Coptic Orthodox Answers

In the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

Welcome to Coptic Orthodox Answers Deep Dive where we aim to dive deeper together in the Gospel of John. So far, we have covered the first three chapters and, in the last one, we saw how Nicodemus came to Christ by night and Christ explained to him the meaning of baptism, the true meaning of being born again, the true meaning of being a believer in Christ and to be a true follower of Him. And now, we're about to jump to chapter 4.

So, verse 1 says:

'' 1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.'' (John 4:1-3)

So, we know how the Pharisees did not like St. John the Baptist much. And now, we have Christ that is baptizing even more than John, so, we can expect their reaction towards Christ. So here, St. Cyril says how Christ removes Himself from this potential early tension that would have led to the cross prematurely. It would have led to His passion prematurely. So here, Christ removes Himself from this potential confrontation, because He has a specific time for the cross and because, before the cross, He has to meet and to heal every single person He is planning on to, right? Christ, when He does things, they are according to a certain plan and He does not want this plan to be destroyed.

Another reason why Christ does not allow the cross to happen earlier is because He wants to disciple His disciples. He wants to give them this life. And giving this life is not only about teaching: part of it is teaching and the other part is actually practicing, right? And we see it in these verses here how He allows them to do His work. And He stands there. He guides them. He directs them, right? And He's supervising. So, He's leading them. He's training them, because these people were about to become the leaders of the Church and the Church is the presence of Christ on earth. The Church has, as a responsible, to enlighten the world. It's a huge responsibility. So obviously, Christ wants to train them.

And this is a message for all of us, that us as well, we need a spiritual father in our lives. We need a spiritual guide that guides us in our journey towards Christ, because of the fact of the matter is the Church has been around for 2000 years, the Church has millions and billions of souls of experience and she knows what she's talking about versus if I look at myself, it's the first time that I live. I might think I'm doing something right while it is wrong. And therefore, we always, all of us, we need guidance, right? So, we need to be trained to attain or to know

Christ deeper and deeper to go from glory to glory to reach the level of sainthood that we deeply desire within us.

Let us continue reading. In verse 4, it says:

'' 4 But He needed to go through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour [or noon]. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.'' (John 4:4-8)

So, what's happening here? We know that Christ is in Jerusalem, in the province of Judea, which is all the way in the south, and He wants to go to Galilee, which is here in the north, and He has Samaria in the middle, the province of Samaria. So naturally speaking, if He goes from Judea to Galilee, He will go through Samaria.

But the Fathers that look at things also from a symbolic or an allegorical perspective, they said how Christ was thirsty for the salvation of this woman. So, He also went to Samaria to save her, to talk to her. And this is how Christ is thirsty for the salvation of all our souls. Anyone that is repentant, Christ will truly accept with open arms, like on the cross. But let us look at verse 6 again. It says:

Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied, so, He was tired from His journey. He sat by the well. It was about noon. A woman came to draw water. Christ told her: Give me a drink, because the disciples were away. So apparently, at that time, people walked with a skin bucket and they used that skin bucket to draw water and to drink from it. Potentially, this bucket was with the disciples and that's why St. John here, he specifies the fact that the disciples were away.

So, Christ being tired, you know, because it's noon in the Middle East and He's been walking a lot, He asks water from this woman. And this is precisely the paradox of the incarnation. Because we, here, have the Son of God, the giver of life... He's the source of the life-giving water itself, right?, and yet He is worried, yet He is tired and He asks this woman for water.

So, St. John, here, was speaking about the humanity and the divinity of Christ. But at the same time, we see something that is very unusual in this story as we...most of us know these details, that it was not normal for a pious rabbi to speak to a woman publicly and before that, it was not normal or not usual at the time for a Jew to speak to a Samaritan altogether, right? And also, it was not normal for a Jew that uses his own vessels, you know, that they were washed with a certain ritual, it was not normal for Him to go ahead and use the vessels of a Samaritan.

So here, Christ, He wants to send a message. He wants to send the message that He transcends all cultural limitations, because at the time when St. John is writing this Gospel, he's writing at the end of the 1 st century and we know that the Church was still plagued by Jews fighting against the Church, you know, and many of them would still believe that salvation or heaven or whatever, like, their idea of the kingdom is... belongs only to them. But Christ says: no, no, no, I'm here for everyone regardless of his or her background. I transcend all these cultural barriers.

Also, within the Church even, the Church itself was plagued with Christians that were formerly Jews and other Christians that were formerly Gentiles and they had their disagreements. And Christ, again, is saying it doesn't matter. It's not about cultural barriers. It's not about your old traditions. It's about who I am. It's about truly believing in Me in following in the correct way.

So here, I'm not discussing things concerning the faith. The faith was given once and for all, right?, as the Bible clearly states, and that's done with. But how we practice our faith... there could be diversity there, right? And St. John, knowing all of this, writing under the end of the 1 st century, potentially, this is why he's describing the details of this specific story to demonstrate that us too today, 2000 years later, we ought to look for ways to transcend these cultural barriers, to bring and to attract people to Christ, so all of us can be saved without affecting the faith itself.

Moving on to verse 9. It says:

'' 9 Then [a] woman of Samaria said to Him, ''How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?'' For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.'' (John 4:9)

So, she recognized that He was a Jew and therefore, she was shocked at the fact that He was talkin' to her and He's asking for a drink. And she probably, here, rebuked Him. This question is probably a rebuke, because we can imagine that she also hated the Jews. The fact that she knew that the Jews hated them, you know, it is very natural, right? for them, at the time, to reciprocate these feelings back towards the Jews. So here, she's questioning Him in a form of a rebuke.

Moving on to verse 10. It says:

'' 10 Jesus answered and said to her, ''If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink', you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.'' '' (John 4:10)

Again, remember, here, that Christ is thirsty for her salvation, so, in this verse 10, He throws a bait of truth to her. So, He wants to hook her into a conversation that will eventually lead to her salvation.

'' 11 [So,] the woman said to Him, ''Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?'' (John 4:11)

She potentially thought He was bluffing and she wants to call His bluff, so, she asks that question or, potentially also, she really meant it.

'' 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” (John 4:12)

Here, Christ is telling her: I'm gonna give you a better water than the water you're drinking from now. So, her thought process is: Who are you? Because Jabob himself drank from this water and if he did drink from this water, then this water is the best water available. If you tell me that you have better water than the water that is here, who do you make yourself to be?, right? These are the words... that's her... the thought process in her mind.

And notice how she appropriates the patriarch Jabob to her. She says, in verse 12, in the beginning: Are you greater than our father Jabob... So, to them, father Jabob was the patriarch of the Samaritans, not of the Jews. Again, they are in disagreement, both of these, the Jews and the Samaritans.

Verse 13:

'' 13 Jesus answered and said to her, ''Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.'' 15 The woman said to Him, ''Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.'' (Jean 4:13-15)

Of course, this living water's the symbol of the Holy Spirit within us and once we are filled with the Spirit, we find our purpose. We are full of joy, full of peace and so on. But usually, when Christ speaks in a spiritual manner, often, people understand it physically and the Samaritan woman was no exception. So, her response was: Well, give me this water, so I won't thirst and come here anymore to draw, because it's noon, because it's hot, because it's tiring. And I'm coming at noon, because I'm avoiding people, because they're judging me, because they know of my background, right? That's her response.

And we see, here again, the tension between the spiritual and the physical. Christ is saying true joy, true happiness, true peace, true love comes in spiritual life in Me. Yet many are seeking the physical. We run after sin, because it's right there; it's right in front of us. We're not able to overlook it to seek Christ to be full of the Spirit, right? We want what's immediate. But unfortunately, sin does not give true joy. It might give temporary happiness, if you wanna

call it that way, but at the end of the day, what we feel inside when we sin is emptiness, is anger, is lack of purpose, is being disconnected from God.

But God says: forget about all this stuff. I want to give you the true life. I want this life-giving water to be within you. I want you to find the meaning of being united with Me and to go share this light and this life within you with the entire world.

So, moving on to verse 16. It says:

'' 16 Jesus said to her, ''Go, call your husband, and come here.'' 17 The woman answered and said, ''I have no husband.'' Jesus said to her, ''You have well said, 'I have no husband,' 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.'' 19 The woman said to Him, ''Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.'' (Jean 4:16-20)

Of course, the first thing that stands out is how Christ is gentle with her, how He approaches a sinner with such love, compassion and such wisdom, and hooks her to Him, right? And then, He brings her to repentance. But here, notice, again, although He was so gentle with her and He even encouraged her throughout the discussion, it was not enough. He still had to lead her to repentance and once she was hooked, not at the beginning of the conversation, but once she was hooked, he told her: Go and call your husband, right? And then she answered and He replied and so on. This is the first point we ought to take from this discourse.

The second point we can take is found in verse 19. It says: The woman said to Him, ''Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet...'' So, she perceived that there was something different about Him. And that's how we ought to serve as well. I was hearing this sermon the other day and one of the priests said something that was very nice. He said: What's the difference between our own service as Christians and a humanitarian service done by a non-profit organization, let's say?

Says: Our service has to be full of Christ's presence. So, although others could be more organized, although others, you know, can have more budget, that's not what matters. What matters is the presence of Christ within our service, the presence of Christ with me wherever I go. Whether if I teach, I don't know, Sunday school, if I teach the Bible school, if I teach a hymns class, if I go preach outside the church, wherever it may be, is Christ present with me? Do I have eternal life within me, this life-giving water within me, therefore I can pass on this eternal life to others? That ought to be our objective as Christians.

So, moving on to verse 21. It says:

'' 21 Jesus said to her, ''Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.'' (John 4:21-24)

So, what happens is this... The Samaritan woman realized Christ is a prophet and therefore, she uses that opportunity to discuss the central issue between the Samaritans and the Jews and she says: Well, you say that you have to worship in Jerusalem, but we say that we worship on this mountain, Gerizim, right? It’s the Mount Gerizim. So, which one is right? And that's Christ's response... He says to her: salvation is of the Jews. Again, He sticks to the truth, and then He says that the true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth, right? So, Christ does care about the truth and Christ, again, once He hooks this woman that had a different understanding of sacred history, He corrects her as well and He teaches her the proper understanding of things.

Another point to be made, here, is when Christ tells the Samaritan woman: Woman, the hour is coming that you will neither worship on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. Then He says that the true worshippers of God will worship in spirit and truth, right? So, I'm gonna go back to Malachi 1:11, this prophecy in the Old Testament talking about the Church of the New Testament, because it says:

'' 11 ''For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down [meaning from east to west], my name [the name of God, right?] shall be great among the Gentiles; in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations'', says the Lord of hosts.'' (Malachi 1:11)

So, notice, here, this pure offering and this incense are not Jewish, meaning it's not Jewish incense, because it's done by the Gentiles. It's done from east to the west, in the entire world. It's not in Jerusalem, so, it's not Jewish. The Jewish incense is often Jerusalem only, in the temple. It's not pagan either, because it's done in God's name. This is a prophecy about the New Testament Church, where incense is there in our liturgical services and there is a pure offering that is being offered in the Eucharist, as well as spiritually in our lives.

So, in other words, God is telling her: I have come. I have fulfilled all the requirements. I am the fulfillment of the law. The purpose of the Jewish nation is accomplished. The Saviour, the Messiah is here and once He dies and He's raised from the dead, every single person in the world will have access to Him if he or she desires.

So, in the verse 25, it says:

'' 25 The woman said to Him, ''I know that Messiah is coming'' (who is called Christ) [St. John is here translating]. ''When He comes, He will tell us all things.'' 26 Jesus said to her, ''I who speak to you am He.'' '' (Jean 4:25-26)

So here, the woman is overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge and information Christ is giving her and she doesn't know what to respond. So, she says: When the Messiah comes, He will teach us all things. Because the Samaritans were waiting for a messiah, but He was different from the Jewish understanding of the Messiah. To them, He was a teacher and they called Him بئات (tay-ib) or a restorer, and He was there to teach not as a king like the Jews understood. So, she says: when He comes, He will teach us all things. But then, Christ says: I am He.

So here, He brings her ultimately to the knowledge of the truth that He is the Messiah. And He does it through gentleness, through patience, through making her understand, bit by bit, who He really is. In the beginning, she started by thinking that He was a prophet and now, when she was ready to hear it, He tells her I am He; I am the Messiah.

The last point we will make today is a comparison between the Samaritan woman that believed the truth that Jesus Christ is the Messiah versus some people in John 2, where they had seen miracles, they had seen signs, and therefore, they partially believed. And then, the Gospel says that Christ did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men. And then, He says that He knew what was in man, meaning that since Christ foreknew that these people will say Crucify Him! Crucify Him! later on, because their belief was partial, He did not commit Himself to them.

And this is very important, because these people, their faith was based on transient things, on miracles, on signs, potentially also on the emotions that were associated with these signs. But their faith did not go through, was not strong enough for them to go through the tribulations with Christ. So, this is not how true Christianity is. If we go to John 4, verse 23, that we read earlier, it says:

'' 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, [that] the true worshipers [of the Father] will worship [Him] in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.'' (John 4:23)

We ought to worship in spirit and in truth. Some people sometimes look to worship only in the spirit and don't care much about truth. And every Christianity becomes like the other and it's as if we're going to a shopping centre and shopping for whichever Christianity fits us best. But am I supposed to seek Christ as He truly is or Christ according to my own perception or according to my own needs or desires?

Some other people don't care much about the spirit, as long as they have the truth. But that's not what God seeks. He seeks worship in spirit and in truth. And therefore, we ought to have Christ as our foundation and to build on this foundation bit by bit in our relationship with Him. And this happens through knowing and understanding our faith, then living our faith, and then teaching our faith.

And glory be to God forever and ever. Amen.

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Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.