Drinking From the Same Glass

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

DRINKING FROM THE SAME GLASS

John 4:1-14

4:1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"  8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" 13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 

NIV

It is interesting that Jesus, or rather his disciples stop baptizing people just because the Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. We are not told exactly why that would be a reason for Jesus to stop and just leave Judea and head off to Galilee. We can surmise the reason only because of our knowledge of the full story, having read all the gospel accounts, knowing the growing hatred of the Pharisees and how they were instrumental in the death of Jesus. It is also interesting that most any Jew going from Judea to Galilee would have to pass through Samaria. To avoid it, his route would have to go across the Jordan pass through Peraea and Decapolis then back again across the Jordan. That would be a much longer journey that we have to believe Jesus had something special in mind as he journeyed through Samaria. Of course, we have the complete exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman to give us the reason for this path of his journey. We have to believe Jesus does not do things by happenstance, but by the divine plan. It is also interesting John tells us that Jesus stopped to sit at the well because he was tired, but his disciples who traveled just as far as he did, went on into to town to buy food. Weren’t they tired too? Or was Jesus really not tired, but knew of his divine purpose to sit at the well so he could speak to this Samaritan woman? Again, we are not specifically told this is  why and how he knew what was going to happen, but it sure makes sense, knowing Jesus is divine and does possess divine knowledge even though he is in bodily form. He is still God in the flesh, lest we forget that. When the woman does appear to draw water from the well, Jesus asks her to give him a drink. John records Jews did not associate with Samaritans, however, that is not exactly what is going on. First, we have to know the Disciples headed into a Samaritan town to buy food, which would mean they had to have some association with Samaritans, exchanging money for food. What John was implying was that Jews did not use any utensils that a Samarian used, and here Jesus was going to drink from the same bucket and ladle this woman used. What is it that we learn from this? It this whole narrative needed in order to draw an application for our lives or can we see smaller applications from individual moments? We know the ultimate purpose was to bring salvation to this town through His exchange with this woman. But here we also can see that we should not be so aloft in our beliefs that we completely separate ourselves from unbelievers, keeping ourselves from using anything they use just because we don’t want to be like them. Jesus broke down that barrier in order to give her a divine gift, and should we not use whatever tools needed to bring that same divine gift to people? Whatever it takes to open their thinking to the truth of God seems appropriate, instead of being so stand-offish in our ways. Sure, we should not sin just to reach a sinner, but drinking from the same glass, metaphorically, should be the right thing to do in order to offer them salvation through Jesus Christ. We will see more as we go on in this narrative, but for now, let us consider how can we drink from the same glass.