Unlimited Grace

Bryan Chapell: This is the Christ. This is the Son of God. John has already told us over and over again, and now John puts the Holy Prince of Heaven sitting by a well to take water from a polluted woman. It's not right. But what Jesus is teaching us, of course, is this woman who would say, "I need nothing," really desperately needs him.

Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's episode, Pastor Bryan shares a lesson from John chapter 4. The story of Jesus with the woman at the well reveals to us Christ's love and care, but Dr. Chapell also highlights how we are just like the woman in need of God's mercy.

You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, check out the new daily devotional podcast called Daily Grace. Pastor Bryan will guide you through a devotion each day to help focus your attention on God's grace as you study His word. Watch and listen to each episode when you visit unlimitedgrace.com today. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the lesson, "The Mirror in the Well."

Bryan Chapell: The evidence of the mask that the woman at the well is wearing, of course, is pretty obvious in John chapter 4. She's hiding. First, this woman at the well is just hiding from others. That's perhaps most obvious if we just back up one phrase from where I began the scripture reading. John 4:6, "Jesus, weary as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour."

The Jewish clock begins about six in the morning, so the sixth hour says this is about noon. This woman is coming to the well at noon, and you just don't do that. It's hot, and this water jar that she is to be carrying that's to go back to the house with drinking water and cooking water and cleaning water—I mean, this is big and heavy. You don't get water at the well when it's this hot in the day and the water's so hot, too. You go early in the morning or in the cool of the evening when your friends go to the well. Friends who will gather together and you will talk about the kids and heartaches and backaches and husbands, not necessarily in that order. You'll come together with other people. It's the social hour. It's the news time, unless you can't face other people. Then you go at noon when nobody else goes. She goes at noon. She's hiding from others.

And she's hiding from herself, too, in ways that may not be so immediately obvious. She, going at noon, is kind of unwilling to accept help or recognition from anybody. She's self-sufficient, she portrays for others and for herself. You, many of you, will recognize the unusualness of what happens when Jesus says in verse seven, "Give me a drink." Now, it's a little abrupt in our English translations, but it's not arrogant or demanding. In fact, it's a statement of kindness.

Jesus, a Jewish man, is saying to a Samaritan woman, "I recognize you. I acknowledge your presence. Would you get me a drink?" Wait, wait. He's a Jew. He's a rabbi. She is a Samaritan. What does that mean? Well, the Jews and the Samaritans, John even gives the commentary, do not get along. Do you know why? Because actually, centuries before, when the Jews had been conquered by the Assyrians and most of them were taken out of the promised land and put in exile, there was a remnant of some that remained. And they began to collaborate, to intermarry with the enemy so that they became impure, half-breed Jews.

And not being pure meant that they set up another worship place outside Jerusalem, a place that would compete now with the Jews' worship place when they came back from exile. So detestable was the other worship place that the Jews attacked it. Now their own relatives by half-marriage, they attacked their own relatives and destroyed their worship place. The war is now on for centuries and the hatred even longer. They hate each other. And yet this Jewish man says to the Samaritan, "Let's have a drink." Wait, don't you recognize that by my touching it, I will pollute your precious cup? No, let's have a drink.

And it's not just that he's a Jew. Another problem, of course, that he's a "he." It's what she says, "How dare you ask of me, a Samaritan woman?" Because in the Middle Eastern culture of that time, he's not to speak to her, not even to recognize her. He is to have nothing to do with her, and yet he does not deal with her disrespectfully. But even though it is surprising, the thing that makes it absolutely unthinkable is not just that he's a Jew and not just that he's a he, but that he's Jesus.

I mean, she doesn't know it yet, but we know. This is the Lamb of God who was sent to take away the sin of the world. This is the Christ, this is the Son of God. John has already told us over and over again, and now John puts the Holy Prince of Heaven sitting by a well to take water from a polluted woman. It's not right. But what Jesus is teaching us, of course, is this woman who would say, "I need nothing," really desperately needs him.

I mean, after all, when he offers just the attention by saying, "Give me a drink," she pushes away. Verse nine, the Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" Translation: she's just saying, "How dare you? You recognize me? You can take your kindness and you can give it to somebody who needs it. I don't." And of course, that's the irony. For her even to portray to herself or to others that I don't need anybody is the absolute denial of what her life has been about to this point, where she seems to be desperately needing somebody so much that she'll go from one man to another man to another man to another man. "Don't need anybody." What irony.

And that mask of self-sufficiency has to be removed. And the way that Jesus takes it away so that His mercy could reach her is by just letting the conversation progress. When she seems to claim, "I don't need anybody," Jesus says, "Well, you might need this," verse ten. "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 is pouring a ton of understanding into just a few words. If you knew the gift of God. What is Jesus talking about? Who is Jesus talking about? But that God so loved the world he did what? Gave his only begotten Son. If you knew the gift of God, if you knew who I really was, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Now, the words don't mean much to this Samaritan woman, but if you were a Jew, you would recognize the phrase "living water." It's from the book of Jeremiah where Jeremiah, speaking for God himself, identifies himself as the living water. Jeremiah 2:13. And now here it seems that what is happening is Jesus saying, "If you knew the gift of God, you would have asked and he would have given you God." Here I am a Jew. Here I am the gift of God, and I'm offering you God himself, though you are the Samaritan woman I'm going to soon reveal in many more ways.

But because she doesn't have that theological background, she only hears the words in their common vernacular. It's going to say it in some of your footnotes. That word "living water" just means spring water, running water. And she recognizes it's a well, and it doesn't quite make sense. And so she first questions with curiosity. Hey, how are you going to get this living water? You don't have anything to draw with. I mean, there are historical ambiguities, but at least what we even still identify as Jacob's Well, this well in Israel is still roughly 100 feet deep.

And for Jesus to say, "I'm going to get you water," she said, "Well, you're not getting it out of there because you can't draw it. But if you're offering me water and you're not getting it out of there, what are you saying? Isn't this water good enough for you, right? Our father Jacob got water out of this well and he had his family drink out of it and his flocks and herds. Are you saying this isn't good enough?" And curiosity moves to challenge. "I don't need you." And so Jesus ups the offer. It gets even better.

He says in verse 13, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water I give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Two things are being offered. If you take the water I give you, you'll never be thirsty again. Now, that means two things. One, the woman is relieved of work. But secondly, she would be relieved of shame, because if I don't have to keep coming here at noon or morning or evening, then I don't have to face anybody. And I don't have to take the stares or the back-handed comments. If you offer me living water, I don't have to keep facing my shame.

Jesus offers something else. Not only does this water keep you from getting thirsty, this water will somehow well up inside you so that you would have eternal life. Jesus is offering, if you will, a fountain of youth. And for this woman whose life has been spent getting the attention of men, but now, if you will forgive the analogy, she's had five husbands and there's a few miles on her. She would love a fountain of youth. And so for the first time, the mask comes off. And when Jesus says, "You could have this water that would keep you from facing your shame and you could have this water that would give you some sort of eternal life," she finally asks for it. It's verse 15. 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." The mask comes down. I could use that water.

Jesus responds, verse 16, "Go call your husband and come here." The mask goes back on. "I have no husband." Jesus pulls the mask down. "That's right. You've had five and the man you're living with now is not your husband." She is totally exposed, and to sense the reality of it, you just have to rehearse the personal history. She has tried one time and another time and another time and another time and another time and now, talk about looking for love in all the wrong places. She is willing to try to make a life with a man who cares so little for her that he's willing to live with her in an arrangement that in that time and place would make her nothing better than scum in her society. She will know nothing but her society's contempt, but she's trying to make a life with a man who cares so little about her that he's willing to put her through it.

And she acts as though she does not care. But she's exposed now for who she really is and what she's really done and how desperate she really is. And so she tries to pull the mask back up. Verse 19, the woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Now, do you get it? Jesus has just revealed to her her desperation, and instead of kind of saying, "Can you help me?" she throws up the dust of religious difference.

Let's distract. Let's say, "Well, you know what, so you've exposed me. Well, after all, you know, some people say we ought to worship on that mountain, and some people say we ought to worship on that mountain. I mean, after all, this is just your interpretation that I'm somehow off-base here. I mean, you know, who knows what's right? Whatever." Who knows what's right? She knows. How do we know that she knows? Because she goes to the well at noon. Because she's hiding how many husbands she's had. She's hiding her marital relationship. And when she's exposed, she rather than acknowledging it, seems to just kind of throw up this dust of religious difference.

Listen, the one who seems to be troubled by her marriage relationship is her. Jesus doesn't seem to be put off by it. He's still there. He's talking to her. He's relating to her. He knows it all, and he's still there. The one who seems to be most bothered is her. And what Jesus is teaching her and us is that if we are willing to face the masks, then He's willing to extend mercy beyond. There're so many ways that we are just exactly like her. She has physical needs. She just needs some water to provide for the family, such as it is, that she has.

And we have physical needs. I mean, come on, we have water, and we have homes, and we have food, and yet look at the lines at the lottery. Look at the cars at the casinos. Look how we're not satisfied yet, still searching, still longing. We lust for passion. We lust for the bodies that will make people passionate for us. You know, we're going now for P438, you know, whatever's the latest exercise video that will sculpt us, the one that will keep us attractive with whatever fountain of youth we need now. We just have some physical needs to be satisfied.

But of course, this woman doesn't just have physical needs. She has relational needs. She just needs somebody who will love her and accept her and care for her. And we have relational needs too, and we long for people who love us, and we dread life without them, and we feel empty if we haven't found them yet. And our hearts are screaming, "I don't want to tell you this, but I have relational needs too."

And then of course, she has spiritual needs. Shall we worship on this mountain or that mountain? And we have spiritual needs too. Maybe you know that really well and maybe you really wonder about it, but the fact that you sit here means that somehow something in you says, "I know that there's a spiritual need in my soul." We're just like her. And the great evidence of that, of course, is that Jesus did not come just for her, but for us. And He did not come just for her; He died for her. And He died for me and died for you. We're just like her.

When our kids were little, there was a family that visited and my children met their children during the Sunday school hour which was before the second service. And so my youngest son came to me and said before church, "Dad, can the new boy, can Bobby, come sit with us during church?" And being the nice guy I am, I said, "Sure." Bad decision. He was not used to being in church and it showed. He could not stop talking. At some point in the service, he punched my son. My son got in trouble for trying to punch back.

At some point in the sermon, Bobby decided it was just time to stand, not on the floor, on the back of the pew. I don't know, I'm sure that sermon lasted maybe 35 minutes. It felt like 35 hours. I was so desperate for that service to get over, and I will tell you by the time it was done, I wanted nothing less than the electric chair for that little monster. And then the pastor says, "Let's sing the final hymn," and gave the number. And there was Bobby opening up the hymnal that he didn't know how to use, tearing pages as he turns to the right number.

And then we began to sing the words: "Jesus, what a friend for sinners, Jesus lover of my soul." And there he sang, looking like a little angel and I thought to myself, "You monster. How dare you make me feel this guilty?" Because I was guilty. Listen, everything in that child and in his family screamed of their need for the Savior, to know living water, to know something that would overcome the brokenness and the hurt and the distance from God that was so evident in that family. Everything about them was shouting of their need for Jesus, and yet all that that boy saw from me in that service was my anger and my frown and my scowl.

And I had to say to myself, when I finally recognized that, who was really the rebellious child in this service? And then it was I. I was the one who had failed the Savior that day. And when I could admit that, suddenly the mercy made all the difference again. When I recognized I was just like him, I was just like him, I needed Jesus too. Why is she here? Because we are just like her. She needed the mercy of God, and so do I and so do you. We need the mercy of Jesus too.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you'd like to hear more from Dr. Chapell, you can find a collection of valuable resources at unlimitedgrace.com. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by His unlimited grace. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.