Water and Worship: Presentation on John 4
I am speaking at a women's retreat at a local church today. Below is my presentation, more or less.
The Word—Jesus the Word and the textual Word--should always take priority, so please turn to John 4 and we will read verses 1-42.
Pray.
You probably know this account already, and you’ve perhaps heard sermons or talks on it already. It’s not a story. “Story” has a certain meaning today in this post-modern world, so I prefer to use the word account or history. This happened and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and his own research, John recorded it at this point in the gospel he wrote.
A little background. John wrote his account of Jesus life, death, and resurrection as the last gospel, Mark was the first one. Probably written about 80 AD, quite a bit later than it happened, perhaps 50 years. John was elderly by the time he wrote this gospel, but he was also quite young when he walked with Jesus. John’s gospel, as you’ve probably noticed, is a different structure than the other three. He focuses on certain miracles and speeches by Jesus to make one point, which he tells us:
John 20:30-31. 30 And (AF)truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 (AG)but these are written that (AH)you may believe that Jesus (AI)is the Christ, the Son of God, (AJ)and that believing you may have life in His name.
Actually, in less direct language, John points out why Jesus is doing “things” over and over; the phrase “these things” is used 42 times.
So, we have an account penned by John, a disciple, about a woman, talking to Jesus Christ. I want to emphasize that all the Bible is about Christ, so while we consider John and this woman, we will really turn our eyes to Christ above all.
I don’t know about you, but I have heard a lot of sermons on this passage, and usually, the woman is portrayed as an immoral person, even a prostitute. The messages took their eyes off Christ to spend too much time on her sin. There is no reason to think she is the town prostitute. However, she is a woman who lives under shame. I recently read an interesting book, The 3-D Gospel. It’s a short but profound one, mostly aimed at those going into foreign mission work or working with refugees and immigrants in the US (which by the way, there are many. There is a large group of Iraqi and Sudanese refugees in Chattanooga, and there will probably be Afghanis too). It says there are three broad types of cultures in this world:
Honor/shame. Honor shame cultures describes collectivistic cultures where people shamed for not fulfilling group expectations seek to restore their honor before the community
Fear/power people afraid of evil and harm pursue power over the spirit orld through magical rituals.
Guilt/Innocence or what I call Responsibility/freedom. People who break the laws are guilty and seek justice or forgiveness to rectify a wrong.
Now which one do you think we in the US live in?
We are fish in the water that don’t know we’re wet because we don’t know what water is. All cultures have elements of all of these, but they tend to be in these locations: Honor/shame – Asia and Middle East. Fear/power - Africa and indigenous (native American), Western and really the US. In the south, we have stronger honor elements, but we’re pretty much responsibility/freedom or guilt/innocence. What does this mean?
Honor/shame: These societies assume a strong group orientation. Honor is a person’s social worth. Shame on the other hand, is a negative public rating; the community thinks lowly of you and you are disconnected from the group.
Responsibilty/freedom – very individualistic. Not group
oriented. I’ll give you an example. We
often say, “I don’t feel comfortable with that, so I choose not to do it”
especially something that others are doing or we feel pressured into. One of my
colleagues is Chinese. She said they do not have words in their language to
express that. In China, you don’t get to opt out of the mainstream. Notice how
many wear masks in the pandemic. We have debates over that. They wouldn’t think
of debating it.
The fear/power is not common in the US. It basically has to do with seeing the world and the bad in it as coming from dark spiritual forces that have to be appeased or sacrificed to, or you have to get power over them by rituals. But we can see how the other two work in the US. More on that later, especially as it relates to women today. In short, though, guilt is a good thing, a Biblical thing. Guilt says you have done something wrong. Shame says you are wrong. Guilt says you have to make it right somehow by apologizing or paying restitution. Shame says, good luck; you might not be able to make it right and have to live with it. Shame says you don’t belong.
In honor/shame cultures, “who you are either honorable or shameful, is ascribed based on your group’s ethnicity, origin, and lineage. Identity is based more upon who you are, not simply what you do….In The Gospels, Jesus bestowed dignity and honor on many who lived in shame due to circumstances beyond their control. The blind, deaf, lame lepers, bleeding women, demon-possessed, and Gentiles whom Jesus restored physically and socially. Removing shame requires more than forgiveness. …Shame means inadequacy of the entire person. While guilt says, “I made a mistake,” shame says “I am a mistake.” Since the problem is the actual person, the shamed individual is banished from the group.
I can’t help but think about one of my ESL students from Sudan. She had three boys and was pregnant with her fourth. Of course, a boy was preferred. She was having some severe trouble with her pregnancy due to bad care in the past in Sudan and some cultural reasons and was concerned that she was expected to have more children. She also said that she had to clean her house before the baby was born because all the other Sudanese would come to see the baby and judge her for not having a clean house and being hospitable. Obviously, I thought, “They can get over it!” but she was very concerned because she came from a culture that said she was less than in so many ways.
The woman in John 4 lives in an honor/shame culture, and she lives with shame. You can see how she relates to Jesus. She is shamed for being a woman, for being traded among men, and for other reasons. She is shamed because she is a Samaritan between two Jewish regions. She is shamed because her country is overrun by the Romans. She’s probably poor, too. She comes to get water in the heat of the day rather than the cool of the morning. At the same time, her shame has made her hard and argumentative. You don’t see any other women in the Bible being this feisty with men other than their husbands, and even then not much. She has no problem arguing with this Jewish man who showed up at her town’s well, all by himself. That’s part of what is so fascinating. And Jesus has no problem with it. It’s an amazing passage when you dive into what she’s saying and how she’s saying it.
Before I go any further, I’m going to stop calling her “the woman” and give her a name. The Eastern Orthodox church named her Photina and gave her sainthood. Photina is from a Greek word that means “light”, but I use the name Sahirah, which comes from an Arabic word that means springs of water, which fits the story better. We don’t know her real name, so it’s just for public speaking purposes. I work with Arabic speakers in an ESL class at the church I attend, so I’ll go with that. I don’t know a word of Arabic, though.
This detour into shame is not for us just to study the
passage and take it apart. It’s to recognize that American culture is not empty
of shame. I almost think there is as much shame now than in the past; it’s just
changed. And the biggest agent or purveyor of shame is, and now I’m stepping on
toes, is social media. I heard a speaker recently call it a “narcissistic
feedback loop.” Wow. If you follow the news about Facebook and its criticism,
we now know that Facebook the organization purposely hid the bad research on
Instagram, especially, which young people and mostly young women, use. They are
hiding what people in the social sciences have known for years now: social
media is so highly correlated with anxiety, depression, and other emotional and
mental problems that we can pretty safely say it causes it, or at least causes
it to be a whole lot worse.
I myself can remember times when I would go through my scroll and think, “Why can’t my house look like that? Why can’t I get together with my family like that? Why am I not……” I recognize it as stupid, but it’s still there. We highly curate and select and present our lives on Social media. And we are not honest; we hide. No one (well, a few do, but we block these people) get up and say “My weight was 155 this morning, I shouldn’t have eaten those three pieces of pie last night.” No, we report we lost ten pounds.
And why? Because there are so many sources of “less than” “I’ m a mistake” “I don’t belong,” in our culture, and social media gives them a loud speaker, even worse than regular media. We all know those photos on Cosmopolitan are airbrushed and photoshopped and the women don’t really look like that. But our friends? And let’s remember we are far more exposed to social media than regular media. While it is only statistically true, teenage girls spend 7.22 hours a day on social media, according to Northwestern University. That means some are more, and some are less.
While boys lean more toward sharing things that are funny or entertaining, “girls are really using social media to connect with other people,” she said. “A lot of teens use this space to present themselves how they want to be seen, but there is a pressure for girls to be worried about others going to perceive them.”
Why: These wonderful things, which are with us all the time. All of us feel naked when we leave home without it. I keep mine with me in the house because I have no other phone. Do we ask God for protection when we leave home, or depend on this?
Sahirah is shamed because of her marital status or lack of
it; probably her childlessness, her ethnicity, and other things. We are
sometimes shamed for size, looks, marital status or lack of it, disability,
mental illness, economic status, car we drive, neighborhood we live in. There
is always someone out there trying to shame you. Worse, we are agents of shame
without knowing it sometimes, rather than agents of grace. We are agents of
grace when we see (recognize), acknowledge (understand) and accept the
person—not everything they do, but who they are. Remember, shame is about the
person, guilt the act. More than ever we need to call people to accountability
while still seeing them as a person.
I can’t help read about Sahirah without thinking of three other shamed women in the Old or First Testament.
Hagar in Gen. 16. Abraham did some low-life things in his
life, even though he’s the father of the faithful. She’s shamed as a slave, an
Egyptian outsider, and then kicked out because she got pregnant by another’s plan;
she was raped, let’s not whitewash it. She
wasn’t married to Abraham and had no say in the matter. Yet the LORD God does
not shame her; he visits her, which rarely happens to anyone in Genesis.
Hannah. She is shamed for being infertile. Her husband takes
another wife to get babies out of her, and then says, so empathetically “Aren’t
I better than children?” What? He just
rejected her for not having babies! And
God visits her, in a time when Israel’s sin has caused their isolation from God
Of course, Ruth; outsider, childless, poor, dependent, having to work in the fields.
We could name others; Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, etc. who are
interestingly in the lineage of Jesus! They experienced shame and guilt, which
are connected but not the same. Shame comes from people, not from God.
But as I said, this talk and this passage, as all of Scripture, is really about Jesus and only about us as marginal notes, so to speak. So, let’s return to how Jesus addresses Sahirah’s spiritual need.
Verses 1-6 set the stage and context. Jesus has been in Jerusalem and Judea for Passover; he has cleansed the temple once and met with Nicodemus in Chapter 3. Those who believe in him are being baptized by his disciples. I think this is wise; Jesus doesn’t want hierarchies of his followers, really, so they can’t say “I’m more a follower than you because I was baptized by the Lord.” It’s now time to go back to Galilee, his home area, north of Judea, but Samaria is in the way. Sort of like for us, we have to through Atlanta to go a lot of places, but sometimes we take the long route. The Jews typically took the long route; Jesus is not going to do that, and the disciples aren’t happy about it. They leave him to go get some kosher food in the town; the well is about ½ mile outside. Jesus is sitting there, Sahirah comes up, and he starts talking to her. Actually she should have offered him water as an act of hospitality, but he’s a Jew, she can tell (somehow) and she’s ignoring him. Women and men didn’t speak, and she had been taught that a Jewish man would think her “unclean” and there would be no contact. (Shame for being a woman because you menstruate).
He asks for water, in words that may seem rude, no please.
But some translations make it sound better. She questions his request, perhaps
sarcastically. I think Sahirah has had enough of men and doesn’t really care;
we see that later when she runs into town. She is a really realized person here
in the text, not just a figure. Jesus begins to tell her about her deepest
need.
Living water is an important expression in the Jewish Scriptures. It’s hard for us since we live in a wet climate and have indoor plumbing and water testing at the utility plant. Living water is running, fresh, mountain water, versus cistern water, stagnant. We can all relate to swamp water versus spring water coming down a mountain. That’s the physical meaning, but it has a spiritual meaning; Jeremiah 2:13 is one place but there are several others.
“For My people have committed two
evils:
They have forsaken Me, the (A)fountain of living waters,
And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can
hold no water.
17:13
O Lord, (A)the
hope of Israel,
(B)All
who forsake You shall be ashamed.
“Those who depart from Me
Shall be (C)written
in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the Lord,
The (D)fountain
of living waters.
And at the end, Revelation 21:6
6 And He said to me, (A)“It[a] is done! (B)I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. (C)I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
There are several other references to living water.
The image and expression is so rich we can’t explore it here, but two main things:
· Jesus is equating himself with the LORD God of Israel.
· Jesus is saying he can and will meet the deepest spiritual need in himself.
Sahirah is intrigued but not really understanding his words and not really believing it. She asks questions and argues a bit; different scholars have different opinions on that. Either way, she’s doing something remarkable, just like Martha does in John 11 after Lazarus dies, talking to Jesus like a man would, something their culture didn’t really allow. Women usually could not even read. And Jesus welcomes it but also doesn’t let her get away with her preconceived ideas.
15 (J)The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” (She’s gotten more respectful here, but she’s still thinking in physical and material terms and her own convenience)
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” Why? She is confusing her spiritual need with her convenience.
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Then, of course, Jesus reveals her whole life story, her shame, not to add to the shame but to show her 1. His knowledge of her, 2. Her spiritual need. Notice he doesn’t come back to it. He doesn’t belabor it. She doesn’t need to be feel more shame from men or her community.
However, we get stuck on this. It is not necessarily a sign that she is inherently a promiscuous woman. She was probably divorced for some fault, childlessness, an illness, or a bad personality; even in Islamic countries today, this exists. After divorce five, she needs protection, so she went with whoever she could. Her family might have rejected her. I’m not excusing, but culturally it’s not the same as a woman today who just has affairs and leaves her husband and goes on to the next live-in guy.
She’s amazed, says he’s a prophet, and deflects the conversation to the difference in their ethnicities and religions. What Jesus reveals in the next six verses is a book in itself.
1. Judaism and the Samaritan religion are not equal, because the Messiah and the revelation have come from the Jews, but Judaism will pass away, as will this belief that God has to be worshipped in a place, one mountain or another. Isn’t that good? We like to go to Israel, but it has nothing to do with your spiritual state or how much God loves you or gives you grace. Most Christians have not gone to Israel and there is no expectation of it.
2. God is seeking for those who worship in spirit and truth. God doesn’t want his followers getting hung up on place, rituals, body position. He wants truth and a humble spirit.
a. I want to stop here and talk about worship. I want to be careful here because worship is one of the most important topics you can discuss as a believer. Why? Because that’s what we will be doing in eternity. But what does that mean?
b. Does that mean we will be in a big church service forever and singing and singing. Possibly, but it’s clear to me in the end of Revelation that we will be living in a city with others and doing other things—yet still worshiping.
c. Worshiping is more than being in church singing. We are worshiping when we aren’t singing. And we can worship when we are not in church. Now, I don’t mean “we can worship at the golf course” or out on the lake, as an old joke, missing church and our responsibility to community. Dennis Albee brings his boat to church.
d. Worship is a life/heart orientation that takes place anywhere (not on a particular mountain or building). In spirit could mean “by the Holy Spirit” or “not dependent on the body or the body’s location” or “based on the intent of the heart.”
e. John MacArthur. “Worship is our innermost being responding with praise for all that God is, through our attitudes, actions, thoughts, and words, based on the truth of God as He has revealed Himself” (The Ultimate Priority [Moody Press], p. 127). Or, he gives a simpler definition: “Worship is all that we are, reacting rightly to all that He is” (ibid., p. 147). “Thus all of life is to be oriented “God-ward,” permeated with a sense of His majesty and glory.” Pastor Stephen J. Cole, Bible.org site
f. Not only in spirit, but in truth. That implies false worship is possible. I am persuaded that this is worship without a strong foundation of Biblical teaching, but I think it could also be falseness in the heart and motives of the worshipper, or not understanding worship.
g. These statements from Jesus cause Sahirah to say “I know that Messiah is coming and will reveal to us all things.” Jesus’ words about worship as transcendent over culture and place has caught her heart and mind. Jesus words are not maybe/if, wishy washy. They are authoritative. God is looking for true worshipers and this is what that means. In human terms we have to couch our language in “I think” or “I believe” but Jesus doesn’t do that.
3. I am the Messiah. Notice he didn’t start the conversation with this. I find that amazing. He starts where she is and brings her there.
The result: She’s got to tell someone. They don’t so much believe her, but come to see for themselves, and Jesus stays with them two days—probably the disciples were not happy about this—preparing them for what would happen later after the cross and resurrection and Acts 1:8. Verse 42 ends the story for the Samaritans, although there is some material about the confused disciples before that.
There is so much in this account that we could discuss and explore. On the handout I have four questions for you to jot down answers to.
1. Where do I see shame v. guilt in today’s world?
2. How does the teaching of the Bible help us deal with shame v. guilt?
3. How can we worship in spirit and truth in a practical way?
4. “This passage of Scripture assures me that the Lord Jesus Christ …..”
Share the last question with your seatmates.
This passage assures me that I am seen. I am going to end with my testimony of cultural shame. I was born with a strange and rare condition called Kallman’s Syndrome. Most have never heard of it or met anyone with it; I actually have never met another person with it f2f. Basically, it’s the total lack of either estrogen or testosterone (for men and women). So, no periods, no fertility, etc. for one’s whole life, without external help. Fortunately, I was able to get pregnant and have a son who is 32 and he’s finally getting married in May to a wonderful young woman. We are in total wedding mode. It took him forever but she’s well worth it. She invited me to go wedding dress shopping with her and her female family and friends. Before I had him, people tried to shame me for not having a child—I was selfish. Afterward, I have been shamed for not having more than one child. They did not know me, but wanted to shame me. God sees me and knows me.
There are other personal things I could go into, but I was, and still am, married to a man with bipolar disorder and other mental health concerns. Due to his erratic and actually abusive behavior, we are living apart. Mental illness is its own world of shame, and the same for those who live with it. I have a lot of people more or less say “Why did you put up with that?” and I feel the sense of shame that my husband, in his clear moments, which are rare now, feels. He refuses to get help, and he doesn’t know where I live. People don’t understand why I haven’t divorced him, which is complicated. If mental illness is an illness and biological, which his is, it’s complicated.
I reveal these two things because shame and guilt are common to all of us. You struggle with something like that in some way, and you may not share it with anyone because it is too painful, too confusing, too entrapping. You may never tell anyone, as I never told people about the Kallman’s until my mid-50s. The reality is that there is no end to what people want to shame us over. All that does is point us inward to ourselves rather than Jesus, makes us dwell in that shame rather than his love, saps our spiritual and creative energy rather than give that energy fully to Christ. If shame—not guilt for sinful choices and attitudes, but culturally enforced shame—is part of your life, bring that to Jesus and talk about it, openly and freely and honestly. Don’t try to hide it and change the subject with God. Be seen fully by him, like Hagar. Know he hears your prayers like Hannah, although he may answer them differently. Know he will meet your needs like Ruth the widow and outsider.
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