{"id":100,"date":"2016-01-25T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/?p=100"},"modified":"2016-01-24T20:50:17","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T04:50:17","slug":"john-4-part-2-objection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/?p=100","title":{"rendered":"John 4 Part 2 – Objection!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNegasaurus\u201d is a word we like to use jokingly to describe someone who is being negative. It\u2019s a play on a dinosaur name. When one of my sons has an idea and the other one shoots it down\u2026 Negasaurus! When we all agree on where to eat but one objects\u2026 Negasaurus! When one of us is down on ourselves and we need cheering up\u2026 Negasaurus! \u201cNegatron\u201d also gets thrown around a fair bit. Having sons, it\u2019s a play on \u201cMegatron\u201d from the ever popular Transformers. We totally discourage \u201cname-calling,\u201d but these family \u201cinside jokes\u201d are a lighthearted way for us to let each other know we may need an attitude adjustment.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well we see her throw many objections at Jesus. She is a first-class \u201cNegasaurus.\u201d But Jesus doesn\u2019t give up on her. He sticks around and answers all her objections.<\/p>\n

John 4:7-14<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, \u201cGive me a drink.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)<\/span>
\n<\/span>9 The Samaritan woman said to him, \u201cHow is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?\u201d (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)<\/span>
\n<\/span>10 Jesus answered her, \u201cIf you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, \u2018Give me a drink,\u2019 you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>11 The woman said to him, \u201cSir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?<\/span>
\n<\/span>12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>13 Jesus said to her, \u201cEveryone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,<\/span>
\n<\/span>14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus says, \u201cGive me a drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her objection<\/h5>\n

Jews don\u2019t talk to Samaritans<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Such a simple request from a thirsty man. Why does it seem she replies so harshly? She\u2019s basically saying \u201cAre you talking to me?\u201d This woman has a serious mental block about a Jewish Rabbi asking her for a drink. She already knows what John parenthesized for us in verse 9, that Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. In an extreme form of religious snobbery, devout Jews would walk miles out of their way, through the Jordan Valley, to avoid contact with the Samaritans. Jews believed the Samaritans were in a constant state of \u201cuncleanness\u201d because they were descendants of the Northern tribes of Israel that intermarried with the pagan Assyrians after their captivity in 721 B.C. Not fully Jew, not fully Gentile, they were half-breed relics of history. <\/span><\/p>\n

His answer<\/span><\/h5>\n

\u201cIf<\/span> you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, \u2018Give me a drink,\u2019 \u00a0you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Living water? What is that? Maybe her mind went to Jeremiah 17:13 which says, \u201cO LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.\u201d Maybe not, as it seems she has a few more objections coming. She seems a little confused, so she asks him \u201cSir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Her Objections<\/h5>\n

You have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep.
\n<\/span>Where is the living water?
\n<\/span>Are you greater than Jacob?
\n<\/span>This well is our inheritance from Jacob.<\/span><\/p>\n

The well was indeed at least 100\u2032 deep and possibly even deeper in that day. She knows in order to get herself, let alone this Jewish Rabbi, a drink she\u2019s winding a long, long, long rope, and all she sees is his empty hands. Then she even challenges him. \u201cAre you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.\u201d So her question is one of authority. She has this national pride. It\u2019s almost like she\u2019s questioning Jesus heritage in light of her own. The Jews might claim Abraham as their father but in her mind this well, being given to them by the Patriarch Jacob, gives them the authority to inhabit the place. But the answer to her question is yes, he is in fact greater than Jacob. Jesus addresses this later in the conversation so we\u2019ll catch up on that next time.<\/p>\n

His Answer<\/span><\/h5>\n

\u201cEveryone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her authority is coming from the Law, the old covenant made between the Lord and the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When we live our lives trying to please God with our own self-righteousness by the law we will continue to thirst. I might be righteous by the law for a second, but the whole job of the law and the old sacrificial system is to show me I can\u2019t be \u00a0righteous. \u201c<\/span>For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point<\/span> has become accountable for all of it.\u201d<\/span> James 2:10<\/span><\/p>\n

Here Jesus is expressing the new covenant\u2026 Grace. \u00a0We can only break free of the condemnation of the law when we drink the \u201cliving water.\u201d It is grace that tells us only Jesus takes away our sin and failure to uphold the law perfectly. Then we are finally free to stop our Negasaurus objections and have true peace with God. And that freedom and peace bubbles over, becomes like Jesus said, a spring of water welling up to eternal life\u2026 giving the grace of God generously to everyone around us.<\/p>\n

Living Water<\/span><\/h5>\n

If you could have living water, and never be thirsty again, and by thirsty I mean knocked down, drug out, soul weary, what would you give for it? Turns out it doesn\u2019t cost money, but humility. We must ask and believe. Jesus repeats his \u201cliving water\u201d offer later. In John 7:38 Jesus actually quotes proverbs 18:4 and says,\u00a0\u201cIf anyone thirsts, let him <\/span>come to me and drink.<\/span><\/span> Whoever believes in me, <\/span>as<\/span>\u00a0the Scripture has said, <\/span>\u2018Out of his heart will flow rivers of <\/span>living water.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0John defines that \u201cliving water\u201d for us in 7:39 saying \u201cNow this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Christians shouldn\u2019t be rules lawyers, like the Pharisees, but rather \u201cliving water\u201d drinkers. And that living water doesn\u2019t stagnate but flows in and through our lives. There\u2019s only one well that gives \u201cliving water.\u201d Jesus.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 12<\/span><\/h5>\n

This beautiful song is a powerful promise of the coming Savior. We see the grace of God, the well of salvation, and the only God worthy of our worship.<\/p>\n

You will say in that day:<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2018I will give thanks to you, O Lord,<\/span>
\n<\/span>for though you were angry with me,<\/span>
\n<\/span>your anger turned away,<\/span>
\n<\/span>that you might comfort me.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Behold, God is my salvation;<\/span>
\n<\/span>I will trust, and will not be afraid;<\/span>
\n<\/span>for the Lord God is my strength and my song,<\/span>
\n<\/span>and he has become my salvation.<\/span>
\n<\/span>With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day:<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2018Give thanks to the Lord,<\/span>
\n<\/span>call upon his name,<\/span>
\n<\/span>make known his deeds among the peoples,<\/span>
\n<\/span>proclaim that his name is exalted.\u2019<\/span>
\n<\/span>Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;<\/span>
\n<\/span>let this be made known in all the earth.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,<\/span>
\n<\/span>for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Next Time<\/span><\/h5>\n

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you were encouraged, Next time we\u2019ll cut to the heart of the issue as Jesus calls her out on sin and then reveals himself as the Messiah sent to save her from those very sins.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/span><\/h5>\n

Jeremiah 17<\/a> the true heart of God for disobedient Israel, He wanted relationship but they wanted to go on sinning in idolatry and offering up sacrifices to band-aid their shame.<\/span><\/p>\n

A wonderfully detailed article on ancient Shechem. The town Sychar (where the woman was from and the disciples went to buy food) was built near its ruins. Lots of great maps and history.<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNegasaurus\u201d is a word we like to use jokingly to describe someone who is being negative. It\u2019s a play on a dinosaur name. When one of my sons has an idea and the other one shoots it down\u2026 Negasaurus! When we all agree on where to eat but one objects\u2026 Negasaurus! When one of us…<\/span><\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[76],"tags":[93,97,98,12,18,7,20,27,94,6,91,96,90,92,41,5,95,9,15,99,40,82],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-john-4","tag-answer","tag-condemnation","tag-covwnant","tag-eternal","tag-freedom","tag-god","tag-grace","tag-israelites","tag-jacobs-well","tag-jesus","tag-jews","tag-law","tag-living-water","tag-objection","tag-righteous","tag-salvation","tag-samaritan","tag-sin","tag-spirit","tag-spring","tag-water","tag-woman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.smallchelle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/2011_03_27_woman_well.jpg?fit=602%2C453&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Nz8V-1C","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smallchelle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}