The Discourse by the Well
Tesus probably left Jerusalem directly upon the close of the Pascal festival, and with His disciples went through Judea, visiting many of the villages, but tarried no considerable time in any place. His active ministry began in Jerusalem, but it was not until He had gone into the region of Judea, outside of the Holy City, that He began to preach and the disciples who followed Him to baptize in His name. Heretofore, under John’s teachings, baptism was but the sign of repentance, and a covenant to observe the rigid regulations of Jewish ordinances, which was a painful thralldom that only a subordinated conscience could submit to: a self-abasement; a torment of natural desires, and the rigors of self-denial that precluded the operation of that Divine liberty and love which is the holiest attribute of a godly mind. When Jesus came before the people He taught a higher conception of God; a religion that had for its chief corner-stone the love of one another and the freedom of conscience when purified or regenerated by faith in the mercy, the love, the compassion and the provident care of God. Baptism of itself was not relied on except as a sign, among men, of conversion, and hence to His disciples did Jesus delegate the duty of administering the rite, as an act of man, in contradistinction to the seal of God’s indwelling in the heart of the candidate, for by the heart alone does God judge all persons.
The new teachings of Jesus, as opposed to the binding intolerance of John’s cold asceticism, quickly obtained such general approval that all Judea went out to hear Him. The people in lower Galilee who had been crowding about John, having heard of the greater teacher, who was stirring up the people of all Judea, gradually fell away from the Baptist until his few remaining followers, growing jealous of the larger success of Jesus, complained to him of what they regarded as the fickleness of the people. But instead of sharing their feelings John explained to them the true Messiahship of Jesus, and told them that thenceforth he must decrease while Christ, the Holy Son of God, would increase.
The effect of the Lord’s sudden popularity among the masses not only created a jealousy, but a bitter hostility now manifested itself among the Pharisees — the priests, scribes and elders — whose influence with the people they found was melting away under the hot focus of Christ’s exposure of their vain pretences, and the mockery of their no-longer expressive ceremonials. They had rejected
(227)
John as a fanatic, and they now “rejected the counsel of God against themselves,” and they were ready to carr>’ their hostility against Jesus to the extreme of inflicting the harshest punishments. So threatening did their bitter enmity and jealousy become that Christ withdrew from Judea, and proceeded to Galilee, His departure probably being hastened by the arrest of John, who was shortly before this time taken by order of Herod Antipas and thrown into the fortress prison of Machserus, which was on the east coast of the Red Sea.
Through Samaria.
Jesus had been preaching in Judea for a period of nearly nine months before retiring from that region, but while His works must have been great, since His audiences were always very large, yet it does not appear that He made any considerable number of converts. It is therefore most reasonable to suppose that the purpose of His ministrations in that section was to sow seeds for an after harvest; to prepare the people for an acceptance of the greater works which He was afterwards to perform; to gradually bring to their comprehension a Messiah who, instead of appearing sitting on a cloud of gloiy and marshaling the hosts of heaven in battle array for a furious descent upon the enemies of Israel, wovdd come in the guise of a peasant, bearing the infirmities of a man, and reasoning with the power of one learned in the law; as one whose mission was to first instruct before declaring His Majesty; to open the heart as well as enlighten the understanding; to create a faith; to tear away the barriers set up for temporal uses of the I^evitical class, and lift the blind devotees of priestcraft to an eminence from which they might perceive the true character of God, and learn what was necessary to their salvation.
Instead of turning to the northeast and passing over the common route of travel, which led through Peraea, Jesus chose a shorter, though more dangerous road that passed through Samaria, the province which separated Galilee from Judea. Samaria, though a central portion of the Holy I^and, was alienated from Israel, by reason of its occupation by foreigners, brought in to settle the district anew after the captivity of the ten tribes:” men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.” These people, thus introduced by Esarhaddon, brought with them the idolatrous customs of the Babylonians, but a plague breaking out amongst them shortly after their settlement led them to believe that it was a visitation of divine anger at their refusal to accept the God of the Jews. So general did this belief soon become among the Samaritans that they dispatched an embassy to Babylon to request that Jewish priests be sent to instruct them in the worship of the Israelites. Their petition was granted, and under the teachings of rabbis they became worshipers of God, but yet they did not wholly discard their images. When, therefore, Cyrus sent Nehemiah to superintend the construction of a, new Temple at Jerusalem, the Samaritans oflfered to assist in the work, no doubt honestly intending to devote their services to the Lord in a union of worship with the Jews. But instead of accepting their overtures, and welcoming them to brotherhood, as the Jews did other heathens baptized in the
GROUP OF MODERN SAMARITANS.
faith, they were rejected with insults and scorning. Shortly after this there was such dissatisfaction among the Jews with the administration of Nehemiah, that a large body not only dissented but went over to the Samaritans, whom they joined in the building of a rival Temple on Mount Gerizim. This Temple was afterwards destroyed by John Hyrcanus, so that only the ruins remained at the time of Christ, but the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans still survived, notwithstanding that many of the latter claimed Jewish descent. In the time of Alexander (B. C. 332) the Samaritans claimed exemption from the payment of tribute in the Sabbatical year on the ground that they were descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh; and the woman with whom Jesus held discourse at the well, as will be presently described, intimates her Israelitish blood by the question,” Art Thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well?”
But while the Samaritans were peaceable, and, indeed, were of a hospitable and kindly disposition, they were regarded with such hostile feelings by the Jews that even the Apostles shared in this unreasonable enmity, and when Jesus went among them His disciples believed that any act of inhospitality upon the part of the Samaritans would be punished by the Lord sending fire from heaven to consume them.
The Beautiful Vale of Mukhna.
Into the district of Samaria Jesus set His way, lightly regarding the dangers which compassed a Jew in that direction. Out of the hill country of Judea, with its sterile peaks and rock-bestrewn roads, into the great and fertile plain of Esdraelon, by splendid pasture lands, over vast stretches of alternating hill and valley blossotning with corn, and orchards, and gardens, and vineyards, and with crowns of olives, and walnuts and figs. Out of Esdraelon into the plain of Mukhna and on into the valley which separates the great mountains of Ephraim; to the left Gerizim, and to the right Ebal, while beyond, near the head of the valley, where it narrows, lies the village of Nablus, the ancient Shechem — the Sychar of John. The town is now but an ugly scar on a hillside, but was, in the time of Christ, a spot memorable for its beauty, the centre of a landscape of exuberant nature; of groves of almond, pomegranate, olive, pear, plum and walnut, a beauteousness of surrounding unrivaled in all Palestine, while the town itself sat just above the base of a hill that brought into glorious panorama an extended view of incomparable picturesqueness. Here is where Abraham built an altar under an oak, in the days of Canaanitish possessions; here is where Jacob rested after his return from Mesopotamia; here he bought his first parcel of land, and which became the special patrimony of Joseph; here Jacob dug a well through rock and soil, more than one hundred feet deep, perhaps two hundred — for it is forty feet shallower now than it was fifty years ago — and of a diameter of nine feet, and which flowed water enough for all his immense flocks; under the oak of the mountain hard by the Shechemites made Abimelech king; and the town became a possession of the I^evites and a place of refuge. The well of Jacob and the tomb of Joseph are but a mile and a half east of the village, just beyond the hamlet of Balata, also called” the well of the Samaritan woman.”
1111 iii>^urRSE AT THE WELL. — Drawu by Dor.
(231y
The Samaritan Woman.
Trudging along the dusty road, under a sweltering sun at about the noon hour, Jesus and His disciples came to Jacob’s well. They were both athirst and ahungered. Water is nowhere abundant in that region except immediately after a rain-fall; the wadys are generally dry, and the heat great, so that poor travelers are apt to fare ill in an attempt to cross the country on foot. It was this scarcity of water, or the uncertainty of supply, that caused Jacob to expend so much time and labor in excavating, out of the solid limestone, a well so deep; but he knew that the fertility of the adjacent country would well repay him, as it did. Being exhausted with heat, hunger and travel, Jesus sat down by the well-side while He sent His disciples on to the village of Sychar to buy food. Himself feeling so nearly famished that He was scarcely able to proceed further without refreshment. Seated under the cooling shadows of the trees which overhung the well, reflecting on the history of Israel and the momentous events that had transpired in this vicinity, His reverie was arrested by the approach of a woman bearing an earthen jar and rope upon her head, who had come to the well for water. His thirst had no doubt been already quenched, yet Christ asked her to please let down the jar and draw water that He might drink. Observing at once that He was a Jew, and knowing the antipathy which that race bore towards her people, she replied: “How is it Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, who am a woman of Samaria?” To awaken the woman to a conception of His Divinity, Jesus made answer: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, ‘Give Me to drink,’ thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” But the woman did not comprehend His words, for with an expression of surprise she said,” Master, Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from whence then hast Thou that living water?” To this inquiry Jesus replied by explaining the difference between the water that quenches the thirst and which she came here to draw, and the living water that satisfies the soul rxud gives life everlasting to him who drinketh. This answer only served to in:;rease her longing, and to excite a curiosity she had never felt before. She now begged Him to give her of this water that she might have no reason for coming so far to draw again. Seeing that she was still unable to comprehend His meaning, Jesus now chose to reveal to her His Divine wisdom, by asking the woman to call her husband. “I have no husband,” she replied. “True,” said Jesus, “you have no husband now, but you have had five husbands, all of whom have been divorced or dead, while the man with whom you are now living is not your husband.”
The perfect knowledge which Jesus possessed and thus revealed to her concerning her private life made the woman stare with wonder, until with apparent inspiration she exclaimed, “Master, I perceive that Thou art a prophet.” As she was now prepared to receive His instructions, having become half conscious of His holy character as exhibited by the prophetic insight which He had thus displayed, she became eager to know more; to receive from Him that divine enlightenment which only a true prophet of the lyord might bestow. Hence she asked Him at which place was it more proper to worship, whether at Jerusalem, the holy city of Israel, or at Gerizim, the sacred mountain of the Samaritans. And why should she not ask this question? In the eyes of the Samaritans no place on earth was so hallowed as Gerizim. Their legends taught them that here was where God planted Paradise, and from the dust of this mountain Adam had been formed, and here he set up the first altar of worship. Upon this peak they believed the Ark of Noah rested after the flood, and from which the earth was repeopled; here too was where Noah sacrificed, where Abraham made an offering of Isaac, where Jacob rested his head in sleep when the dream-vision of a ladder ascending into heaven awoke him to ecstsay; and where Joshua set up the twelve stones after his conquest of Canaan, and to the peak of which all Samaritans set their gaze when in prayer, and to which they looked in longing expectation for the Messiah’s appearance.
Jesus First Declares His Messiahship.
Jesus had told the woman that the true Temple was in Jerusalem, but appreciating the prejudices of Jews and Samaritans alike, and particularly the receptive and dispassionate nature of the woman, He calmed her disquiet by replying to her question as to the true place of worship in this wise: “Believe Me, the hour conieth, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”
Catching at His meaning but not yet comprehending the whole, she says,” I know that Messiah cometh. When He is come, He will tell us all things.” Now was the time to throw the full light of revelation upon her, for having seen the dawn she was thus prepared for a full burst of sunlight into her understanding, so He answered, “I that speak to thee am He!” This was the first time Jesus positively acknowledged His Messiahship, and that He withheld such declaration from the Jews, to reveal it to a Samaritan, to a people who for centuries had been under the ban of Jewish proscription and abuse, is a problem to be solved only by consideration of the relative receptivity to religious teachings of the two races. The Jews were intrenched behind immemorial bigotry and theatrical ceremonial, and had grown in intensity of intolerance through priestly ambition and a diversion to their own worldly uses of the .sacred service and holy ritual of the Mosaic institution of worship. They were obdurate, arrogant and insolent, and opposed to everything that contravened their preconceived opinions, to which national disposition is no doubt due the small success that attended Christ’s preaching in
Judea.
The Goodly Qualities of the Samaritans.
The Samaritans were not only opposed to the Jews in their political and religious life, but in custom, social habits and sympathy also. Though an importation, so to speak, from heathen lands, the Samaritans were distinguished for their kindness, charity and great hospitality, which Jesus acknowledged in more than one of His sublime illustrations teaching men the true worship of God through acts of mercy done to one another. Of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed only one, a Samaritan, gave Him thanks. Of the hundreds who passed by the wounded man who lay by the wayside, only one, a Samaritan, ministered to him and bound up his hurts. And as Jesus came not to the Jews alone, but as a Saviour to all people, so He naturally revealed Himself as the Son of God to a Samaritan in whom He would find a sympathy, and a willingness to receive His teachings, which the stiff-necked Jews had refused.
At the moment that Jesus announced His Messiahship to the Samaritan woman, His disciples returned from Sychar bearing provisions which, knowing His hunger after such long fasting, they pressed Him to eat. To their invitation He replied that He had meat to eat which they knew not of, that meat of which He had before spoken. Then to make His meaning more perfectly understood He rose up, and looking down the widening valley where the fields were yet awaiting the sower, He said to His disciples:” You say it will be four months before harvest; but then will come the harvest for the sickle; look now toward every part of the land, the seeds of sin are whitening unto a harvest of righteousness; therefore the Lord’s laborers must thrust in their sickles not reaping only but threshing also, to purify, to cleanse unto salvation; he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal. Hence my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.”
As the disciples addressed Jesus upon their return, asking why he talked with a Samaritan, the woman left her water-pot and hastened to her home where she spread the news of Christ having come into the vicinity, and related the wondrous things which He had told her. Probably through curiosity to confirm or disprove her assertions; or to see a prophet, or learn the cause for her infatuation, many men came out to meet Jesus. They may have approached Him to offer an indignity, to avenge upon Him their hatred for” all Jews; but if they had any such harsh feelings upon going out of their city, these quickly changed upon a sight of His loving countenance when they drew near. And when He addressed them in kindly speech, they listened with respectful attention and they felt such admiration for His teachings that they besought Him to return home with them. Observing here a fertile field for His labors Christ went into the Samaritan city, and remained for a period of two days, during which time many were converted and accepted Him as “Christ the Saviour of the world.”
Accepted by the Galileans.
After a pleasant visit at Nablus, Jesus took leave of His Samaritan friends and continued His journey into Galilee. He probably passed through or near
THE GOOn SAMARITAN.
Nazareth, and went on to Cana, for receiving a royal greeting there He said to His friends, “A prophet is not without honor save in His own country,” thus intimating that He could not expect, or had been refused, a generous welcome at the hands of the Nazarenes.
But in Cana it was different; many there were who had been witness to His first miracle; while many others had attended the Paschal festival at Jerusaletn and seen how He drove the brokers and merchants from the Temple, and the other miracles which He performed there. So word went quickly through the village, and was borne over the hills by travelers, and conveyed by swift report to all the people living within a wide radius: “Jesus has returned to Cana; the wonderful man who performs miracles, and who certainly has the seal of Divinity upon Him, has come back to show forth His works.” And the whole country was ablaze with excitement: a splendid welcome, indeed; a joy to Christ in again meeting His mother and His devoted, trusting -and worshipful friends; and an occasion for thanksgiving for those who felt the presence of such a Holy One, who brought honor and glory to their town and means of salvation to all the people. It there were drums they must have been beaten; if there were banners they must have been flung to the wind; if there were musical instruments they must have been set playing. Oh, what a holiday for Cana, what a festival for all Galilee!