A cry from the heart
John 4

We have all heard the story of the woman at the well in John 4, today I want you to forget any preconceived thoughts and ideas you have about that story and let me paint a new picture for you about how the woman moved the heart of God and changed a city.

Listen to this sermonFirstly let’s look at the woman so that we can piece together a picture of who she was and what she was like. The most obvious is that she had five husbands and now was living with her boyfriend. She knew what a prophet was, because she recognized Jesus as a prophet, she also knew about the Messiah and that He will tell us all things. She had influence in the city, because as soon as she went into the city and called the men they followed her and many believed because of her word.

From the facts we can build a picture of a woman who has had a ruff ride. She had lost five husbands, maybe due to sickness, violence or divorce we do not know. But if you had been through five husbands your emotions must be all mixed and somewhere you will be carrying hurts, unforgiveness and some bitterness. It might be these hurts that stopped her marrying the current man in her life.

Somehow she must have risen above all of this. She knew about spiritual things because she picked up that Jesus was a prophet and started the discussion about worship. It did not come from Jesus, but it came from her she knew about the worship of their fathers. She knew about the messiah and His role. She also had an expectation for the Messiah because she says “I know that Messiah is coming” and when she called the men she said “Could this be the Christ” and spiritual things where important to her because she left her water pot to go and tell the men about Jesus.

She also had influence in the city. She spoke directly to the men of the city. I would imagine that the men of the city where sitting at the city gates discussing matters when she came in. Her influence was so great that many believed on her testimony alone. She also managed to get the men out to meet Jesus. Her influence and testimony was able to generate enough interest for the men to urge Jesus to stay with them.

Now I want to look a bit deeper into the story of the woman. Right at the beginning we are told that Jesus needed to go through Samaria. That word needed is the Greek word

• Strong's Greek #1163
1163 dei { die}
third person singular active present of 1210; TDNT – 2:21,140; v
AV – must 58, ought 31, must needs 5, should 4, misc 7, vr ought 1 ; 106
GK – 1256 { dei }
1) it is necessary, there is need of, it behooves, is right and proper
1a) necessity lying in the nature of the case
1b) necessity brought on by circumstances or by the conduct of others toward us.
1c) necessity in reference to what is required to attain some end
1d) a necessity of law and command, of duty, equity
1e) necessity established by the counsel and decree of God, especially by that purpose of his which relates to the salvation of men by the intervention of Christ and which is disclosed in the Old Testament prophecies
1e1) concerning what Christ was destined finally to undergo, his sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension

A necessity brought on by circumstances or by the conduct of others toward us. What do you think caused the fact that Jesus needed to go through Samaria. We have more often been told it was an evangelistic need. But I want to propose another cause.

It says that Jesus and His disciples left Judea and departed for Galilee. Now Samaria was between Judea and Galilee, now you could look at the needed as just being that it was on the way. I would imagine that there where many roads between Judea and Galilee and yet Jesus chose to go the well where the woman was drawing water.

I believe that the woman had heard stories of Jesus and talk of Messiah from travelers as they made there way between Judea and Galilee. I would imagine that Sychar served as a stop over for many of these types of people. I would imagine that the evenings where filled with stories of healings in Galilee and the maybe even Jesus clearing out the temple with a whip. The wise men of the East might have stopped here looking the new coming King. We fail to realize that as people did business, traded and ate together they talked about current affairs. There must have been discussions about whether he was the Messiah in the same way we discuss issues that from our daily news. I believe that there was an expectation building in that city. There might have even been talk of Him coming to Sychar and you can hear the answers “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” or “Yes He will come”. We do not know but if I look at the influence that she had in the city one could believe that she was part of these discussions.

Once can almost see her late at night thinking about the stories and then her thoughts go to the past and bring up the hurt and pain. I believe that it is here that she cried out for the Messiah. I believe that it was here in the silence of the night that her past caught up with her and called out for a savior. She gives it away when she says “He will tell us all things” I believe what she is saying is that He will tell us about our past and why we have had to go through the things that we have had to. He will tell us about our future and what it holds for us.

I believe that it was this cry from the heart that moved the heart of God that caused Jesus to be sent to the woman.

Now let’s move our focus onto the discussion between Jesus and the woman. Picture the scene, the woman is going to draw as she nears the well so sees a Jewish man sitting at the well. She has a tussle in her mind as she ponders not going to the well because of him, or going anyway without the water she came to collect.

She gets to the well and now the Jewish man starts a conversation. This throws her off guard, a Jew asking a Samaritan for help! He asks her for water and then offers her living water. For a moment they talk at cross purposes, this continues till she realized that He is a prophet.

Jesus asked for normal day to day water as in H20, to quench a normal human thirst. Then He offers her living water. What do we know about the living water that Jesus offers her? Whoever drinks of it will never thirst, but the water shall become a fountain springing up to eternal life. Are there any other references to this living water?

John 7:37-39 says

37On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Rev 21:6 says

6And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

I want to leave the discussion there and turn to look at the technology of this encounter. You might have heard the question “if a tree falls in the forest does it make a noise?” the question is asked because no one is there to hear it fall. Are you today like the Samaritan woman who asked Jesus “How is that you being a Jew…” do fell alienated like she did, have you being alienated from the church or even from God