One of the challenges that I think I face as a preacher of the Word is in the application of the essential.  By nature, as soon as I understand something I am already working out how that something affects my life or situation or how I can use that something to improve something else within my life or situation.  That is the application of that something I now know.  What I am not very good at is communicating that application to my audience or reader.  So today I am going to practice this a little.  There are two things that I want to expand on in the story of the Woman at the Well and then an application.  Please, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments below how I do.  How else will I get better.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans (Joh 4:7-9).)

First Thing: Essential or Non-Essential

One of the first things that jumps out at us in this story is the cultural tabu at Jesus, a Jew, initiating a conversation with a woman from Samaria.  In the Old Testament we read that Omri, son of Asa, purchased the city of Samaria and fortified it making it his capitol over the Northern Kingdom of Israel (1Ki 16:24).  Samaria was considered by the prophets as idolatrous with worship of Baal even encouraged by Jezebel (1Ki 18:22).  As the capitol of the Northern Kingdom, Samaria plays a prominent role in Old Testament history.  After Solomon a united Israel was ruled by his son Rehoboam who foolishly ignored his counselor’s advice to reduce the tax and service burdens of the people (1Ki 12: and 2Ch 10:4).  That refusal led to a split around 937 B.C. in which the Northern Kingdom, Israel, would be ruled by Jeroboam and the Southern Kingdom, Judah, would be ruled by Rehoboam.

Rehoboam knew that as long as Jerusalem, in Judah, was the center of worship the loyalty of the Northern Kingdom would be tenuous.  Therefore, he “reinstituted the cult of the golden calves, substituting an ancient religion for the worship of Jehovah. He changed the centers of worship, the object of worship, the priesthood, and the time of worship. The new centers became Bethel and Dan; Bethel was a place of patriarchal worship (Gen 28:10–22; 31:13; 35:1–7), and Dan was the site of a renegade Levitical worship established for the tribe of Dan in the days of the judges (Jgs 18) (Comfort and Elwell 2004, 288-289).”  Almost two hundred years later their refusal to pay a tax imposed by Assyria caused Sargon II to carry of 27,270 to 27,290 captives, “and the effect was to terminate the existence of the Northern Kingdom of Israel as a homogeneous and independent state (Wiseman 1996, 1051).”  Those who were deported were replaced with pagans who intermarried with the remaining Jews to produce the Samaritans (Stern 1992, Joh 4:9).  They were considered Gentiles and worse Gentile traitors.

However, “their descendants were not idolaters, but they acknowledged only the Pentateuch as inspired by God. They also denied Jerusalem as the religious center, opting instead for Mount Gerizim (Stern 1992, Joh 4:9).”  Back in Deuteronomy God commanded the Israelites, “you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there.  There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock (Deu 12:5-6).”  The Samarians disagreed with the Jews over where “the place that the LORD your God will choose” was.  Looking only to the Pentateuch the Samaritans observed that Abraham built an alter overlooking Mount Gerizim at Shechem (Gen 12:6-7), the blessings were to be shouted to the covenant community from Mount Gerizim (Deu 11:29-30), and in Exodus (Exo 20:17) and Deuteronomy (Deu 27:2-7) implicitly tied the Ten Commandments to Mount Gerizim (Carson 1991, 222).  In my mind, with this understanding of the Samaritan theological argument, it is starting to sound not unlike the theological disagreements between today’s Calvinists and Armenianists or the pre-millenialists vs. the post-millenialists.

Second Thing: Essential or Non Essential

Anyway, there was a lot of history between the Jews and the Samaritans and in Jesus’ day Jews still did not associate with them.  But the purpose of this dialogue is not to show that Jesus was ahead of his time in terms of breaking cultural barriers but rather to introduce the idea that He is the Messiah, the expected Christ.  This occurs in the discourse about the living water.

“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 4:10).”

There are many Old Testament locations we can look to for this connection.  In Numbers we find Moses striking a rock in the desert, “and Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation rank, and their livestock (Num 20:11).”  Water is the source of life not just in the desert and here we have it being provided by a direct action of God.  The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jer 2:13).”  Or in Isaiah where we find, “with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel (Isa 12:3-6).”  According to Andreas J. Köstenberger, “Rabbinic thought associated the provision of water with the coming of the Messiah (Beale and Carson 2007, 16).”

The writer of John’s Gospel would bring this idea full circle to explain that the water the Messiah would provide would be the Holy Spirit. “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (Joh 7:37-39).”

Application: Essential or Non-Essential

Now, here is the application.  As soon as this woman recognizes that Jesus is a prophet, she makes an interesting statement.  “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship (Joh 4:20).”  Truth has been revealed to this woman.  The truth that Jesus is the expected Messiah, the Christ, or the Holy One of Israel.  Her response is to return to a theological argument of what would soon become a non-essential doctrine concerning where was true worship to take place.  “Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (Joh 4:21-24).”

How much of God’s truth do we miss because we are focused on a disagreement over a non-essential belief?  And by non-essential belief I mean those doctrines that we can hold and actually hold in error and not jeopardize our salvation.  What I mean is you could be wrong on this thing and yet still be saved.  The Jews were not saved because they worshiped God in the true temple.  The Samaritans were not saved because they worshiped God on Mount Gerizim.  The Jews and the Samaritans would only be saved when they believe that Jesus took their penalty for their unrighteousness on Himself.  “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.  For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1Pe 2:24-25).”

For those outside of salvation it is absolutely essential that you recognize your need for salvation.  You need to be saved from the eternal consequences of your own sins.  For those of us who already believe it is absolutely essential that we can differentiate between that which is essential for salvation and that which is non-essential.  This woman needed the living water that Jesus would provide.  The whole world needs the living water that Jesus provides.  Don’t get so distracted that you forget to ask for it and don’t get so distracted that you forget to provide it.

How did I do on my application? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.  One of the projects I am working on is a ‘social media’ community built around a daily reading of Scripture.  It won’t be Facebook based and it will be open only to believers.  I just finished the daily scripture reading plan so I am getting closer to implementation. You won’t want to miss out on the launch.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Beale, G. K., and D. A. Carson. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007.

Carson, D. A. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press, 1991.

Comfort, Philip, and Walter A. Elwell. Who’s Who in the Bible. Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004.

Stern, David H. Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1992.

Wiseman, D. J. “Samaria.” In New Bible Dictionary, edited by D. R. W. Wood, 1050-1051. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996.