John 6 Ch.4.27-54

[HKHaugan]

Something new is happening here as it will throughout the Gospel. Jesus has declared His being the promised Messiah. He declared it to a woman. He declared it to her alone. He declared it to her because it was His Father's will at that moment, in that way and in those words. With Jesus we must remember everything He said and did was His Father's will (John 12:49-50). The Father was bringing Jesus to to give a whole new perspective to human living, a spiritual perspective that would depend on faith in His Son and His words as how we would live out our moment to moment future everyday in the world. Rather than legal obedience to prescribed rituals and behavior it would be direct guidance through His Son by the Holy Spirit in the mind and heart. This was new, radically new, spiritual spontaneity in every next event of life.

First, it showed us how spiritual He is. Second, it showed us how personal God is. Third, it showed us how relational God is. Fourth, it showed how ethnic issues, culture, religion and geography were ultimately irrelevant. God's directness in Him is what He is calling us to embrace.

vs.27 The above explains the disciples' surprise. They are still under the old Law and its social expectations. Pentecost hasn't come yet. Their experience of the Spirit is limited and they are still judging by tradition and Law. But no one pointed that out. The 'why' is conjecture. Shock probably.

vs.28 She leaves her water jar to go and tell the people. Leaving the water jar is symbolic of her leaving her past life with its daily demands, its monotonous routines and its personal guilts, resentments, religion, culture, social rejection, despair and lostness. This is no longer about survival but about new life, joy, wholeness and belonging directly to God, no matter what the background.

Also a revisiting of the 5 husbands brings a welcome insight. The Samaritans had developed their own Pentateuch which made Gerazim their holy mountain instead of Sinai. So when Jesus talked about the Samaritans not knowing what they worship but the Jews did, He was able to shift the woman's Messiah statement as the real alternative to religious speculation. Although not evident at the moment her five husbands represent the misplaced and lost trust she and her people had in their history. Now her sixth was simply someone who provided her with a place to live and a meal ticket, where most people are in a world without God. Historically it was not only pointing to the number 6 (the devil's number) but also when there's nothing left, there's no hope, no joy, just survival and religious self protection. Jesus presented Himself as the ultimate personal answer to all spiritual, intellectual, social and religious speculation.

After Pentecost, the spiritual reality of the whole Woman at the Well narrative becomes one of His symbolic masterpieces of historical prophecy that gives Jesus the kind of spiritual authenticity making His life the way to live, the way of the Cross.

vs.29-33 The woman's testimony drew the town's people out to see Him. During the intervening time the disciples urge Jesus to eat. He tells them cryptically that He has food to eat but it rings a bell in Him. You can see His mind at work here. They are talking about physical food. His is spiritual. He sees an opening to bring every thing physical into its spiritual significance.

vs.34 His food is to do the will of His Father and finish His work. Food is spiritual, will is spiritual and work is spiritual and He is the only One who knows and can it.

vs.35-38 Using a farm analogy He tells His disciples to look at everything around them spiritually. See the invisible behind the visible. As you look around you can see the process in the farm fields is already working. The plowing, planting,the fertilizing and watering have all been done. The harvesters are already harvesting. But there's far more. Open your spiritual eyes and see the world full of people who don't believe in me as the field. See the farmer out there reaping his crops? Well, the spiritual work has already been plowed, planted, pruned and is being picked. I am sending you out to reap what others have planted, who have done the hard work before you got here. Now you are getting the benefits of what they've done. Jesus is pointing to the patriarchs, the judges, the faithful and the prophets who laid the foundation for the spiritual work to finish the job. Six ceremonial jars of water for cleansing and now the seventh jar is the Messiah who comes to bring the Spirit who changes it all into wine. Sound familiar?

vs.39-42 Another new thing happens. Many in the town come to believe in Jesus because of the woman's testimony. Unheard of. What woman ever deserved that kind of reaction? And many more came to believe in Him when they went to hear Him.

vs.43-54 set the stage for the second sign of seven John records showing Jesus was the expected Messiah.

vs.44 Jesus heads to Galilee after being in Samaria 3 days. Although He said prophets are not honored in  their own country (Mt.13:53-58) He knows He must go there. Those who did honor His arrival were witnesses to what He had done in the Temple in Jerusalem (2:12 on).

The son of a royal official in Capernaum was sick. The official begs Jesus to come heal Him. What Jesus replied stands as another example of Jesus being led into situations that demanded a faith thought, a faith attitude and a faith action. No situation was without spiritual significance to Jesus which is how it should be with us.

Jesus said, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe.” The issue here is the built in cultural expectation that some physical sign or event validates a prophet. Words are good but signs are the real things. Signs and wonderful events precede belief. Jesus does heal the boy from a distance but the real sign is when it happened, the 7th hour (vs.52-53). It was the father who realized this. Three things to set aside about the father's attitude. First, when Jesus told the father to go home, his son would live, the father “took Him at His word (vs.50).” Second, the father realized after he got home that there was more to this healing than a physical event. Third, the 7th hour is what got Him to connect the spiritual with the physical. Only God could do what had been done.

The circumstance of the father has to be viewed. What was his trip home like? Yes, he had trusted what Jesus said but will it really happen? Think of Abraham and his trip with Isaac (Gen.22). When Jesus said, “Your son will live,” that looks both forward and backward. Forward to His own death and Resurrection and back to Isaac's being saved. This brings us to our personal experience of distances traveled, so-called coincidences that were really God-incidences. What events were signs of life and salvation for us that only God could have initiated to gain our trust? Are we still a people who depend on physical events to validate faith? Perhaps we need a refresher course to remind us that faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word. The signs John records are to validate Jesus as God the Son. Now He entrusts us with the Word to share that you and I may be the signs like the Samaritan woman at the well or like John the Baptizer or Mary running back from the tomb to tell the disciples Jesus had risen from the dead. Now it is up to us to share our testimony and be a witness.