Jesus’ words overflow with metaphor: living water, the hour, food, harvest. Each of these metaphors attempts to open reality in fresh ways for his conversation partners. Jesus wants to open the eyes of the Samaritan woman and his disciples so that they can see what is being offered to them in the present instead of continuing to view everything through the lens of old realities. Jesus wants the Samaritan woman to see who is speaking with her at this moment and the gifts that he offers (4:10). He wants her to see that the present moment is the time of eschatological fulfillment (4:23-24). Jesus wants his disciples to see that the harvest is ready now, contrary to popular understandings (4:35). In both conversations (4:7.26, 31-38), Jesus takes familiar images and fills them with new meaning in order to open up for his listeners the possibilities of a life defined by God’s gifts. The metaphors of these verses keep the terms of the conversations always fresh, always suggestive, always open to new meanings in changing circumstances.

Everything is to be newly defined by the arrival of the hour, by the impingement of the eschatological future on the present. God’s salvation is available now, to all who will receive it (cf. 2 Cor 6:2). Salvation will be offered on God’s own terms, however, not necessarily in the form that those who wait on it have determined in advance. The Samaritans’ acclamation of Jesus as savior of the world reminds the reader of that. The savior in whom they put their faith does not conform to their prior expectations. The reality of God’s presence in Jesus redefines their previous categories.

The woman, the disciples, and the Samaritan villagers all received more from Jesus than their conventions and assumptions had led them to expect. One could say that once again Jesus transformed ordinary water into wine. An incredulous Samaritan woman becomes a witness to the gospel, Jesus’ questioning disciples become co-workers in the harvest, the despised Samaritans spend two days with the “savior of the world.” John 4:4-42 is a text of promise, of expectations overturned and surpassed. This text suggests that the life of faith and discipleship will be refreshed and reanimated by attending to Jesus’ vision of transformed reality and, most important, to Jesus himself. Jesus’ metaphors of living water and worship in spirit and truth invite the church to a new relationship to its God and to one another through his incarnate presence.

The closing words of the Samaritan villagers hold the key to understanding the narrative techniques of this text. The Samaritans no longer need the secondary witness of the woman’s word because “we have heard for ourselves” (v.42). Effective witness does not replace the immediate experience of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel; it leads to that experience. John 4:4-42 is narrated so that the readers, too, can sense that they have heard Jesus for themselves. As a result of reading this text, one may come to recognize oneself as a “Samaritan”—one to whom the good news has come in unexpected places at unexpected times.

It is a living parable of the sower and the seed – as well as a tale for those who would think that sowing the living word of God is a task limited to the insiders or professionals church people.

Christ and the Woman of Samaria | Pierre Mignard, 1681 | The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh | PD

John brings the Samaria narrative to a close by focusing on the success of the Samaritan mission. Verse 39 notes the faith in Jesus of many Samaritans and explicitly attributes the people’s faith to the woman’s “testimony” (martyria). She, like John the Baptist, is a witness who brings people to faith in Jesus. Also like John the Baptist (3:30), the woman’s witness diminishes in importance when the Samaritans have their own experience of Jesus (vv.40-42). The Samaritans invite Jesus to stay with them, and he stays for two days (if. 40). The use of the verb for “stay” (menō) recalls 1:38 and Jesus’ meeting with his first disciples. To stay with Jesus is to enter into a relationship with him (cf. 15:4, 7). Many more persons come to faith in Jesus as a result of this stay (v.41), and in v.42 those who believe acknowledge that their own encounter with Jesus supplants the woman’s word. This is the model of witness and faith in the Fourth Gospel: The witness that leads to Jesus is replaced by one’s own experience of Jesus.

The Samaritans’ acclamation of Jesus as the savior of the world (v.42) is the most sweeping christological confession yet encountered in the Gospel. Salvation may be from the Jews (v.22 b), but it is not limited to the Jews. Ethnic and religious distinctions that figured prominently in this text (vv.9, 20-22) are dissolved in this recognition of the universality of salvation available in Jesus (cf. 3:17). The Samaritans’ confession evidences the truth of Jesus’ words in vv.21-24; the hour has indeed come when neither this mountain nor Jerusalem will define the worship of God

Christ and the Woman of Samaria | Pierre Mignard, 1681 | The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh | PD

This passage provides a bridge between Jesus’ conversations with the woman and with his disciples (vv.31-38). The disciples’ reaction to Jesus is similar to the woman’s initial response to him (v.9): shock that Jesus would violate social conventions. Unlike the woman, However, the disciples keep their questions to themselves.

The woman makes no response to Jesus’ bold self-revelation, perhaps because of the disciples’ return. She departs from the well, leaving her water jar behind. Like much narrative detail in the Fourth Gospel (e.g., 1:37-39), the detail about the jar works on two levels simultaneously. On the level of the plot line, the abandoned water jar provides a link between the two conversations at the well. The woman’s jar will stand before Jesus and his disciples as they speak. Yet the detail also has meaning on a more theological level. The abandoned jar suggests that the woman’s concern of v.15, the desire for miraculous water, has been superseded by the revelation of Jesus’ identity. 

In response to her conversation with Jesus, the woman goes into town and bears witness to what she has heard. Her witness is threefold. First, she invites her fellow townspeople to “come and see.” This invitation is crucial in the Fourth Gospel (cf. 1:37-39, 46). It is an invitation to participate in the life of faith, to experience Jesus for oneself. Second, the woman offers her own experience as the basis of her witness, which here may build on the Samaritan expectation of a teaching Messiah (cf. v.25). Third, she broaches the question of whether Jesus might be the Messiah. The translation accurately captures the tentativeness of the woman’s words. (The question begins with the negative particle (meti) in the Greek, a construction that anticipates a negative or contradicting response.) She cannot quite believe that Jesus is the Messiah, since he challenges her conventional messianic expectations (vv.23-25), but her lack of certitude does not stand in the way of her witness. The woman’s behavior stands in marked contrast to many characters in the Fourth Gospel who will insist on their own certitudes (e.g., Nicodemus, 3:9; the crowds, 6:25-34; the Pharisees, 9:24-34) and hence close themselves to what Jesus offers. The woman’s witness brings the townspeople to Jesus (v.30). Their movement toward him provides the backdrop for Jesus’ conversation with his disciples.

Conversation between Jesus and his disciples. 

Jesus’ conversation with his disciples follows a similar pattern to his conversation with the woman, albeit abbreviated. It opens with a dialogue that revolves around a misunderstanding about the meaning of “food” (brōsis, vv.31-33; cf. the misunderstanding about “living water” in vv.10-15). This dialogue is followed by a longer speech by Jesus (vv.34-38; cf. vv.21-24) in which he offers a new way of thinking to his conversation partners. Both of these final speeches by Jesus have an eschatological orientation.

The disciples ask Jesus to eat the food that they have brought from town (v.31; cf. v.8), but Jesus does not accede to their request (v.32). The disciples are confused by Jesus’ words and assume that he must be referring to food that someone else had brought him (v.33; cf. vv.11-12). In v.34, Jesus makes clear that the food that sustains him is his vocation: to do the will of the one who sent him and complete God’s work. God is frequently described in the Fourth Gospel as the one who sent Jesus (e.g., 5:23-24, 30) and Jesus’ mission is often characterized as doing the will and the work of God (5:30, 36; 6:38; 10:37-38). Jesus’ description of his food is deeply connected to Johannine christology; food is the metaphor for Jesus’ divine commission and the enactment of the relationship between Jesus and God. Verse 34 underscores that any discussion of Jesus’ identity is meaningless apart from a discussion of his vocation. The necessity of Jesus’ journey into Samaritan territory and his conversation with the woman can be understood as examples of Jesus’ “food,” of doing the will and work of God; true food which sustains him.

The focus of Jesus’ words now shifts slightly. Jesus has just spoken of his role in completing the work of the one who sent him; he then turns to a traditional biblical image of completion—the harvest (e.g., Isa 27:12; Joel 3:13). Harvest imagery is structured around two agricultural proverbs.

In v.35, Jesus draws his disciples’ attention to a common agricultural saying (“Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest “). This proverb has not been attested outside the Fourth Gospel, but it reflects agricultural life in ancient Palestine; there is a waiting period between seedtime and harvest. At the end of v.35, Jesus informs his disciples that the waiting is over. Jesus exhorts his disciples to look around them: “look up and see the fields.” Jesus asks his disciples to attend carefully to the situation in which they find themselves, to read the data of their own experience instead of trusting in conventional wisdom (this motif will appear again in 9:28-33, where the blind man’s trust in his own experience is superior to conventional teachings). In their immediate context, Jesus’ words draw the disciples’ attention to the Samaritans who are coming to him. The “crop” of Samaritan believers is proof that the harvest is ready.

Jesus’ words echo what he said earlier to the Samaritan woman: “The hour is coming, and is now here” (v.23). The conventional understanding is that one must wait for the Messiah/harvest (vv.25, 35a). In reality, both are here now – again echoing the earlier conversation with the woman.

Verse 36 continues the imagery of the immediacy of the harvest. The reaper is already at work, receiving wages, gathering fruit. Sower and reaper now share in the joy of the harvest echoing Psalm 126 and Isaiah 9:3). It is tempting to suggest God as the sower and Jesus the reaper – and perhaps rightly so. But rather than looking outside the Johannine text. John the Baptist told the parable of the bridegroom and his friend to illustrate joy (3:29); Jesus now tells the parable of the sower and the reaper to illustrate the arrival of the eschatological present and its attending joy.

The second agricultural proverb occurs in v.37: One sows and another reaps. The reality of the saying is playing out in real time: I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.  Point being that the woman has done the sowing and they will reap the harvest of her efforts. This seems to point to the disciples’ future, when they will be “sent” (apostellō) by Jesus to continue his work (e.g., 17:18; 20:21). The latter part of this account is a foreshadowing of the mission of the early church (Acts 8:4-24).

Christ and the Woman of Samaria | Pierre Mignard, 1681 | The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh | PD

This coming weekend is the 3rd Sunday of Lent. In the previous post we went into great detail about the first part of the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman (thru John 4:15). Now we will continue to dive into the details in order to unpack this amazing narrative.

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” ¹⁷ The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ ¹⁸ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”

Go call your husband. Jesus introduces a new topic in v.16 possibly to provide a fresh angle on his identity: Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.”  Prior to this, Jesus’ invitation to the woman was couched in the metaphor of living water. Now Jesus’ invitation will be grounded in the woman’s own life.