The stricken deer tries once more to wrench the arrow from the wound; the wanderer thus caught amid the entangling thorns makes yet one other effort to escape the pursuing shepherd; the bold transgressor, unable to discuss these high spiritual themes, tries to stifle her convictions by the new plea of procrastination, wishing to break off the conversation in the spirit of conscious-stricken Felix.
I. POSTPONING THE QUESTION OF SALVATION TO AN INDEFINITE CONVENIENT SEASON, THE CRY OF THE CONVICTED SOUL IS “GIVE ME THIS WATER!”--BUT NOT YET.
1. “Give me this water!” is the cry of youth--but not yet. Disturb not my bright sunny morning; wait till I reach the threshold of manhood.
2. “Give me this water!” is the cry of ripening manhood--but not yet. Disturb me not in the burden and heat of the day; wait till I have leisure and breathing-time; wait till the eventide sets in, and the shadows are lengthening, and the drawers of water stand with their pitchers around life’s fountains.
3. “Give me this water!” is the cry of old age--but not yet. Though far advanced in the pilgrimage journey, my strength is yet firm. I have a long evening ere the sunset hour. I may linger yet a while amid these olive-glades ere the flagon be let down for a draught.
4. “Give me this water!” is the cry of the dying. But postponement cannot be pled now; procrastination merges into despair. “Give me this water!” but it is too late.
II. IN HER ATTEMPTS AT EVASION THE WOMAN HAD NOT BEEN ABLE TO SHAKE OFF HER CONVICTIONS THAT SHE STOOD BEFORE A SUPERIOR BEING.
1. She had called Him prophet. The Jews looked for a kingly Messiah, the Samaritans for a prophetic. As she listened to His wondrous disclosures did the thought flash across her mind, “Can this be He?” The world was then expecting a Divine advent. Besides the prediction of Moses, her own Pentateuch had told her of the prophet who fifteen hundred years before had lifted up his voice on the hills on which she could now gaze. Caravans passing daily Jacob’s well must have brought tidings of John’s testimony.
2. The crisis of her life had come. Will the Saviour abandon her to her procrastination and say, as was said of her tribe, “Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone?” or will He disclose His Divine Person? Such a disclosure may be fraught with peril. But the destiny of a human soul depends upon it; He will save others, but not Himself.
III. WHAT A REJOINDER TO HER QUESTION--“Art Thou greater than our father Jacob?” Yes, I am the Shiloh of whom he spake, the ladder he beheld, the angel with whom he wrestled. The Baptist’s words have their first echo and fulfilment, “He will gather His wheat into the garner.” She understands all now--the penetrating revelations, the living water, salvation. The Giver of all stands by her and offers them to her. She requires no miracles.
IV. THE IMMEDIATE SEQUEL IS UNRECORDED. Her feelings are left to our imagination. She may have been dumb with silence or tears. But angels rejoiced over this returning sinner as she starts on an errand of mercy to her native town. Lessons:
1. Christ stands at the door of every heart.
2. None need despair; the first may be last and the last first; for Samaritan as well as Jerusalem sinners may find mercy.
3. Christ speaks in many ways--in the mercies He bestows, in the blessings He withholds; in life’s storms and sunshine.
4. Christ speaks at every season.
(1) Early in the morning to His disciples on the lake shore--to youth in life’s early morning.
(2) At midday as here--in the hot noon of day to manhood and womanhood.
(3) At eventide on the way to Emmaus--in life’s evening to the aged.
(4) At night to Nicodemus--to the dying. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.)
Messias
Messiah
The Hebrew, Messias in the Syriac, and Christ in the Greek, means “the Anointed One.” Anointing with oil was the ancient form of consecration. Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost.
I. THE PROOFS OF CHRIST’S MESSIAHSHIP.
1. He was generally expected.
(1) Among the Jews.
(2) Among the Gentiles, as attested by the visit of the Magi and the testimony of classical writers. This is due to the settlement of the Jews among the heathen.
2. The miracles of Christ were the proof to which He always referred. These were
(1) Performed in public.
(2) Wrought in different places.
(3) Many in number.
(4) Not denied by His enemies.
3. The prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Him and in no one else.
(1) These were too jealously guarded for the evangelists to tamper with them.
(2) An impostor could not have fulfilled them. A man cannot arrange the place of his birth and his family, and would not have been diligent to fulfil prophecies which related to persecution and death.
4. The character of our Lord. “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” Some have thought that if Virtue were to walk on earth all men would immediately worship her. Plato knew better. He says the good man “would be tortured, spit upon, have his eyes put out, and be crucified.”
II. THE NATURE AND BLESSINGS OF CHRIST’S MESSIAHSHIP.
1. He is the true prophet.
(1) Note the characteristics of His teaching.
(a) How weighty His lessons--life and immortality, faith, self-denial, prayer, humility, love.
(b) How beautiful His illustrations--cornfields, lilies, leaven, fishing.
(c) How kind His manner--what tenderness to young and afflicted, what encouragement to the timid.
(d) How faithful His warnings. “Never man spake like this man.”
(2) He taught by example as well as precept.
(3) What is the testimony of believers to His teaching?
(a) When He spoke to our hearts it was with power.
(b) We learned more from Him in five minutes than in all our lives from others.
2. Christ is High Priest.
(1) The priests were washed in water and anointed with oil. Christ was baptized and imbued with the Spirit.
(2) The priestly functions were sacrifice, intercession, benediction. Christ” offered Himself”; “ever liveth to make intercession for us”; “gives the Spirit.”
3. Christ is King.
(1) By personal right.
(2) By donation from the Father.
(3) By purchase.
(4) By conquest.
(5) By voluntary surrender. (J. M. Randall)
The woman of Samaria
And in bringing a man to this state, we may observe that, commonly, some one particular sin, gross in its nature, and to which he has been addicted, is charged home upon the conscience. But a broad surface is not likely to penetrate; it must be pointed to enter. The indictment which arraigns this criminal, like every other, exhibits some specific charge; and the man exclaims, “O my swearing, my lying, my Sabbath-breaking, my prayerless life!” “Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” But she exclaims, “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Two reasons may be assigned for her proposing this question so instantly and abruptly. It has been supposed
1. That it was by way of diversion. But it has also been supposed
2. That her aim was to seize the present moment to gain information as to what was deemed important, and which she concluded this know- ing one might afford. Herein two things are observable
(1) That it should cool us, in many of our contests, to remember that the things we are contending about are of short duration; and that while we are disputing, they are vanishing away. There are “things which cannot be shaken, but must remain.”
(2) The best way to make up differences in little things is to be zealous about great ones. To these, therefore, the Scripture always directs our regards, knowing that if these supremely occupy the mind, we shall have neither time nor inclination for comparative trifling.
1. Observe the omniscience of our Lord, and bring it home to yourselves.
2. Let us worship the Lord, “ in the beauties of holiness”; and in order to this, never forget the information which our Saviour has given us.
3. Let us inquire whether He has manifested Himself to us. (W. Jay.)
Why this revelation of Messiahship was made to the woman and not to the Pharisees
The eagle has to strive hard and swoop round a great deal before he soars above the clouds, the weight of his body being a disadvantage to him to ascend. The lark, however, though smaller of stature and feebler of wing, soars up with rapidity and ease, the slightness of her body greatly facilitating her ascent. Thus minds of powerful calibre, heavily equipped with native and educational endowments, find it difficult to make their way up to the calm presence of God, their very ability being an impediment to them. Seeing every difficulty and feeling the force of every objection, they have to turn round and round and ascend laboriously in spiral columns. But many souls, small as larks, shoot up easily and gracefully, almost in a straight line, carolling all the way as they go, to the pure serene blue of the Divine Presence. To the Samaritan woman, and not to the learned Pharisees, did Christ openly avow His Messiahship, and present Himself in the majestic nakedness of His Divine mission. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)
The Samaritan view of the Messiah
The Samaritans still expect a Messiah to whom they give the name of Assaief (from
ùÑøá
, to return), which means “he who brings back” or converts, or else, “he who returns”; because the waiting of the Samaritans being founded on Deu_18:18, the Messiah is in their view a Moses who returns. At the present day they call him El-Muhdy. There is a remarkable contrast between this woman’s notion and that of the worldly and political Jews. The Samaritan idea was incomplete; the Messiah was a prophet, not a king. But it did not contain anything else; and hence Jesus can appropriate itself to Himself, and here declare Himself the Christ, which He never did in Israel till the last moment (Joh_17:3; Mat_26:64). (F. Godet, D. D.)
Christ earnestly desired is quickly found
No sooner do we think of Christ with the least true desire after Him, but He is presently with us. He invited Himself to Zaccheus’ table. (J. Trapp.)
