Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 2 Study # 3
March 3, 2024
Broadlands, Louisiana
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Thesis: Jesus relentlessly pursued His "food".
Introduction: In our study last week, our focus was upon Jesus' initial response to the "need": He
is coming into the city of The Samaritans. This response was described within the context of the particular situation in Samaria. The city's name is given as Sychar, but the Old Testament records say it was Shechem. That Sychar is a word that arises from the issue of someone drinking strong alcoholic drinks signals that one of the issues was of Sychar was drunkenness. which is a description of people who are dealing with "life" by means of an excessiveness of "drinking alcoholic drinks". At issue here is the fact that they are attempting to "deal with life", but its details are too much for them, so they seek an escape. The other issue of Sychar is its reputation as Joseph's heritage, which contained the well which Jacob had dug. But, over time, the "well" had turned into a "cistern". This became a significant metaphor for the loss of the inhabitants of the city of a "real well". Their focus upon their heritage gave them "religion", but the losses over time had put a large distance between them and God. This gives us a key principle regarding God's view of men's needs:
John 3:17.
This morning we are going to consider what Author-John and the Holy Spirit decided to tell us regarding Jesus' "coming into" this city.
- I. There Are Two Major Problems With Our Text.
- A. First, there is the "problem" of the translation that gives us a picture of a "weary" Jesus Who has sent His disciples into the city to buy food.
- 1. This "problem" arises because of the descriptive participle that tells us "why" Jesus "was sitting upon the well of Jacob".
- 2. The verb in question is "kopiao".
- a. This word is used in 21 texts of the New Testament, two of which are in this record.
- b. Of the 21 uses in the New Testament eighteen are translated "to work hard", "to labor", or "to toil"; only three times did the translators choose to use "to become weary".
- c. In our current record, the second text that uses this word is 4:38 where the translators say that Jesus said, "...I sent you to reap that whereon you bestowed no labor; other men labored and you are entered into their labors".
- d. If our translators had simply been consistent, we would have no "problem".
- 1) But they weren't, and we have two "problems".
- a) One is the picture of a weary Jesus Who sends His twelve disciples, who had to have been as weary as He was, further on such a tiring trip, but He didn't care.
- (1) How many men does it take to get, and bring, enough food for Jesus to eat?
- (2) How likely is it that The Twelve would not eat their own food when they got it?
- b) The other "problem" is that we are misled regarding Jesus' purpose for "sitting upon the well" and "getting rid of The Twelve" so there would be no "issues" when the woman shows up.
- 2) The "picture" we are supposed to get from the words of John, and The Spirit Who was overseeing his choice of words, is that of Jesus as a "diligent laborer" who has accomplished the first part of His labors.
- a) According to His own words, Jesus had been "diligent in labor" so that He would be "sitting on the well" when the woman showed up because His "true food" was to do what The Father had commissioned Him to do.
- b) This "issue" of "making sure He was at the well when the woman showed up" is pointedly made by telling us that "it was the sixth hour".
- (1) There are two more references to "hour" in this present text, and both have to do with the "hour" when "true worship" will come about (4:21-23).
- (2) The next text/context is 4:52 when a man "believes into Jesus" because of the issue of "the hour" when He chose to take action.
- (3) This has significant biblical parallels regarding the "timing" of things (Galatians 1:15; 4:4; Revelation 9:15).
- (4) The point is this: Jesus had a divinely timed encounter to meet, and He labored diligently so that the journey would be finished before He was due at the well.
- B. The second "problem" is that John/Spirit called the "well of Jacob" a "pege", but the woman keeps calling it a "phrear".
- 1. There is a reason for this:
- a. The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament says, "If there was a relatively ready flow of water, a well could very appropriately be called a "pege" 'spring,' ... (and this may be the reason for "pege" in John 4:6), but if water only gradually seeped into the well from surrounding areas or was collected in the well from surface drainage, it would be more appropriately called [a] "phrear".
- b. The Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon says "a well (distinguished from ... a spring) ... a tank, cistern ..."
- 2. Thus, Jesus' perspective was upon the "well" as it was when Jacob dug it, but the woman's perspective was upon a cistern as it was in her day.
- a. This is a revelation of the big issue: when Jacob dug the well, he also "erected there an altar" and connected it to "Elelohe-Israel" (the Mighty God of Israel), but by the time this Samaritan woman came to it, it was a cistern of either seeping water from beneath, or a catch-all of the waters above it and ran into it when it rained.
- b. This is a metaphor of great loss: religion has replaced "life" and has been relegated to "form" with no "function".
