salvation is from the Jews (cf. Ps 76:1; Isa 2:3; Rom 9:4–5). Thus, Jesus links worship with God’s work in Israel’s history, especially with the incarnation of Christ. The place of worship has no significance, but it is the worshippers’ personal relationship with the Father that matters.
Jesus explains the manner of worship by using the word “an hour” that is coming and by adding the phrase “and now is” (4:23). He means that the opportune time to worship God, expected to happen at the end-time, has already come by virtue of his death, resurrection, and ascension. The eschatological worship can now be offered only in the church, God’s new community, which knows God as Father. This community is constituted by “true worshippers” who will worship the Father in “spirit and truth.” God is looking for such people as those who worship him. The word “spirit” denotes not the human spirit,11 but the Holy Spirit, and this is clear from the phrase “God is spirit” (4:24). The believing community is a worshipping community that is comprised of members who are born of the Spirit, and their new birth enables them to rise above the earthly level and worship God with right attitude.12 The God who is spirit can be seen and worshipped only in the spiritual realm. The word “truth” is knit together with “spirit” by a single preposition, “in.” The OT concept of truth denotes God’s faithfulness to his covenant relationship, and in John it was revealed in Jesus (1:14). Thus, true worship happens when the worshipper lives in the spiritual realm and accepts the faithfulness of God to his covenant revealed in Jesus.
The woman, who had believed in the coming Messiah, now speaks of the Messiah, who will come and declare everything related to the temple and worship (4:25). The Samaritans believed that the coming Messiah, the taheb, as the spokesman for God, would reveal the truth by declaring the divine will.13 As Jesus was declaring the things connected with worship, the belief dawned within her that Jesus could perhaps be that Messiah. As Jesus perceived her inner mind and also foreknew that his dialogue with her was reaching its culmination, he eventually revealed himself to her as the Messiah by saying, “I, I am, the one who is speaking to you” (4:26).
In John the word “I am,” used by Jesus for himself, indicates that he is the Christ, the revelation of the one God who is “I am that I am” (Exod 3:13–14). The prophet Isaiah uses this name to affirm both the uniqueness of Yahweh in relation to all other gods of Babylon and his relationship with his people as their God (Isa 41:4; 42:8; 43:10, 11, 13, 15, 25). By saying, “I am he,” Jesus expresses his uniqueness in comparison with other deities of the Samaritans, as the Messiah in whom the only God revealed himself. Jesus, the bearer of God’s presence, is the place where one can worship God. Jesus, as the new Temple, replaces the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and also the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.14 Although the woman’s perception of Jesus attains its climax now, at first she had only a tentative belief in his messiahship.
Jesus’ injunction on his disciples’ mission (4:27–38)
While Jesus was revealing his identity as the Christ, his disciples came back to him with food. When they saw their teacher talking alone with a woman, they were astonished, but no one had the courage to question Jesus about why he was conversing with a Samaritan woman or what his needs were (4:27). Jewish custom prohibited rabbis from talking with women, even with their own wives, in public places (m. Nid. 4:1). At this time the woman dramatically goes away from the scene. In her extreme enthusiasm of having met with the Messiah, she forgot all about the earthly water and left her water jar at the well to go to her people in the city (4:28). She went away to call her people to come and see whether or not the man who supernaturally disclosed her life history could be the Messiah (4:29).
The woman’s encounter with Christ gave her courage to invite others to come to Jesus. In Greek her question, “Can this be the Christ?,” begins with a negative particle mēti, expecting the answer “no.” However, this particle, in 4:29, “puts a suggestion in the most tentative and hesitating way.”15 Before she believes in Jesus fully along with other Samaritans (4:42), she wanted them to ensure whether Jesus could be the long-awaited Christ. The fact that many of them came to believe in Jesus through the woman’s word of testimony (4:39) shows that her faith in Jesus was genuine.
While the Samaritans were coming to Jesus (4:30), the disciples were persuading him to eat the food they had brought (4:31). Just like Jesus did not drink the earthly water from the woman, so also he did not eat the earthly food. In conformity with the non-understanding of Nicodemus and of the Samaritan, his disciples too did not understand the spiritual truth in Jesus’ statement, “I have food to eat of which you do not know” (4:32). They understood it at the human level and therefore questioned among themselves, “Did anyone bring him food to eat?” (4:33). John’s literary pattern where Jesus makes a statement, which is misunderstood, prompting him to speak further for clarification, becomes visible again.16 Jesus now clarifies by saying, “My food is that I may do the will of him who sent me and may accomplish his work” (4:34). His source of life was in the accomplishment of the Father’s work.
The sending of the Son by the Father into the world is a familiar theme in John. The Father sent his Son (cf. 3:17, 34; 6:38; 7:18; 9:4). That is, the Son was sent from heaven (6:38) to save the world. However, John particularizes Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross as the means by which he accomplished the work of the Father (cf. 5:36; 17:4; 19:28, 30). Just like food nourishes all living beings, so also accomplishing his Father’s plan of salvation gives nourishment to Jesus (cf. Deut 8:3).
Jesus now unveils to his disciples the present possibility for them to fulfill God’s mission of bringing many into God’s new society (4:35; cf. 20:21). He does this by reminding them of a common saying that there are yet four months for the harvest to come (4:35a).17 Normally it took four months from the end of sowing to the beginning of harvest.18 However, in the case of God’s mission, the opportunity to liberate people from bondage and to bring them into the new community is already present. The metaphorical saying of Jesus, “Lift up your eyes and see the fields that they are already white for harvest” (4:35b), is to give awareness to his followers of the existing opportunity for ministry. The “fields” may indicate the people and “being white for harvest” metaphorically implies their readiness to receive Jesus’ words and believe in him. The word “harvest” denotes the currently available season to involve oneself in Christ’s work of compassion (Matt 9:36–38; Luke 10:2). The “harvest” time also indicates the time of judgment given to the evildoers at the end-time (Matt 13:24–30, 36–43; Mark 4:26–29). The salvation in Jesus contains in itself also condemnation for those who do not believe in him. Jesus calls his followers to participate in the harvest.
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