THE LESSON IN ART. On the woman of Samaria see character sketches in Wharton's Famous Clement's Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, by Women of the New Testament. Doré,* Hofmann,* Biliverti.* THE TEACHER'S LIBRARY. Dr. J. R. Miller's Devotional Hours with the Bible on John, is beautifully suggestive. Whyte's Walk, Conversation, and Character of Christ is full of insight. Dr. Beardslee's chapter, Winning an Alien Life," in Teacher Training with the Master Teacher, is very suggestive. 66 The Handbook of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew is full of suggestions concerning Wayside Ministries. President Henry Churchill's The Seeming Unreality of the Spiritual Life has many helpful suggestions. Heroines of the Bible in Art, with pictures. Brown's Nameless Women of the Bible. The relations of the Samaritans to the Jews are graphically described in H. C. Trumbull's Studies in Oriental Social Life. Trench's chapter on this subject, in his Studies in the Gospels, is extremely interesting. Macduff's Noontide at Sychar also contains much that is excellent and suggestive. On Sychar, see Thomson's Land and Book, II., 206; and Geo. Adam Smith's Historical Geography (pp. 333, 334, 365375), and Sanday's Sacred Sites of the Gospels. I. JESUS CLOSES FOR A TIME HIS MINISTRY OF ABOUT A YEAR IN JUDEA, vs. 1-3. The larger part of the first year of his ministry Jesus spent in Judea. It was now winter. He had been so successful in gaining disciples, chiefly from those John had taught and prepared, that his disciples increased faster than those of John, who himself had said, "He must increase, but I must decrease." This was the fruit and proof of John's success. What seemed a failure, to John's special friends, that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (the baptism being performed by his disciples, and not by Jesus, for several wise reasons), was the successful accomplishment of the work he was given to do. The nobility of John was shown in that he was willing that "Others shall sing the song, Others shall right the wrong, And all I fail to win. "What matter, I or they? Mine or another's day, Whittier. The reason why Jesus did not himself baptize, was doubtless the same that, in a less degree, made Paul refuse to baptize the converts in the churches he founded (1 Cor. 1:13-16), because it would create a division among the members. There were several reasons why it was wisest and best for Jesus to change the scene of his labors. 1. The Pharisees took occasion to try to foment a quarrel between John's disciples who remained with him, and the disciples who went farther and accepted Jesus as Saviour and Teacher. The effect would be very bad. 2. The Pharisees discovered the popularity of Jesus, and did everything they could to oppose him. Jesus was not the kind of Messiah they expected or wanted. He stood squarely against many of their ways and opinions and deeds. This aroused bitter opposition. Their prejudices were almost insuperable. Their ideas and offices, and honors and leadership, and wealth and influence, were all contrary to the work of Jesus. 3. Jesus left Jerusalem because his miracles were attracting the wrong kind of people, and creating a misconception of the nature of his kingdom.". Professor Dods in Expositor's Bible. 4. Jesus was aware that the eye of the Sanhedrin was bent keenly upon him. He knew that his own doctrine was to be tenfold more revolutionary than that of the Baptist, and that his immediate arrest would follow if he remained in Judea." Sears' The Heart of Christ. 5. Galilee, whither Jesus was going, was by far the best scene of labor for gaining disciples, because of the character of the people, and because Jesus and the twelve, all but one of them, were Galileans, familiar with their characteristics. "Besides the natural bodily vigor, and mental freshness of these highlanders, the most important difference between them and the people of Judea lay in the different attitude in daily life toward the larger world of the Roman empire, and Hellenistic influences. . . . All were brought into daily contact with Greek and Roman modes 5. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. of life and thought. It was to this people of larger experience of life and broader ways of thinking that Jesus appealed in the greater part of his earthly ministry, and from it that he chose the men who were first to make his message known to the world." Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels. Jesus spent about a year and nine months in his Galilean ministry, with occasional visits to Judea and Jerusalem. II. JESUS RESTING BY JACOB'S WELL, vs. 4-6. When Jesus left Judea for Galilee, he must needs go through Samaria, for there were only two main thorough MT. GERIZIM JACOB'S WELL FROM JERUSALEM. fares; one on the east of the Jordan a long way around, the other through Samaria, three great Roman roads from Judea coming together near Jacob's well. "But we may well believe that there was another 'must needs' for his passing that way there was this woman at Samaria who needed him. It was worth while to go a long distance out of his way to carry the water of life to a thirsty soul. Had he not gone through Samaria, this wonderful chapter in John's Gospel would never have been written. There are no chance meetings in this world." -J. R. Miller, D.D. TO THE JORDAN. 5. Then he cometh to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar. Sanday's Sacred Sites of the Gospels gives us a map and description of this small region made notable by Jesus' conversation with the woman of Samaria. Jacob's well, as shown by the accompanying map, was situated just north of the junction of the road from Jerusalem with the road from the ford of the Jordan. It was on the outskirts of the small city of Sychar, the modern Al Askar which is about half a mile N. E. of the well, on the road to the Sea of Galilee. Starting again at Jacob's well, and going N. w. on the road toward Nazareth about a mile, we come to the ancient Shechem, where many springs abound. That Jacob gave to his son Joseph. (See Gen. 33 : 18–20; 48: 22.) "Few places in Palestine, after Jerusalem, have had so much of Bible history connected with them." (See Gen. 12:6; 37: 12; Josh. 8:33; 20:7; 24: 1; 24: 32; Acts 7: 16; 1 Kings 121; 12: 25.) (Distance from Jacob's Well to Sycharmile.) Jacob's well was originally about 100 feet deep and seven and a half feet in diameter; but it has been filled up with accumulations of rubbish, so that it is now about 75 feet deep. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey. He had been travelling on foot from Judea, a long, hard day's journey. "Christ wearied in his work but not of his work." "Sat thus on (by) the well, or on the low wall built around the Schaff. well." And it was about the sixth hour, noon according to the Jewish reckoning, or six o'clock in the evening according to a common Roman reckoning, which John might use at Ephesus where this Gospel was written. Jesus Being Wearied with His Journey. "There is a certain comfort in knowing that Jesus was weary, that He grew tired as His work pressed Him, that He felt the need of rest and longed for it. It sometimes seems as if we ought to feel stronger than we do, and as if we were to blame for not being able to bear up without giving way to weariness. But if Jesus felt weariness in His life-work, and yielded to it without sinning, we also are entitled to be tired and to take rest, as a part of our likeness to Christ." H. C. Trumbull. Weary in, Not Weary of. George Whitefield, as he was going out to preach in Exeter, N. H., the sermon which proved his last, being "more fit to go to bed than ་ 7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. to preach," looked up and said, " Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not weary of it." Note as we go on in the story how, when the opportunity came to help the Samaritan woman, all his bodily weariness left him, and he grew rested in spirit by his enthusiasm to help one who needed his help. I have meat to eat that ye know not of, v. 32. "There is a remarkable physiological power of what is called interest to resist either bodily exhaustion or decay. If a man expended the same amount of muscular exertion in sawing wood which he does climbing rocks or wading streams after trout, he would faint dead away." - Prof. W. H. Thomson in Brain and Personality. Wayside Ministries. Jesus was always ready for good work in season and out of season. Many of our best opportunities come to us at unusual and irregular times, as mere incidents in our regular duties. "That best portion of a good man's life, his little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love." III. JESUS HOLDS A CONVERSATION WITH A WOMAN OF SAMARIA, CONCERNING THE WATER OF EVERLASTING LIFE, vs. 7-14. 7. While the disciples had gone away to Sychar to purchase some food for their journey (v. 8), and Jesus was left alone sitting by the well, there cometh a woman of Samaria, belonging to the city of Sychar, to draw water. There arises the question why this woman should come at noon to draw water, since the usual times were morning and evening. The fact that she came alone, and not with women who usually gather there in the evening is explained by Dr. Trumbull in his Studies in Oriental Social Life. The woman did not come from the city, but from the fields. "This was the well of the cornfields, dug there for the express purpose of providing water for those employed in the sowing and the reaping of those fields. Women were often engaged in the labor of the fields, or in ministry to laborers there, and this Samaritan woman seems to have been so employed. Commonly, the women drew water for the men." Thus Jesus had a better opportunity of reaching her heart than would have been possible with a crowd. (It is possible, however, that the "sixth hour means six o'clock in the evening, Roman time.) Again the question arises why she and others came there at all to draw water, since there are numerous springs of water much nearer home. It was because these numerous springs are, from the nature of the soil, mostly of very hard water, very heavy,' as the natives express it. They not unjustly attribute many of their complaints to this cause, and speak with longing of the light' waters of Gaza and various other places. Now Jacob's well has a reputation amongst them of containing cool, palatable, and refreshing water, free from the deleterious qualities of their other supplies of water." - Dr. Henry Bailey, in The Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. He had no means of obtaining the water for himself. Jesus asked for water because he needed it, but he used the request as a means of preparing the way for his teaching. A useless request would have defeated his purpose. "It was an act full of the nicest tact, and exhibiting perfect knowledge of the human mind." It was not a costly gift Jesus asked for, but one that would naturally be given. The Syriac Codex implies that Jesus rose and stood to meet politely the standing woman, and this standing was one thing that caused his disciples to marvel. See Macmillan's Gleanings from Holy Fields. She asks in surprise and perhaps pleasure, How is it that thou, being a Jew, etc. She recognized him as a Jew either by his speech or his dress. For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans, a remark thrown in by the writer to give the reason for her surprise. They have no dealings of friendly intercourse. "This ill-will, however, did not extend beyond familiar intercourse; for in such matters as buying and selling, intercourse was allowed." C. C. Tittmann. Compare the strange, un 10. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. II. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? and 12. Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again : 14. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. christian feeling toward the Jews so universal in the Middle Ages. See Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. It would not be easy to find in modern times a more difficult position as to race, social conditions, and religious intolerance than that which Jesus held at this time. He wished to gain the Jews to his cause, and yet to converse with this woman and with the Samaritans would excite their prejudices against him. But he went straight forward in the path of duty, leaving the consequences with God. 10. If thou knewest the gift of God. There were two gifts which the woman did not know the gift of living water, and the presence of the Messiah. "The pathos of the situation strikes Jesus. The woman stands on the brink of the greatest possibilities, but is unconscious of them." Exp. Greek Test. THOU Wouldest have asked of HIM, and he would have given thee living water. "That is, perennial, springing from an unfailing source (Gen. 26 : 19), ever flowing (Lev. 14: 5)" (Westcott), bringing life, refreshing. No II. Sir. The woman did not understand him. Nothing to draw with. leather bucket, a skin with three cross-sticks at the mouth to keep it open, and let down by a goat's-hair rope. Not to be confounded with the water-pot she carried (v. 28)." — M. R. Vincent. "Unconsciously she gives utterance to a spiritual truth the water of life beyond our reach, but the rope of faith long enough to reach it." Rev. William Mowatt, M.A. 12. Art thou greater than our father Jacob. Can you dig a better well, or find sweeter water? Isah 12-3 13. Jesus replies by contrasting the two kinds of water. THE WATER OF JACOB'S WELL FOR THE BODY. THE WATER OF LIFE FOR THE THIRSTY SOUL. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. This water satisfies only bodily thirst, and for brief periods a type of all worldly supplies for the deeper thirst of the soul. The worldly life is full of bodily and mental thirsts, for pleasure, wealth, power, ease, physical satisfactions, ambitions. These are not wrong, but without something more they leave us to thirst again. Even the common bodily appetites are but partially satisfied without the spiritual and the heavenly. They must be transfigured to be perfect. For God has not created a single human soul so small and poor that all the material universe can fill it. Literature is full of expressions of the failure of merely worldly things to satisfy the soul. Seeking satisfaction in this world is like trying to quench one's thirst by drinking the salt waters of the sea. The more we drink, the thirstier we are. We are "... dropping buckets into empty wells Solomon tried all that the world can give and under the most favorable circumstances, yet found all to be vanity and vexation of spirit. Compare Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, who finds" Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink." 14. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; never suffer the pangs of thirst, because the water that I shall give him shall be (Am. R., " become ") in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. On another occasion (John 7: 39) when Jesus had spoken the same truth, it is added, This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive. "The words in dicate that the believer shall not only have his own thirst quenched, but shall be a source of new streams for the good of others. The words apparently refer to Pentecost, the initial outpouring of the Spirit, when it once for all became manifest that the Spirit's presence did not turn men's thoughts in upon themselves, and their own spiritual anxieties and prospects, but prompted them to communicate to all men the blessings they had received. From the little group in the upper room 'rivers' did flow to all." Exp. Gk. Test. There is an Oriental Legend of a Fountain into whose waters a good angel infused the mysterious power that a new fountain gushed wherever some drops fell on the barren plain, so that a traveller carrying a portion of this water could safely traverse any desert however wide or dry, because he took with him the secret of unfailing springs; and he could impart their waters to others. "Wild and fanciful the legend; yet may not meanings high Type of a better fountain to mortals now unsealed, The full, free salvation in Christ our Lord revealed! 'Beneath the cross those waters rise, and he who finds them there, All through the wilderness of life the living stream may bear; And blessings follow in his steps, until where'er he goes, - Anon., in Foster's Cyclopedia of Poetry, vol. 2, 4093. Thirsts of the Soul. Every person has certain great thirsts of the soul. He is full of wants, of longings, of desires. He needs love, forgiveness, immortal life, the friendship of God, holiness, happiness, knowledge, usefulness, heaven, a larger sphere, and broader life. The larger the soul, the more and greater are its thirsts. Civilization, progress, goodness always increase the thirsts of the soul. The number and quality of these thirsts are the measure of the man. Jesus Christ, by the living waters he gives, satisfies every thirst of the soul. Even the wants of our physical nature are not perfectly satisfied except through him. Our food is not perfect unless we eat and drink to the glory of God, and have with it not only "the feast of reason and flow of soul," but the flow of gratitude and love. Our natural wants must be transfigured to be perfect. Jesus was teaching the Samaritan woman the blessedness of the Fourth Beatitude which in the following summer he taught to his disciples, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,' hunger and thirst expressing the most intense of all desires, "for they shall be filled" with the righteousness for which they thirst. They shall attain their highest personal ideal, which renders possible the highest social ideal. They shall be like Christ, like God, pure, honest, loving, free from every stain of sin, every imperfection. "We all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory." (2 Cor. 3: 18.) The Water of Life. The Symbol. The Water of Life. The Holy Spirit. Psa. 46:4; 42: 1; 23: 2; Matt. 5:6; Luke 11:13; John 4:14; 7: 37-39; John 4: 10, 14; 7: 37, 38; Isa. 55: 1-3, | 14: 16, 17; 16:13; Acts 2:1-4, 1610-13; 41: 17, 18; 44: 3; 35: 1, 7; 12: 18; 10: 44, 45; Joel 2: 28, 29; Zech. 3; Rev. 22: 1, 2; Ezek. 47: 12; 36: 25. 14:8; Ezek. 36: 26, 27; Prov. 4: 23. IV. JESUS IMPRESSES UPON THE SAMARITAN WOMAN HER NEED OF THE LIVING WATER; AND REVEALS TO HER THAT HE IS THE EXPECTED MESSIAH, ITS SOURCE, vs. 15-26. The woman did not comprehend the real meaning of what Jesus had said, as is shown by her request in v. 15. 16. His next words did not directly answer her request, but were intended to impress upon her her need on account of her sinful life. Go call thy husband. 17, 18. The woman answers I have no husband. Jesus then causes her to realize clearly that her life must be changed, before she could receive the living water; for she was living a life contrary to the laws of her own religion. "The natural interpretation is that in response to her request Jesus gives her now the first draught of the living water by causing her to face her guilty life and bring it to him. He cannot give the water before thirst for it is awakened. The sure method of awakening the thirst is to make her acknowledge herself a sinful woman." Exp. Gk. Test. 19. This knowledge of her secret life by a perfect stranger who had never seen or heard of her before, was to the woman an evidence of a supernatural endowment, |
