim notes from Archaeological Study Bible
Comments on the role of water from The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion