John 4a Commentary
Many have said that Jesus was 100% God and 100% human – probably because they have read the gospel of John.
We have two extreme ends. Jesus is the Word. The Word is with God at creation. The Word is actually the Creator God. It is this extreme end that puts Jesus in deep trouble with the authorities in Jerusalem.
The other end is less celebrated but very interesting. John is unique in the way he presents Jesus as a normal human being. Chapter 4 underlines a couple of human elements that we can learn from. During Jesus’ earthly pilgrimage, he experienced fatigue and hunger. Verses 6 and 8.
He rested and ate to freshen up. He used Caesar’s money to buy food. Add all the elements associated with shopping like budgets and shopping lists. An accountant was required, Judas Iscariot – Chapter 12 verse 6.
Jesus is a normal human being living in a world of conflicting interests. Chapter 4 contains one of the conflicts. It was the Jews versus the Samaritans.
Samaria was the capital of the Israelite kingdom called Israel in the years that followed Solomon’s reign. Jerusalem was the capital of the Israelite kingdom called Judah. There was constant friction between the two sister kingdoms.
By the time of the Messiah, neither the nation nor its capital Samaria existed. But Samaria existed as a Roman province alongside Judea and Galilee. Samaritans were still associated with the tribes of Joseph. There was a point of pride in the Samaritans’ claim to the piece of land that Jacob gave Joseph. There was even a water well that they claimed the patriarch Jacob and his sons used.
Today we use the term Jews to refer to all Israel. Back then the term could mean men and women associated with the long-gone kingdom of Judah. They had Jerusalem as their capital – which still existed. The Temple was there.
Realizing that Jesus was a prophet, the Samaritan woman sought to put matters to bed between the Samaritans and the Jews.
John inserts this story to explain the point that neither ancestral connections nor Jerusalem’s Temple systems mattered under God’s master plan. What was important was the new birth or the new creation that comes by the Spirit of God.
It is the same point that John has labored to explain in these opening chapters.
Chapter 1 verse 33 talks about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Forget John’s baptisms.
Chapter 2 verse 19 discredits Jerusalme’s temple and elevates the new Temple. We can think of the new temple of the Holy Spirit. Forget the physical temple and its rituals.
Chapter 3 verse 6 talks about birth by the Spirit. Forget your identity as an Israelite by physical birth. It also means your physical birth as a Gentile doesn’t matter. Faith alone in Jesus alone matters.
Now Chapter 4 talks about worship in the Spirit.
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