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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J O H N.
CHAP. IV.
It was, more than any thing else, the glory of the land of Israel, that
it was Emmanuel’s land
(Isa. viii. 8),
not only the place of his birth, but the scene of his preaching and
miracles. This land in our Saviour’s time was divided into three parts:
Judea in the south, Galilee in the north, and Samaria lying between
them. Now, in this chapter, we have Christ in each of these three parts
of that land.
I. Departing out of Judea,
II. Passing through Samaria, which, though a visit in transitu, here
takes up most room.
1. His coming into Samaria,
2. His discourse with the Samaritan woman at a well,
3. The notice which the woman gave of him to the city,
4. Christ’s talk with his disciples in the meantime,
5. The good effect of this among the Samaritans,
III. We find him residing for some time in Galilee
(ver. 43-46),
and his curing a nobleman’s son there, that was at death’s door,
| Christ’s Journey into Galilee. |
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1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that
Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
3 He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee.
We read of Christ’s coming into Judea
(ch. iii. 22),
after he had kept the feast at Jerusalem; and now he left Judea four
months before harvest, as is said here
(v. 35);
so that it is computed that he staid in Judea about six months, to
build upon the foundation John had laid there. We have no particular
account of his sermons and miracles there, only in general,
v. 1.
I. That he made disciples; he prevailed with many to embrace his
doctrine, and to follow him as a teacher come from God. His ministry
was successful, notwithstanding the opposition it met with
(Ps. cx. 2, 3);
mathetas poiei–it signifies the same with
matheteuo—to disciples. Compare
The souls which they had gotten, which they had made (so
the word is), which they had made proselytes. Note, It is
Christ’s prerogative to make disciples, first to bring them to
his foot, and then to form and fashion them to his will. Fit, non
nascitur, Christianus–The Christian is made such, not born such.
Tertullian.
II. That he baptized those whom he made disciples,
admitted them by washing them with water; not himself, but by
the ministry of his disciples,
v. 2.
1. Because he would put a difference between his baptism and that of
John, who baptized all himself; for he baptized as a servant, Christ as
a master.
2. He would apply himself more to preaching work, which was the more
excellent,
3. He would put honour upon his disciples, by empowering and employing
them to do it; and so train them up to further services.
4. If he had baptized some himself, they would have been apt to value
themselves upon that, and despise others, which he would prevent, as
Paul,
5. He would reserve himself for the honour of baptizing with the Holy
Ghost,
6. He would teach us that the efficacy of the sacraments depends not on
any virtue in the hand that administers them, as also that what is done
by his ministers, according to his direction, he owns as done by
himself.
III. That he made and baptized more disciples than John; not
only more than John did at this time, but more than he had done at any
time. Christ’s converse was more winning than John’s. His miracles were
convincing, and the cures he wrought gratis very inviting.
IV. That the Pharisees were informed of this; they heard what
multitudes he baptized, for they had, from his first appearing, a
jealous eye upon him, and wanted not spies to give them notice
concerning him. Observe,
1. When the Pharisees thought they had got rid of John (for he was by
this time imprisoned), and were pleasing themselves with that, Jesus
appears, who was a greater vexation to them than ever John had been.
The witnesses will rise again.
2. That which grieved them was that Christ made so many disciples. The
success of the gospel exasperates its enemies, and it is a good sign
that it is getting ground when the powers of darkness are enraged
against it.
V. That our Lord Jesus knew very well what informations were given in
against him to the Pharisees. It is probable the informers were willing
to have their names concealed, and the Pharisees loth to have their
designs known; but none can dig so keep as to hide their counsels
from the Lord
and Christ is here called the Lord. He knew what was told the
Pharisees, and how much, it is likely, it exceeded the truth; for it is
not likely that Jesus had yet baptized more than John; but so
the thing was represented, to make him appear the more formidable; see
VI. That hereupon our Lord Jesus left Judea and departed
again to go to Galilee.
1. He left Judea, because he was likely to be persecuted there
even to the death; such was the rage of the Pharisees against him, and
such their impious policy to devour the man-child in his infancy. To
escape their designs, Christ quitted the country, and went where what
he did would be less provoking than just under their eye. For,
(1.) His hour was not yet come
(ch. vii. 30),
the time fixed in the counsels of God, and the Old-Testament
prophecies, for Messiah’s being cut off. He had not finished his
testimony, and therefore would not surrender or expose himself.
(2.) The disciples he had gathered in Judea were not able to bear
hardships, and therefore he would not expose them.
(3.) Hereby he gave an example to his own rule: When they persecute
you in one city, flee to another. We are not called to suffer,
while we may avoid it without sin; and therefore, though we may not,
for our own preservation, change our religion, yet we may change our
place. Christ secured himself, not by a miracle, but in a way common
to men, for the direction and encouragement of his suffering
people.
2. He departed into Galilee, because he had work to do there, and many
friends and fewer enemies. He went to Galilee now,
(1.) Because John’s ministry had now made way for him there; for
Galilee, which was under Herod’s jurisdiction, was the last scene of
John’s baptism.
(2.) Because John’s imprisonment had now made room for him
there. That light being now put under a bushel, the minds of people
would not be divided between him and Christ. Thus both the liberties
and restraints of good ministers are for the furtherance of the gospel,
But to what purpose does he go into Galilee for safety? Herod, the
persecutor of John, will never be the protector of Jesus. Chemnitius
here notes, Pii in hác vit´ quos fugiant habent; ad
quos vero fugiant ut in tuto sint non habent, nisi ad te, Deus, qui
solus regugium nostrum es—The pious have those, in this life,
to whom they can fly; but they have none to fly to, who can afford them
refuge, except thee, O God.
| Christ at the Well of Samaria. |
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4 And he must needs go through Samaria.
5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar,
near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied
with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the
sixth hour.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith
unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that
thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of
Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift
of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou
wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living
water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw
with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that
living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the
well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his
cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this
water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be
in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I
thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said
unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast
is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a
prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in
Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh,
when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem,
worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for
salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father
seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth.
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which
is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
We have here an account of the good Christ did in Samaria, when he
passed through that country in his way to Galilee. The
Samaritans, both in blood and religion, were mongrel
Jews, the posterity of those colonies which the king of Assyria
planted there after the captivity of the ten tribes, with whom the poor
of the land that were left behind, and many other Jews afterwards,
incorporated themselves. They worshipped the God of Israel only, to
whom they erected a temple on mount Gerizim, in competition with that
at Jerusalem. There was great enmity between them and the Jews; the
Samaritans would not admit Christ, when they saw he was going to
Jerusalem
(Luke ix. 53);
the Jews thought they could not give him a worse name than to say,
He is a Samaritan. When the Jews were in prosperity, the
Samaritans claimed kindred to them
(Ezra iv. 2),
but, when the Jews were in distress, they were Medes and Persians; see
Joseph. Antiq. 11. 340-341; 12. 257. Now observe,
I. Christ’s coming into Samaria. He charged his disciples not to
enter into any city of the Samaritans
(Matt. x. 5),
that is, not to preach the gospel, or work miracles; nor did he here
preach publicly, or work any miracle, his eye being to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. What kindness he here did them was
accidental; it was only a crumb of the children’s bread
that casually fell from the master’s table.
1. His road from Judea to Galilee lay through the country
of Samaria
(v. 4):
He must needs go through Samaria. There was no other way, unless
he would have fetched a compass on the other side Jordan, a
great way about. The wicked and profane are at present so intermixed
with God’s Israel that, unless we will go out of the world, we
cannot avoid going through the company of such,
We have therefore need of the armour or righteousness on the right hand
and on the left, that we may neither give provocation to them
nor contract pollution by them. We should not go into places of
temptation but when we needs must; and then we should not reside
in them, but hasten through them. Some think that Christ
must needs go through Samaria because of the good work he had to
do there; a poor woman to be converted, a lost sheep to be sought and
saved. This was work his heart was upon, the therefore he
must needs go this way. It was happy for Samaria that it lay
in Christ’s way, which gave him an opportunity of calling on
them. When I passed by thee, I said unto thee, Live,
Ezek. xvi. 6.
2. His baiting place happened to be at a city of Samaria. Now
observe,
(1.) The place described. It was called Sychar; probably the
same with Sichem, or Shechem, a place which we read much
of in the Old Testament. Thus are the names of places commonly
corrupted by tract of time. Shechem yielded the first proselyte that
ever came into the church of Israel
and now it is the first place where the gospel is preached out of the
commonwealth of Israel; so Dr. Lightfoot observes; as also that the
valley of Achor, which was given for a door of hope, hope
to the poor Gentiles, ran along by this city,
Abimelech was made king here; it was Jeroboam’s royal seat; but the
evangelist, when he would give us the antiquities of the place, takes
notice of Jacob’s interest there, which was more its honour than its
crowned heads.
[1.] Here lay Jacob’s ground, the parcel of ground which Jacob
gave to his son Joseph, whose bones were buried in it,
Gen. xlviii. 22; Josh. xxiv. 32.
Probably this is mentioned to intimate that Christ, when he reposed
himself hard by here, took occasion from the ground which Jacob gave
Joseph to meditate on the good report which the elders by faith
obtained. Jerome chose to live in the land of Canaan, that the sight of
the places might affect him the more with scripture stories.
[2.] Here was Jacob’s well which he digged, or at least used, for
himself and his family. We find no mention of this well in the Old
Testament; but the tradition was that it was Jacob’s well.
(2.) The posture of our Lord Jesus at this place: Being wearied with
his journey, he sat thus on the well. We have here our Lord
Jesus,
[1.] Labouring under the common fatigue of travellers. He was
wearied with his journey. Though it was yet but the sixth hour,
and he had performed but half his day’s journey, yet he was weary; or,
because it was the sixth hour, the time of the heat of the day,
therefore he was weary. Here we see, First, That he was a
true man, and subject to the common infirmities of the human
nature. Toil came in with sin
(Gen. iii. 19),
and therefore Christ, having made himself a curse for us, submitted to
it. Secondly, That he was a poor man, else he might have
travelled on horseback or in a chariot. To this instance of meanness
and mortification he humbled himself for us, that he went all his
journeys on foot. When servants were on horses, princes
walked as servants on the earth,
Eccl. x. 7.
When we are carried easily, let us think on the weariness of our
Master. Thirdly, It should seem that he was but a tender
man, and not of a robust constitution; it should seem, his
disciples were not tired, for they went into the town without any
difficulty, when their Master sat down, and could not go a step
further. Bodies of the finest mould are most sensible of fatigue, and
can worst bear it.
[2.] We have him here betaking himself to the common relief of
travellers; Being wearied, he sat thus on the well. First, He
sat on the well, an uneasy place, cold and hard; he had
no couch, no easy chair to repose himself in, but took to that which
was next hand, to teach us not to be nice and curious in the
conveniences of this life, but content with mean things.
Secondly, He sat thus, in an uneasy posture; sat
carelessly–incuriose et neglectim; or he sat so as people
that are wearied with travelling are accustomed to sit.
II. His discourse with a Samaritan woman, which is here recorded at
large, while Christ’s dispute with the doctors, and his discourse with
Moses and Elias on the mount, are buried in silence. This discourse is
reducible to four heads:–
1. They discourse concerning the water,
v. 7-15.
(1.) Notice is taken of the circumstances that gave occasion to
this discourse.
[1.] There comes a woman of Samaria to draw water. This
intimates her poverty, she had no servant to be a drawer of
water; and her industry, she would do it herself. See here,
First, How God owns and approves of honest humble diligence in
our places. Christ was made known to the shepherds when they were
keeping their flock. Secondly, How the divine Providence brings
about glorious purposes by events which seem to us fortuitous and
accidental. This woman’s meeting with Christ at the well may remind us
of the stories of Rebekah, Rachel, and Jethro’s daughter, who all met
with husbands, good husbands, no worse than Isaac, Jacob, and Moses,
when they came to the wells for water. Thirdly, How the
preventing grace of God sometimes brings people unexpectedly under the
means of conversion and salvation. He is found of them that sought him
not.
[2.] His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat.
Hence learn a lesson, First, Of justice and honesty. The meat
Christ ate, he bought and paid for, as Paul,
Secondly, Of daily dependence upon Providence: Take no
thought for the morrow. Christ did not go into the city to eat, but
sent his disciples to fetch his meat thither; not because he scrupled
eating in a Samaritan city, but,
1. Because he had a good work to do at that well, which might be done
while they were catering. It is wisdom to fill up our vacant minutes
with that which is good, that the fragments of time may not
be lost. Peter, while his dinner was getting ready, fell into a
trance,
2. Because it was more private and retired, more cheap and homely, to
have his dinner brought him hither, than to go into the town for it.
Perhaps his purse was low, and he would teach us good husbandry,
to spend according to what we have and not go beyond it.
At least, he would teach us not to affect great things. Christ could
eat his dinner as well upon a draw well as in the best inn in
the town. Let us comport with our circumstances. Now this gave
Christ an opportunity of discoursing with this woman about spiritual
concerns, and he improved it; he often preached to multitudes that
crowded after him for instruction, yet here he condescends to teach a
single person, a woman, a poor woman, a stranger, a Samaritan, to teach
his ministers to do likewise, as those that know what a glorious
achievement it is to help to save, though but one soul, from
death.
(2.) Let us observe the particulars of this discourse.
[1.] Jesus begins with a modest request for a draught of water: Give
me to drink. He that for our sakes became poor here becomes
a beggar, that those who are in want, and cannot dig, may not be
ashamed to beg. Christ asked for it, not only because he needed it, and
needed her help to come at it, but because he would draw on further
discourse with her, and teach us to be willing to be beholden to the
meanest when there is occasion. Christ is still begging in his poor
members, and a cup of cold water, like this here, given to them
in his name, shall not lose its reward.
[2.] The woman, though she does not deny his request, yet quarrels with
him because he did not carry on the humour of his own nation
(v. 9):
How is it? Observe, First, What a mortal feud there was
between the Jews and the Samaritans: The Jews have no dealings with
the Samaritans. The Samaritans were the adversaries of Judah
(Ezra iv. 1),
were upon all occasions mischievous to them. The Jews were extremely
malicious against the Samaritans, “looked upon them as having no part
in the resurrection, excommunicated and cursed them by the sacred name
of God, by the glorious writing of the tables, and by the curse of the
upper and lower house of judgment, with this law, That no Israelite eat
of any thing that is a Samaritan’s, for it is as if he should eat
swine’s flesh.” So Dr. Lightfoot, out of Rabbi Tanchum. Note,
Quarrels about religion are usually the most implacable of all
quarrels. Men were made to have dealing one with another; but if
men, because one worships at one temple and another at another, will
deny the offices of humanity, and charity, and common civility, will be
morose and unnatural, scornful and censorious, and this under colour of
zeal for religion, they plainly show that however their religion may be
true they are not truly religious; but, pretending to
stickle for religion, subvert the design of it. Secondly, How
ready the woman was to upbraid Christ with the haughtiness and ill
nature of the Jewish nation: How is it that thou, being a Jew,
askest drink of me? By his dress or dialect, or both, she knew him
to be a Jew, and thinks it strange that he runs not to the same
excess of riot against the Samaritans with other Jews. Note, Moderate
men of all sides are, like Joshua and his fellows
(Zech. iii. 8),
men wondered at. Two things this woman wonders at,
1. That he should ask this kindness; for it was the pride of the
Jews that they would endure any hardship rather than be beholden to a
Samaritan. It was part of Christ’s humiliation that he was born of the
Jewish nation, which was now not only in an ill state,
subject to the Romans, but in an ill name among the nations.
With what disdain did Pilate ask, Am I a Jew? Thus he made
himself not only of no reputation, but of ill
reputation; but herein he has set us an example of swimming against
the stream of common corruptions. We must, like our master, put on
goodness and kindness, though it should be ever so much
the genius of our country, or the humour of our party, to be morose and
ill-natured. This woman expected that Christ should be as other Jews
were; but it is unjust to charge upon every individual person even the
common faults of the community: no rule but has some exceptions.
2. She wonders that he should expect to receive this kindness
from her that was a Samaritan: “You Jews could deny it to one of our
nation, and why should we grant it to one of yours?” Thus quarrels are
propagated endlessly by revenge and retaliation.
[3.] Christ takes this occasion to instruct her in divine things: If
thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldst have asked,
v. 10.
Observe,
First, He waives her objection of the feud between the Jews and
Samaritans, and takes no notice of it. Some differences are best
healed by being slighted, and by avoiding all occasions
of entering into dispute about them. Christ will convert this
woman, not by showing her that the Samaritan worship was
schismatical (though really it was so), but by showing her her
own ignorance and immoralities, and her need of a Saviour.
Secondly, He fills her with an apprehension that she had now an
opportunity (a fairer opportunity than she was aware of) of gaining
that which would be of unspeakable advantage to her. She had not the
helps that the Jews had to discern the signs of the times, and
therefore Christ tells her expressly that she had now a season of
grace; this was the day of her visitation.
a. He hints to her what she should know, but was ignorant
of: If thou knewest the gift of God, that is, as the next words
explain it, who it is that saith, Give me to drink. If thou
knewest who I am. She saw him to be a Jew, a poor weary
traveller; but he would have her know something more concerning him
that did yet appear. Note,
(a.) Jesus Christ is the gift of God, the richest token
of God’s love to us, and the richest treasure of all good for us; a
gift, not a debt which we could demand from God; not a loan,
which he will demand from us again, but a gift, a free gift,
(b.) It is an unspeakable privilege to have this gift of God
proposed and offered to us; to have an opportunity of embracing it: “He
who is the gift of God is now set before thee, and addresses himself to
thee; it is he that saith, Give me to drink; this gift
comes a begging to thee.”
(c.) Though Christ is set before us, and sues to us in and by
his gospel, yet there are multitudes that know him not. They
know not who it is that speaks to them in the gospel, that saith,
Give me to drink; they perceive not that it is the Lord that
calls them.
b. He hopes concerning her, what she would have done if she had
known him; to be sure she would not have given him such a rude and
uncivil answer; nay, she would have been so far from affronting him
that she would have made her addresses to him: Thou wouldest have
asked. Note,
(a.) Those that would have any benefit by Christ must ask for
it, must be earnest in prayer to God for it.
(b.) Those that have a right knowledge of Christ will seek to
him, and if we do not seek unto him it is a sign that we do not know
him,
(c.) Christ knows what they that want the means of knowledge
would have done if they had had them,
c. He assures her what he would have done for her if she had
applied to him: “He would have given thee (and not have
upbraided thee as thou doest me) living water.” By this living
water is meant the Spirit, who is not like the water in the
bottom of the well, for some of which he asked, but like living
or running water, which was much more valuable. Note,
(a.) The Spirit of grace is as living water; see
Under this similitude the blessings of the Messiah had been promised in
the Old Testament,
Isa. xii. 3; xxxv. 7; xliv. 3; lv. 1;
Zech. xiv. 8.
The graces of the Spirit, and his comforts, satisfy the thirsting soul,
that knows its own nature and necessity.
(b.) Jesus Christ can and will give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask him; for he received that he might
give.
[4.] The woman objects against and cavils at the gracious intimation
which Christ gave her
(v. 11, 12):
Thou hast nothing to draw with; and besides, Art thou greater
than our father Jacob? What he spoke figuratively, she took
literally; Nicodemus did so too. See what confused notions they have
of spiritual things who are wholly taken up with the things that are
sensible. Some respect she pays to this person, in calling him
Sir, or Lord; but little respect to what he said, which
she does but banter.
First, She does not think him capable of furnishing her with any
water, no, not this in the well that is just at hand: Thou has
nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. This she said,
not knowing the power of Christ, for he who causeth the vapours
to ascend from the ends of the earth needs nothing to draw. But
there are those who will trust Christ no further than they can see him,
and will not believe his promise, unless the means of the performance
of it be visible; as if he were tied to our methods, and could
not draw water without our buckets. She asks scornfully, “Whence
hast thou this living water? I see not whence thou canst have it.”
Note, The springs of that living water which Christ has for those that
come to him are secret and undiscovered. The fountain of life is hid
with Christ. Christ has enough for us, though we see not whence he has
it.
Secondly, She does not think it possible that he should furnish
her with any better water than this which she could come at, but he
could not: Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the
well?
a. We will suppose the tradition true, that Jacob himself,
and his children, and cattle, did drink of this well. And we may
observe from it,
(a.) The power and providence of God, in the continuance of the
fountains of water from generation to generation, by the constant
circulation of the rivers, like the blood in the body
(Eccl. i. 7),
to which circulation perhaps the flux and reflux of the sea, like the
pulses of the heart, contribute.
(b.) The plainness of the patriarch Jacob; his drink was water,
and he and his children drank of the same well with his cattle.
b. Yet, allowing that to be true, she was out in several things;
as,
(a.) In calling Jacob father. What authority had the
Samaritans to reckon themselves of the seed of Jacob? They were
descended from that mixed multitude which the king of Assyria had
placed in the cities of Samaria; what have they to do then with Jacob?
Because they were the invaders of Israel’s rights, and the
unjust possessors of Israel’s lands, were they therefore the
inheritors of Israel’s blood and honour? How absurd were those
pretensions!
(b.) She is out in claiming this well as Jacob’s gift, whereas
he did no more give it than Moses gave the manna,
ch. vi. 32.
But thus we are apt to call the messengers of God’s gifts the
donors of them, and to look so much at the hands they pass
through as to forget the hand they come from. Jacob gave it
to his sons, not to them. Yet thus the church’s enemies not only
usurp, but monopolize, the church’s privileges.
(c.) She was out in speaking of Christ as not worthy to be
compared with our father Jacob. An over-fond veneration for antiquity
makes God’s graces, in the good people of our own day, to be
slighted.
[5.] Christ answers this cavil, and makes it out that the living
water he had to give was far better than that of Jacob’s well,
Though she spoke perversely, Christ did not cast her off, but
instructed and encouraged her. He shows her,
First, That the water of Jacob’s well yielded but a
transient satisfaction and supply: “Whoso drinketh of this
water shall thirst again. It is no better than other water; it will
quench the present thirst, but the thirst will return, and in a few
hours a man will have as much need, and as much desire,
of water as ever he had.” This intimates,
1. The infirmities of our bodies in this present state; they are
still necessitous, and ever craving. Life is a
fire, a lamp, which will soon go out, without continual
supplies of fuel and oil. The natural heat preys upon itself.
2. The imperfections of all our comforts in this world; they are
not lasting, nor our satisfaction in them remaining. Whatever waters of
comfort we drink of, we shall thirst again. Yesterday’s meat and
drink will not do to-day’s work.
Secondly, That the living waters he would give should yield a
lasting satisfaction and bliss,
Christ’s gifts appear most valuable when they come to be compared with
the things of this world; for there will appear no comparison between
them. Whoever partakes of the Spirit of grace, and the comforts of the
everlasting gospel,
a. He shall never thirst, he shall never want that which
will abundantly satisfy his soul’s desires; they are longing,
but not languishing. A desiring thirst he has, nothing
more than God, still more and more of God; but not a
despairing thirst.
b. Therefore he shall never thirst, because this water that
Christ gives shall be in him a well of water. He can never be
reduced to extremity that has in himself a fountain of supply
and satisfaction.
(a.) Ever ready, for it shall be in him. The
principle of grace planted in him is the spring of his comfort;
see
A good man is satisfied from himself, for Christ dwells in
his heart. The anointing abides in him; he needs not sneak to the
world for comfort; the work and the witness of the Spirit
in the heart furnish him with a firm foundation of hope and an
overflowing fountain of joy.
(b.) Never failing, for it shall be in him a well of
water. He that has at hand only a bucket of water needs not thirst
as long as this lasts, but it will soon be exhausted; but
believers have in them a well of water, overflowing, ever
flowing. The principles and affections which Christ’s
holy religion forms in the souls of those that are brought under
the power of it are this well of water.
[a.] It is springing up, ever in motion, which bespeaks
the actings of grace strong and vigorous. If good truths
stagnate in our souls, like standing water, they do not answer
the end of our receiving them. If there be a good treasure in the
heart, we must thence bring forth good things.
[b.] It is springing up unto everlasting life; which
intimates, First, The aims of gracious actings. A
sanctified soul has its eye upon heaven, means this, designs this, does
all for this, will take up with nothing short of this. Spiritual life
springs up towards its own perfection in eternal life.
Secondly, The constancy of those actings; it will
continue springing up till it come to perfection. Thirdly, The
crown of them, eternal life at last. The living water rises from
heaven, and therefore rises towards heaven; see
And now is not this water better than that of Jacob’s well?
[6.] The woman (whether in jest or earnest is hard to say) begs of him
to give her some of this water
(v. 15):
Give me this water, that I thirst not. First, Some think that
she speaks tauntingly, and ridicules what Christ had said as
mere stuff; and, in derision of it, not desires, but
challenges him to give her some of this water: “A rare
invention; it will save me a great deal of pains if I never
come hither to draw.” But, Secondly, Others think that it
was a well-meant but weak and ignorant desire. She apprehended
that he meant something very good and useful, and therefore saith
Amen, at a venture. Whatever it be, let me have it;
who will show me any good? Ease, or saving of labour, is a
valuable good to poor labouring people. Note,
1. Even those that are weak and ignorant may yet have some faint and
fluctuating desires towards Christ and his gifts, and some good wishes
of grace and glory.
2. Carnal hearts, in their best wishes, look no higher than carnal
ends. “Give it to me,” saith she, “not that I may have everlasting
life” (which Christ proposed), “but that I come not hither to
draw.“
2. The next subject of discourse with this woman in concerning her
husband,
v. 16-18.
It was not to let fall the discourse of the water of life that Christ
started this, as many who will bring in any impertinence in
conversation that they may drop a serious subject; but it was with a
gracious design that Christ mentioned it. What he had said concerning
his grace and eternal life he found had made little impression upon
her, because she had not been convinced of sin: therefore, waiving the
discourse about the living water, he sets himself to awaken her
conscience, to open the wound of guilt, and then she would more easily
apprehend the remedy by grace. And this is the method of dealing with
souls; they must first be made weary and heavy-laden
under the burden of sin, and then brought to Christ for rest; first
pricked to the heart, and then healed. This is the course of spiritual
physic; and if we proceed not in this order we begin at the wrong
end.
Observe,
(1.) How discreetly and decently Christ introduces this discourse
(v. 16):
Go, call thy husband, and come hither. Now,
[1.] The order Christ gave her had a very good colour: “Call thy
husband, that he may teach thee, and help thee to understand these
things, which thou art so ignorant of” The wives that will learn must
ask their husbands
who must dwell with them as men of knowledge,
1 Pet. iii. 7.
“Call thy husband, that he may learn with thee; that then you
may be heirs together of the grace of life. Call thy husband,
that he may be witness to what passes between us.” Christ would thus
teach us to provide things honest in the sight of all men, and
to study that which is of good report.
[2.] As it had a good colour, so it had a good design; for hence
he would take occasion to call her sin to remembrance. There is need of
art and prudence in giving reproofs; to fetch a compass, as the woman
of Tekoa,
(2.) How industriously the woman seeks to evade the conviction, and yet
insensibly convicts herself, and, ere she is aware, owns her fault; she
said, I have no husband. Her saying this intimated no more than
that she did not care to have her husband spoken of, nor that matter
mentioned any more. She would not have her husband come thither, lest,
in further discourse, the truth of the matter should come out, to her
shame; and therefore, “Pray go on to talk of something else, I have
no husband;” she would be thought a maid or a widow,
whereas, though she had no husband, she was neither. The carnal mind is
very ingenious to shift off convictions, and to keep them from
fastening, careful to cover the sin.
(3.) How closely our Lord Jesus brings home the conviction to her
conscience. It is probable that he said more than is here recorded, for
she thought that he told her all that ever she did
(v. 29),
but that which is here recorded is concerning her husbands. Here is,
[1.] A surprising narrative of her past conversation:
Thou has had five husbands. Doubtless, it was not her
affliction (the burying of so many husbands), but her
sin, that Christ intended to upbraid her with; either she had
eloped (as the law speaks), had run away from her
husbands, and married others, or by her undutiful, unclean,
disloyal conduct, had provoked them to divorce her, or by
indirect means had, contrary to law, divorced them. Those who
make light of such scandalous practices as these, as no more than
nine days’ wonder, and as if the guilt were over as soon as the
talk is over, should remember that Christ keeps account of all.
[2.] A severe reproof of her present state of life: He whom thou now
hast is not thy husband. Either she was never married to him at
all, or he had some other wife, or, which is most probable, her former
husband or husbands were living: so that, in short, she lived in
adultery. Yet observe how mildly Christ tells her of it; he doth
not call her strumpet, but tells her, He with whom thou
livest is not thy husband: and then leaves it to her own conscience
to say the rest. Note, Reproofs are ordinarily most profitable
when they are least provoking.
[3.] Yet in this he puts a better construction than it would well bear
upon what she said by way of shuffle and evasion: Thou has well said
I have no husband; and again, In that saidst thou truly.
What she intended as a denial of the fact (that she had none
with whom she lived as a husband) he favourably interpreted, or at
least turned upon her, as a confession of the fault. Note, Those
who would win souls should make the best of them, whereby they
may hope to work upon their good-nature; for, if they
make the worst of them, they certainly exasperate their
ill-nature.
3. The next subject of discourse with this woman is concerning the
place of worship,
v. 19-24.
Observe,
(1.) A case of conscience proposed to Christ by the woman, concerning
the place of worship,
[1.] The inducement she had to put this case: Sir, I perceive that
thou art a prophet. She does not deny the truth of what he had
charged her with, but by her silence owns the justice of the reproof;
nor is she put into a passion by it, as many are when they are touched
in a sore place, does not impute his censure to the general disgust the
Jews had to the Samaritans, but (which is a rare thing) can bear to be
told of a fault. But this is not all; she goes further: First,
She speaks respectfully to him, calls him Sir. Thus should we
honour those that deal faithfully with us. This was the effect
of Christ’s meekness in reproving her; he gave her no ill language, and
then she gave him none. Secondly, She acknowledges him to be a
prophet, one that had a correspondence with Heaven. Note, The
power of the word of Christ in searching the heart, and convincing the
conscience of secret sins, is a great proof of its divine authority,
Thirdly, She desires some further instruction from him. Many
that are not angry at their reprovers, nor fly in their faces,
yet are afraid of them and keep out of their way; but this woman
was willing to have some more discourse with him that told her of her
faults.
[2.] The case itself that she propounded concerning the place of
religious worship in public. Some think that she started this to
shift off further discourse concerning her sin. Controversies in
religion often prove great prejudices to serious godliness; but, it
should seem, she proposed it with a good design; she knew she must
worship God, and desired to do it aright; and therefore, meeting with a
prophet, begs his direction. Note, It is our wisdom to improve all
opportunities of getting knowledge in the things of God. When we are in
company with those that are fit to teach, let us be forward
to learn, and have a good question ready to put to those who
are able to give a good answer. It was agreed between the Jews
and the Samaritans that God is to be worshipped (even those who were
such fools as to worship false gods were not such brutes as to
worship none), and that religious worship is an affair of great
importance: men would not contend about it if they were not
concerned about it. But the matter in variance was where
they should worship God. Observe how she states the case:–
First, As for the Samaritans: Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, near to this city and this well; there the Samaritan
temple was built by Sanballat, in favour of which she insinuates,
1. That whatever the temple was the place was holy; it was mount
Gerizim, the mount in which the blessings were pronounced; and
some think the same on which Abraham built his altar
and Jacob his,
2. That it might plead prescription: Our fathers worshipped
here. She thinks they have antiquity, tradition, and succession, on
their side. A vain conversation often supports itself with this,
that it was received by tradition from our fathers. But she had
little reason to boast of their fathers; for, when Antiochus
persecuted the Jews, the Samaritans, for fear of sharing with them in
their sufferings, not only renounced all relation to the Jews, but
surrendered their temple to Antiochus, with a request that it might be
dedicated to Jupiter Olympius, and called by his name. Joseph.
Antiq. 12. 257-264.
Secondly, As to the Jews: You say that in Jerusalem is
the place where men ought to worship. The Samaritans governed
themselves by the five books of Moses, and (some think) received
only them as canonical. Now, though they found frequent mention
there of the place God would choose, yet they did not find it named
there; and they saw the temple at Jerusalem stripped of many of its
ancient glories, and therefore thought themselves at liberty to set up
another place, altar against altar.
(2.) Christ’s answer to this case of conscience,
&c. Those that apply themselves to Christ for instruction shall find
him meek, to teach the meek his way. Now here,
[1.] He puts a slight upon the question, as she had proposed it,
concerning the place of worship
(v. 21):
“Woman, believe me as a prophet, and mark what I say. Thou art
expecting the hour to come when either by some divine
revelation, or some signal providence, this matter shall be decided in
favour either of Jerusalem or of Mount Gerizim; but I tell thee the
hour is at hand when it shall be no more a question; that which thou
has been taught to lay so much weight on shall be set aside as a thing
indifferent.” Note, It should cool us in our contests to think
that those things which now fill us, and which we make such a noise
about, shall shortly vanish, and be no more: the very
things we are striving about are passing away: The hour comes when
you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the
Father. First, The object of worship is supposed to continue still
the same–God, as a Father; under this notion the very heathen
worshipped God, the Jews did so, and probably the Samaritans.
Secondly, But a period shall be put to all niceness and all
differences about the place of worship. The approaching dissolution of
the Jewish economy, and the erecting of the evangelical state, shall
set this matter at large, and lay all in common, so that
it shall be a thing perfectly indifferent whether in either of these
places or any other men worship God, for they shall not be tied to any
place; neither here nor there, but both, and
any where, and every where. Note, The worship of God is
not now, under the gospel, appropriated to any place, as it was under
the law, but it is God’s will that men pray every where.
Our reason teaches us to consult decency and convenience
in the places of our worship: but our religion gives no preference to
one place above another, in respect to holiness and acceptableness to
God. Those who prefer any worship merely for the sake of the house or
building in which it is performed (though it were as magnificent and as
solemnly consecrated as ever Solomon’s temple was) forget that
the hour is come when there shall be no difference put in God’s
account: no, not between Jerusalem, which had been so famous for
sanctity, and the mountain of Samaria, which had been so
infamous for impiety.
[2.] He lays a stress upon other things, in the matter of
religious worship. When he made so light of the place of worship he did
not intend to lessen our concern about the thing itself, of which
therefore he takes occasion to discourse more fully.
First, As to the present state of the controversy, he
determines against the Samaritan worship, and in favour of the
Jews,
He tells here,
1. That the Samaritans were certainly in the wrong; not merely
because they worshipped in this mountain, though, while Jerusalem’s
choice was in force, that was sinful, but because they were out in the
object of their worship. If the worship itself had been as it should
have been, its separation from Jerusalem might have been connived at,
as the high places were in the best reigns: But you worship
you know not what, or that which you do not know. They
worshipped the God of Israel, the true God
(Ezra iv. 2; 2 Kings xvii. 32);
but they were sunk into gross ignorance; they worshipped him as the
God of that land
as a local deity, like the gods of the nations, whereas God must be
served as God, as the universal cause and Lord. Note, Ignorance
is so far from being the mother of devotion that it is the
murderer of it. Those that worship God ignorantly offer
the blind for sacrifice, and it is the sacrifice of
fools.
2. That the Jews were certainly in the right. For,
(1.) “We know what we worship. We go upon sure grounds in our
worship, for our people are catechised and trained up in the knowledge
of God, as he has revealed himself in the scripture.” Note, Those who
by the scriptures have obtained some knowledge of God (a certain
though not a perfect knowledge) may worship him
comfortably to themselves, and acceptably to him, for
they know what they worship. Christ elsewhere condemns the
corruptions of the Jews’ worship
(Matt. xv. 9),
and yet here defends the worship itself; the worship may be true
where yet it is not pure and entire. Observe, Our Lord
Jesus was pleased to reckon himself among the worshippers of
God: We worship. Though he was a Son (and then are the children
free), yet learned he this obedience, in the days of his
humiliation. Let not the greatest of men think the worship of God below
them, when the Son of God himself did not.
(2.) Salvation is of the Jews; and therefore they know what they
worship, and what grounds they go upon in their worship. Not that all
the Jews were saved, nor that it was not possible but that many of the
Gentiles and Samaritans might be saved, for in every nation he
that fears God and works righteousness is accepted of him; but,
[1.] The author of eternal salvation comes of the Jews, appears among
them
(Rom. ix. 5),
and is sent first to bless them.
[2.] The means of eternal salvation are afforded to them. The word
of salvation
was of the Jews. It was delivered to them, and other nations
derived it through them. This was a sure guide to them in their
devotions, and they followed it, and therefore knew what they
worshipped. To them were committed the oracles of God
(Rom. iii. 2),
and the service of God,
(Rom. ix. 4).
The Jews therefore being thus privileged and advanced, it was
presumption for the Samaritans to vie with them.
Secondly, He describes the evangelical worship which alone God
would accept and be well pleased with. Having shown that the place is
indifferent, he comes to show what is necessary and
essential–that we worship God in spirit and in truth,
v. 23, 24.
The stress is not to be laid upon the place where we worship
God, but upon the state of mind in which we worship him. Note,
The most effectual way to take up differences in the minor matters of
religion is to be more zealous in the greater. Those who daily make it
the matter of their care to worship in the spirit, one would
think, should not make it the matter of their strife whether he should
be worshipped here or there. Christ had justly preferred the Jewish
worship before the Samaritan, yet here he intimates the imperfection of
that. The worship was ceremonial,
Heb. ix. 1, 10.
The worshippers were generally carnal, and strangers to the
inward part of divine worship. Note, It is possible that we may
be better than our neighbours, and yet not so good as we should be. It
concerns us to be right, not only in the object of our worship,
but in the manner of it; and it is this which Christ here
instructs us in. Observe,
a. The great and glorious revolution which should introduce this
change: The hour cometh, and now is–the fixed stated time,
concerning which it was of old determined when it should come, and how
long it should last. The time of its appearance if fixed
to an hour, so punctual and exact are the divine counsels; the time of
its continuance is limited to an hour, so close and
pressing is the opportunity of divine grace,
This hour cometh, it is coming in its full strength, lustre, and
perfection, it now is in the embryo and infancy. The perfect
day is coming, and now it dawns.
b. The blessed change itself. In gospel times the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. As
creatures, we worship the Father of all: as Christians, we
worship the Father of our Lord Jesus. Now the change shall be,
(a.) In the nature of the worship. Christians shall
worship God, not in the ceremonial observances of the Mosaic
institution, but in spiritual ordinances, consisting less in
bodily exercise, and animated and invigorated more with divine
power and energy. The way of worship which Christ has instituted is
rational and intellectual, and refined from those external rites and
ceremonies with which the Old-Testament worship was both clouded and
clogged. This is called true worship, in opposition to that which was
typical. The legal services were figures of the true,
Heb. ix. 3, 24.
Those that revolted from Christianity to Judaism are said to begin
in the spirit, and end in the flesh,
Gal. iii. 3.
Such was the difference between Old-Testament and New-Testament
institutions.
(b.) In the temper and disposition of the
worshippers; and so the true worshippers are good Christians,
distinguished from hypocrites; all should, and they will,
worship God in spirit and in truth. It is spoken of
(v. 23)
as their character, and
(v. 24)
as their duty. Note, It is required of all that worship God that they
worship him in spirit and in truth. We must worship God,
[a.] In spirit,
Phil. iii. 3.
We must depend upon God’s Spirit for strength and assistance,
laying our souls under his influences and operations; we must devote
our own spirits to, and employ them in, the service of God
(Rom. i. 9),
must worship him with fixedness of thought and a flame of affection,
with all that is within us. Spirit is sometimes put for the new
nature, in opposition to the flesh, which is the corrupt nature;
and so to worship God with our spirits is to worship him with
our graces,
Heb. xii. 28.
[b.] In truth, that is, in sincerity. God requires
not only the inward part in our worship, but truth in the
Ps. li. 6.
We must mind the power more than the form, must aim at God’s glory, and
not to be seen of men; draw near with a true heart,
Heb. x. 22.
Thirdly, He intimates the reasons why God must be thus
worshipped.
a. Because in gospel times they, and they only, are accounted
the true worshippers. The gospel erects a spiritual way of
worship, so that the professors of the gospel are not true in their
profession, do not live up to gospel light and laws, if they do not
worship God in spirit and in truth.
b. Because the Father seeketh such worshippers of him.
This intimates,
(a.) That such worshippers are very rare, and seldom met with,
The gate of spiritual worshipping is strait.
(b.) That such worship is necessary, and what the God of heaven
insists upon. When God comes to enquire for worshippers, the
question will not be, “Who worshipped at Jerusalem?” but, “Who
worshipped in spirit?” That will be the touchstone.
(c.) That God is greatly well pleased with and graciously
accepts such worship and such worshippers. I have desired it,
Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14; Cant. ii. 14.
(d.) That there has been, and will be to the end, a remnant of
such worshippers; his seeking such worshippers implies his
making them such. God is in all ages gathering in to himself a
generation of spiritual worshippers.
c. Because God is a spirit. Christ came to declare
God to us
(ch. i. 18),
and this he has declared concerning him; he declared it to this poor
Samaritan woman, for the meanest are concerned to know God; and with
this design, to rectify her mistakes concerning religious worship, to
which nothing would contribute more than the right knowledge of God.
Note,
(a.) God is a spirit, for he is an infinite and eternal
mind, an intelligent being, incorporeal, immaterial, invisible, and
incorruptible. It is easier to say what God is not than what he is; a
spirit has not flesh and bones, but who knows the way of a
spirit? If God were not a spirit, he could not be
perfect, nor infinite, nor eternal, nor independent, nor the
Father of spirits.
(b.) The spirituality of the divine nature is a very good reason
for the spirituality of divine worship. If we do not worship God, who
is a spirit, in the spirit, we neither give him the glory due
to his name, and so do not perform the act of worship, nor
can we hope to obtain his favour and acceptance, and so we miss of the
end of worship,
4. The last subject of discourse with this woman is concerning the
Messiah,
Observe here,
(1.) The faith of the woman, by which she expected the Messiah: I
know that Messias cometh–and he will tell us all things. She had
nothing to object against what Christ had said; his discourse was, for
aught she knew, what might become the Messiah then expected; but
from him she would receive it, and in the mean time she thinks
it best to suspend her belief. Thus many have no heart to the price
in their hand
because they think they have a better in their eye, and deceive
themselves with a promise that they will learn that hereafter
which they neglect now. Observe here,
[1.] Whom she expects: I know that Messias cometh. The Jews and
Samaritans, though so much at variance, agreed in the expectation of
the messiah and his kingdom. The Samaritans received the writings of
Moses, and were no strangers to the prophets, nor to the hopes of the
Jewish nation; those who knew least knew this, that Messias was to
come; so general and uncontested was the expectation of him, and at
this time more raised than ever (for the sceptre was departed from
Judah, Daniel’s weeks were near expiring), so that she concludes not
only, He will come, but erchetai–“He comes,
he is just at hand:” Messias, who is called Christ. The
evangelist, though he retains the Hebrew word Messias (which the
woman used) in honour to the holy language, and to the Jewish church,
that used it familiarly, yet, writing for the use of the Gentiles, he
takes care to render it by a Greek word of the same signification,
who is called Christ-Anointed, giving an example to the
apostle’s rule, that whatever is spoken in an unknown or less vulgar
tongue should be interpreted,
1 Cor. xiv. 27, 28.
[2.] What she expects from him: “He will tell us all things
relating to the service of God which it is needful for us to know, will
tell us that which will supply our defects, rectify our mistakes, and
put an end to all our disputes. He will tell us the mind of God fully
and clearly, and keep back nothing.” Now this implies an
acknowledgement, First, Of the deficiency and imperfection of
the discovery they now had of the divine will, and the rule they had of
the divine worship; it could not make the comers thereunto
perfect, and therefore they expected some great advance and
improvement in matters of religion, a time of reformation.
Secondly, Of the sufficiency of the Messiah to make this change:
“He will tell us all things which we want to know, and about
which we wrangle in the dark. He will introduce peace, by
leading us into all truth, and dispelling the mists of error.”
It seems, this was the comfort of good people in those dark times that
light would arise; if they found themselves at a loss, and run aground,
it was a satisfaction to them to say, When Messias comes, he will
tell us all things; as it may be to us now with reference to his
second coming: now we see through a glass, but then face to
face.
| Christ at the Well of Samaria. |
|
|
27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he
talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or,
Why talkest thou with her?
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the
city, and saith to the men,
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did:
is not this the Christ?
30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master,
eat.
32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not
of.
33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man
brought him ought to eat?
34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that
sent me, and to finish his work.
35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh
harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on
the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit
unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth
may rejoice together.
37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another
reapeth.
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other
men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for
the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that
ever I did.
40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him
that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.
41 And many more believed because of his own word;
42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy
saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is
indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
We have here the remainder of the story of what happened when Christ
was in Samaria, after the long conference he had with the woman.
I. The interruption given to this discourse by the disciples’
coming. It is probable that much more was said than is recorded; but
just when the discourse was brought to a head, when Christ had made
himself known to her as the true Messiah, then came the
disciples. The daughters of Jerusalem shall not stir up
nor awake my love till he please.
1. They wondered at Christ’s converse with this woman, marvelled that
he talked thus earnestly (as perhaps they observed at a distance) with
a woman, a strange woman alone (he used to be more reserved),
especially with a Samaritan woman, that was not of the lost sheep of
the house of Israel; they thought their Master should be as shy of the
Samaritans as the other Jews were, at least that he should not preach
the gospel to them. They wondered he should condescend to talk with
such a poor contemptible woman, forgetting what despicable men they
themselves were when Christ first called them into fellowship with
himself.
2. Yet they acquiesced in it; they knew it was for some good reason,
and some good end, of which he was not bound to give them an account,
and therefore none of them asked, What seekest thou? or, Why
talkest thou with her? Thus, when particular difficulties occur in
the word and providence of God, it is good to satisfy ourselves with
this in general, that all is well which Jesus Christ saith and doeth.
Perhaps there was something amiss in their marveling that
Christ talked with the woman: it was something like the
Pharisees being offended at his eating with publicans and sinners. But,
whatever they thought, they said nothing. If thou hast
thought evil at any time, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, to
keep that evil thought from turning into an evil word,
Prov. xxx. 32; Ps. xxxix. 1-3.
The notice which the woman gave to her neighbours of the extraordinary
person she had happily met with,
Observe here,
1. How she forgot her errand to the well,
v. 28.
Therefore, because the disciples were come, and broke up the discourse,
and perhaps she observed they were not pleased with it, she went her
way. She withdrew, in civility to Christ, that he might have
leisure to eat his dinner. She delighted in his discourse, but
would not be rude; every thing is beautiful in its season. She
supposed that Jesus, when he had dined, would go forward in his
journey, and therefore hastened to tell her neighbours, that they might
come quickly. Yet a little while is the light with you. See how
she improved time; when one good work was done, she applied herself to
another. When opportunities of getting good cease, or are
interrupted, we should seek opportunities of doing good; when we
have done hearing the word, then is a time to be speaking
of it. Notice is taken of her leaving her water-pot or
pail.
(1.) She left it in kindness to Christ, that he might have water to
drink; he turned water into wine for others, but not for himself.
Compare this with Rebecca’s civility to Abraham’s servant
and see that promise,
(2.) She left it that she might make the more haste into the city, to
carry thither these good tidings. Those whose business it is to
publish the name of Christ must not encumber or entangle themselves
with any thing that will retard or hinder them therein. When the
disciples are to be made fishers of men they must forsake all.
(3.) She left her water-pot, as one careless of it, being wholly
taken up with better things. Note, Those who are brought to the
knowledge of Christ will show it by a holy contempt of this world and
the things of it. And those who are newly acquainted with the
things of God must be excused, if at first they be so taken up
with the new world into which they are brought that the things of this
world seem to be for a time wholly neglected. Mr. Hildersham, in one of
his sermons on this verse, from this instance largely justifies those
who leave their worldly business on week-days to go to hear
sermons.
2. How she minded her errand to the town, for her heart was upon
it. She went into the city, and said to the men, probably
the aldermen, the men in authority, whom, it may be, she found met
together upon some public business; or to the men, that is, to
every man she met in the streets; she proclaimed it in the chief places
of concourse: Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I
did. Is not this the Christ? Observe,
(1.) How solicitous she was to have her friends and
neighbours acquainted with Christ. When she had found that
treasure, she called together her friends and neighbours (as
not only to rejoice with her, but to share with her, knowing
there was enough to enrich herself and all that would partake with her.
Note, They that have been themselves with Jesus, and have found comfort
in him, should do all they can to bring others to him. Has he done us
the honour to make himself known to us? Let us do him the honour to
make him known to others; nor can we do ourselves a greater honour.
This woman becomes an apostle. Quæ scortum fuerat egressa,
regreditur magistra evangelica–She who went forth a specimen of
impurity returns a teacher of evangelical truth, saith
Aretius. Christ had told her to call her husband, which
she thought was warrant enough to call every body. She went into
the city, the city where she dwelt, among her kinsfolks and
acquaintance. Though every man is my neighbour that I have opportunity
of doing good to, yet I have most opportunity, and therefore lie
under the greatest obligations, to do good to those that live
near me. Where the tree falls, there let it be made useful.
(2.) How fair and ingenuous she was in the notice she gave them
concerning this stranger she had met with.
[1.] She tells them plainly what induced her to admire him:
He has told me all things that ever I did. No more is recorded
than what he told her of her husbands; but it is not improbable that he
had told her of more of her faults. Or, his telling her that which she
knew he could not by any ordinary means come to the knowledge of
convinced her that he could have told her all that she ever did. If he
has a divine knowledge, it must be omniscience. He told her that
which none knew but God and her own conscience. Two things affected
her:–First, the extent of his knowledge. We ourselves cannot
tell all things that ever we did (many things pass
unheeded, and more pass away and are forgotten); but Jesus
Christ knows all the thoughts, words, and actions, of all the children
of men; see
He hath said, I know thy works. Secondly, The power of his word.
This made a great impression upon her, that he told her her secret
sins with such an unaccountable power and energy that, being told
of one, she is convinced of all, and judged of all. She does not
say, “Come, see a man that has told me strange things concerning
religious worship, and the laws of it, that has decided the controversy
between this mountain and Jerusalem, a man that calls himself the
Messias;” but, “Come see a man that has told me of my
sins.” She fastens upon that part of Christ’s discourse which one would
think she would have been most shy of repeating; but experimental
proofs of the power of Christ’s word and Spirit are of all others the
most cogent and convincing; and that knowledge of Christ into
which we are led by the conviction of sin and humiliation is most
likely to be sound and saving.
[2.] She invites them to come and see him of whom she had
conceived so high an opinion. Not barely, “Come and look upon him” (she
does not invite them to him as a show), but, “Come and converse
with him; come and hear his wisdom, as I have done, and you will
be of my mind.” She would not undertake to manage the arguments which
had convinced her, in such a manner as to convince others; all that see
the evidence of truth themselves are not able to make others see it;
but, “Come, and talk with him, and you will find such a power in his
word as far exceeds all other evidence.” Note, Those who can do little
else towards the conviction and conversion of others may and should
bring them to those means of grace which they themselves have found
effectual. Jesus was now at the town’s end. “Now come see him.” When
opportunities of getting the knowledge of God are brought to our doors
we are inexcusable if we neglect them; shall we not go over the
threshold to see him whose day prophets and kings desired to see?
[3.] She resolves to appeal to themselves, and their own
sentiments upon the trial. Is not this the Christ? She does not
peremptorily say, “He is the Messiah,” how clear soever she was in her
own mind, and yet she very prudently mentions the Messiah, of whom
otherwise they would not have thought, and then refers it to
themselves; she will not impose her faith upon them, but only propose
it to them. By such fair but forcible appeals as these men’s judgments
and consciences are sometimes taken hold of ere they are aware.
(3.) What success she had in this invitation: They went out of the
city, and came to him,
v. 30.
Though it might seem very improbable that a woman of so small a
figure, and so ill a character, should have the honour of the
first discovery of the Messiah among the Samaritans, yet it pleased God
to incline their hearts to take notice of her report, and not to slight
it as an idle tale. Time was when lepers were the first that brought
tidings to Samaria of a great deliverance,
&c. They came unto him; did not send for him into the city to
them, but in token of their respect to him, and the earnestness of
their desire to see him, they went out to him. Those that would
know Christ must meet him where he records his name.
III. Christ’s discourse with his disciples while the woman was absent,
See how industrious our Lord Jesus was to redeem time, to
husband every minute of it, and to fill up the vacancies of it.
When the disciples were gone into the town, his discourse with the
woman was edifying, and suited to her case; when she was gone
into the town, his discourse with them was no less edifying, and suited
to their case; it were well if we could thus gather up the
fragments of time, that none of it may be lost. Two things are
observable in this discourse:–
1. How Christ expresses the delight which he himself had in his
work. His work was to seek and save that which was lost, to go
about doing good. Now with this work we here find him wholly taken up.
For,
(1.) He neglected his meat and drink for his work. When he sat
down upon the well, he was weary, and needed refreshment; but
this opportunity of saving souls made him forget his weariness and
hunger. And he minded his food so little that,
[1.] His disciples were forced to invite him to it: They prayed
him, they pressed him, saying, Master, eat. It was an
instance of their love to him that they invited him, lest he
should be faint and sick for want of some support; but it was a greater
instance of his love to souls that he needed invitation. Let us
learn hence a holy indifference even to the needful supports of life,
in comparison with spiritual things.
[2.] He minded it so little that they suspected he had had meat brought
him in their absence
(v. 33):
Has any man brought him aught to eat? He had so little appetite
for his dinner that they were ready to think he had dined already.
Those that make religion their business will, when any of its affairs
are to be attended, prefer them before their food; as Abraham’s
servant, that would not eat till he had told his errand
and Samuel, that would not sit down till David was anointed,
(2.) He made his work his meat and drink. The work he had to
do among the Samaritans, the prospect he now had of doing good to
many, this was meat and drink to him; it was the greatest
pleasure and satisfaction imaginable. Never did a hungry man, or an
epicure, expect a plentiful feast with so much desire, nor feed upon
its dainties with so much delight, as our Lord Jesus expected and
improved an opportunity of doing good to souls. Concerning this he
saith,
[1.] That it was such meat as the disciples knew not of.
They did not imagine that he had any design or prospect of planting his
gospel among the Samaritans; this was a piece of usefulness they never
thought of. Note, Christ by his gospel and Spirit does more good to the
souls of men than his own disciples know of or expect.
This may be said of good Christians too, who live by faith, that they
have meat to eat which others know not of, joy with which a stranger
does not intermeddle. Now this word made them ask, Has any man
brought him aught to eat? so apt were even his own disciples to
understand him after a corporal and carnal manner when he used
similitudes.
[2.] That the reason why his work was his meat and drink was because it
was his Father’s work, his Father’s will: My meat is to do the will
of him that sent me,
v. 34.
Note, First, The salvation of sinners is the will of God,
and the instruction of them in order thereunto is his work. See
There is a chosen remnant whose salvation is in a particular manner his
will. Secondly, Christ was sent into the world on this
errand, to bring people to God, to know him and to be happy in him.
Thirdly, He made this work his business and delight. When his
body needed food, his mind was so taken up with this that he forgot
both hunger and thirst, both meat and drink. Nothing could be more
grateful to him than doing good; when he was invited to meat he
went, that he might do good, for that was his meat always.
Fourthly, He was not only ready upon all occasions to go to his
work, but he was earnest and in care to go through it,
and to finish his work in all the parts of it. He resolved never
to quit it, nor lay it down, till he could say, It is finished.
Many have zeal to carry them out at first, but not zeal to carry
them on to the last; but our Lord Jesus was intent upon
finishing his work. Our Master has herein left us an example,
that we may learn to do the will of God as he did;
1. With diligence and close application, as those that make a business
of it.
2. With delight and pleasure in it, as in our element.
3. With constancy and perseverance; not only minding to do, but
aiming to finish, our work.
2. See here how Christ, having expressed his delight in his
work, excites his disciples to diligence in their work; they
were workers with him, and therefore should be workers like
him, and make their work their meat, as he did. The work
they had to do was to preach the gospel, and to set up the
kingdom of the Messiah. Now this work he here compares to harvest
work, the gathering in of the fruits of the earth; and this
similitude he prosecutes throughout the discourse,
Note, gospel time is harvest time, and gospel work harvest work. The
harvest is before appointed and expected; so was the gospel.
Harvest time is busy time; all hands must be then at work: every
one must work for himself, that he may reap of the graces and
comforts of the gospel: ministers must work for God, to gather
in souls to him. Harvest time is opportunity, a short and
limited time, which will not last always; and harvest work is work that
must be done then or not at all; so the time of the enjoyment of
the gospel is a particular season, which must be improved for its
proper purposes; for, once past, it cannot be recalled. The disciples
were to gather in a harvest of souls for Christ. Now he here suggests
three things to them to quicken them to diligence:–
(1.) That it was necessary work, and the occasion for it
very urgent and pressing
(v. 35):
You say, It is four months to harvest; but I say, The fields
are already white. Here is,
[1.] A saying of Christ’s disciples concerning the corn-harvest;
there are yet four months, and then comes harvest, which may be
taken either generally–“You say, for the encouragement of the
sower at seed-time, that it will be but four months to the harvest.”
With us it is but about four months between the barley-sowing and the
barley-harvest, probably it was so with them as to other grain; or,
“Particularly, now at this time you reckon it will be four months to
next harvest, according to the ordinary course of providence.” The
Jews’ harvest began at the Passover, about Easter, much earlier in the
year than ours, by which it appears that this journey of Christ from
Judea to Galilee was in the winter, about the end of November, for he
travelled all weathers to do good. God has not only promised us
a harvest every year, but has appointed the weeks of harvest; so
that we know when to expect it, and take our measures
accordingly.
[2.] A saying of Christ’s concerning the gospel harvest; his
heart was as much upon the fruits of his gospel as the hearts of others
were upon the fruits of the earth; and to this he would lead the
thoughts of his disciples: Look, the fields are already white unto
the harvest. First, Here in this place, where they
now were, there was harvest work for him to do. They
would have him to eat,
v. 31.
“Eat!” saith he, “I have other work to do, that is more needful;
look what crowds of Samaritans are coming out of the town over
the fields that are ready to receive the gospel;” probably there were
many now in view. People’s forwardness to hear the word is a great
excitement to ministers’ diligence and liveliness in preaching it.
Secondly, In other places, all the country over, there
was harvest work enough for them all to do. “Consider the
regions, think of the state of the country, and you will find there
are multitudes as ready to receive the gospel as a field of corn that
is fully ripe is ready to be reaped.” The fields were now made white
to the harvest,
1. By the decree of God revealed in the prophecies of the Old
Testament. Now was the time when the gathering of the people should be
to Christ
Gen. xlix. 10),
when great accessions should be made to the church and the bounds of it
should be enlarged, and therefore it was time for them to be busy. It
is a great encouragement to us to engage in any work for God, if we
understand by the signs of the times that this is the proper season for
that work, for then it will prosper.
2. By the disposition of men. John Baptist had made ready a
people prepared for the Lord,
Luke i. 17.
Since he began to preach the kingdom of God every man pressed into
it,
Luke xvi. 16.
This, therefore, was a time for the preachers of the gospel to apply
themselves to their work with the utmost vigour, to thrust in their
sickle, when the harvest was ripe,
It was necessary to work now, pity that such a season should be
let slip. If the corn that is ripe be not reaped, it will
shed and be lost, and the fowls will pick it up. If souls that
are under convictions, and have some good inclinations, be not helped
now, their hopeful beginnings will come to nothing, and they will be a
prey to pretenders. It was also easy to work now; when the
people’s hearts are prepared the work will be done
suddenly,
2 Chron. xxix. 36.
It cannot but quicken ministers to take pains in preaching the
word when they observe that people take pleasure in hearing
it.
(2.) That it was profitable and advantageous work, which
they themselves would be gainers by
(v. 36):
“He that reapeth receiveth wages, and so shall you.” Christ has
undertaken to pay those well whom he employs in his work; for he will
never do as Jehoiakim did, who used his neighbour’s service without
wages
or those who by fraud kept back the hire of those particularly
who reaped their corn-fields,
Jam. v. 4.
Christ’s reapers, though they cry to him day and night, shall
never have cause to cry against him, nor to say they served a
hard Master. He that reapeth, not only shall but does
receive wages. There is a present reward in the service of Christ, and
his work is its own wages.
[1.] Christ’s reapers have fruit: He gathereth fruit unto life
eternal; that is, he shall both save himself and those that hear
him,
If the faithful reaper save his own soul, that is fruit abounding to
his account, it is fruit gathered to life eternal; and if, over
and above this, he be instrumental to save the souls of others too,
there is fruit gathered. Souls gathered to Christ are fruit,
good fruit, the fruit that Christ seeks for
(Rom. i. 13);
it is gathered for Christ
it is gathered to life eternal. This is the comfort of faithful
ministers, that their work has a tendency to the eternal salvation of
precious souls.
[2.] They have joy: That he that sows and they that reap may rejoice
together. The minister who is the happy instrument of beginning a
good work is he that sows, as John Baptist; he that is employed
to carry it on and perfect it is he that reaps: and both shall
rejoice together. Note, First, Though God is to have all the
glory of the success of the gospel, yet faithful ministers may
themselves take the comfort of it. The reapers share in the joy of
harvest, though the profits belong to the master,
Secondly, Those ministers who are variously gifted and employed
should be so far from envying one another that they should rather
mutually rejoice in each other’s success and usefulness. Though all
Christ’s ministers are not alike serviceable, nor alike
successful, yet, if they have obtained mercy of the Lord to be
faithful, they shall all enter together into the joy of their
Lord at last.
(3.) That it was easy work, and work that was half done to their
hands by those that were gone before them: One soweth, and another
reapeth,
v. 37, 38.
This sometimes denotes a grievous judgment upon him that sows,
Mic. vi. 15; Deut. xxviii. 30,
Thou shalt sow, and another shall reap; as
Houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not. So
here. Moses, and the prophets, and John Baptist, had paved the
way to the gospel, had sown the good seed which the New-Testament
ministers did in effect but gather the fruit of. I send you to reap
that whereon you bestowed, in comparison, no labour.
Isa. xl. 3-5.
[1.] This intimates two things concerning the Old-Testament
ministry:–First, That it was very much short of the
New-Testament ministry. Moses and the prophets sowed, but they
could not be said to reap, so little did they see of the fruit
of their labours. Their writings have done much more good since they
left us than ever their preaching did. Secondly, That it was
very serviceable to the New-Testament ministry, and made way for
it. The writings of the prophets, which were read in the synagogues
every sabbath day, raised people’s expectations of the Messiah, and so
prepared them to bid him welcome. Had it not been for the seed sown by
the prophets, this Samaritan woman could not have said, We know that
Messias cometh. The writings of the Old Testament are in some
respects more useful to us than they could be to those to whom they
were first written, because better understood by the accomplishment of
them. See
Heb. iv. 2; Rom. xvi. 25, 26.
[2.] This also intimates two things concerning the ministry of
the apostles of Christ. First, That it was a fruitful
ministry: they were reapers that gathered in a great harvest of souls
to Jesus Christ, and did more in seven years towards the setting up of
the kingdom of God among men than the prophets of the Old Testament had
done in twice so many ages. Secondly, That it was much
facilitated, especially among the Jews, to whom they were first
sent, by the writings of the prophets. The prophets sowed in
tears, crying out, We have laboured in vain; the apostles
reaped in joy, saying, Thanks be to God, who always causeth
us to triumph. Note, From the labours of ministers that are dead
and gone much good fruit may be reaped by the people that
survive them and the ministers that succeed them. John
Baptist, and those that assisted him, had laboured, and the
disciples of Christ entered into their labours, built upon their
foundation, and reaped the fruit of what they sowed. See what reason we
have to bless God for those that are gone before us, for their
preaching and their writing, for what they did and
suffered in their day, for we are entered into their
labours; their studies and services have made our work the easier.
And when the ancient and modern labourers, those that came into the
vineyard at the third hour and those that came in at the eleventh, meet
in the day of account, they will be so far from envying one another the
honour of their respective services that both they that sowed
and they that reaped shall rejoice together; and the great Lord
of thee harvest shall have the glory of all.
IV. The good effect which this visit Christ made to the
Samaritans (en passant) had upon them, and the fruit which was
now presently gathered among them,
See what impressions were made on them,
1. By the woman’s testimony concerning Christ; though a
single testimony, and of one of no good report, and the testimony no
more than this, He told me all that ever I did, yet it had a
good influence upon many. One would have thought that his telling the
woman of her secret sins would have made them afraid of coming to him,
lest he should tell them also of their faults; but they will venture
that rather than not be acquainted with one who they had reason to
think was a prophet. And two things they were brought to:–
(1.) To credit Christ’s word
(v. 39):
Many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying
of the woman. So far they believed on him that they took him
for a prophet, and were desirous to know the mind of God from
him; this is favourably interpreted as believing on him. Now observe,
[1.] Who they were that believed: Many of the Samaritans, who
were not of the house of Israel. Their faith was not only an
aggravation of the unbelief of the Jews, from whom better
might have been expected, but an earnest of the faith of
the Gentiles, who would welcome that which the Jews rejected.
[2.] Upon what inducement they believed: For the saying of the
woman. See here, First, How God is sometimes pleased to use
very weak and unlikely instruments for the beginning and carrying on of
a good work. A little maid directed a great prince to Elisha,
Secondly, How great a matter a little fire kindles. Our Saviour,
by instructing one poor woman, spread instruction to a whole town. Let
not ministers be either careless in their preaching, or
discouraged in it, because their hearers are few and
mean; for, by doing good to them, good may be conveyed to
more, and those that are more considerable. If they teach
every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, a great
number may learn at second hand. Philip preached the gospel to a
single gentleman in his chariot upon the road, and he not only received
it himself, but carried it into his country, and propagated it there.
Thirdly, See how good it is to speak experimentally of
Christ and the things of God. This woman could say little of Christ,
but what she did say she spoke feelingly: He told me all that ever I
did. Those are most likely to do good that can tell what God has
done for their souls,
Ps. lxvi. 16.
(2.) They were brought to court his stay among them
(v. 40):
When they were come to him they besought him that he would tarry
with them. Upon the woman’s report, they believed him to be a
prophet, and came to him; and, when they saw him, the
meanness of his appearance and the manifest poverty of his outward
condition did not lessen their esteem of him and expectations from him,
but still they respected him as a prophet. Note, There is hope of those
who are got over the vulgar prejudices that men have against true
worth in a low estate. Blessed are they that are not
offended in Christ at the first sight. So far were they from
being offended in him that they begged he would tarry with them;
[1.] That they might testify their respect to him, and treat him
with the honour and kindness due to his character. God’s prophets and
ministers are welcome guests to all those who sincerely embrace the
gospel; as to Lydia,
[2.] That they might receive instruction from him. Those that are
taught of God are truly desirous to learn more, and to be better
acquainted with Christ. Many would have flocked to one that would tell
them their fortune, but these flocked to one that would tell
them their faults, tell them of their sin and duty. The
historian seems to lay an emphasis upon their being Samaritans; as
The Samaritans had not that reputation for religion which the Jews had;
yet the Jews, who saw Christ’s miracles, drove him from them: while the
Samaritans, who saw not his miracles, nor shared in his favours,
invited him to them. The proof of the gospel’s success is not
always according to the probability, nor what is
experienced according to what is expected either way. The
Samaritans were taught by the custom of their country to be shy of
conversation with the Jews. There were Samaritans that refused to let
Christ go through their town
(Luke ix. 53),
but these begged him to tarry with them. Note, It adds much to the
praise of our love to Christ and his word if it conquers the prejudices
of education and custom, and sets light by the censures of men. Now we
are told that Christ granted their request.
First, He abode there. Though it was a city of the
Samaritans nearly adjoining to their temple, yet, when he was
invited, he tarried there; though he was upon a journey,
and had further to go, yet, when he had an opportunity of doing good,
he abode there. That is no real hindrance which will
further our account. Yet he abode there but two days,
because he had other places to visit and other work to do, and those
two days were as many as came to the share of this city, out of
the few days of our Saviour’s sojourning upon earth.
Secondly, We are told what impressions were made upon them by
Christ’s own word, and his personal converse with them
(v. 41, 42);
what he said and did there is not related, whether he
healed their sick or no; but it is intimated, in the effect, that he
said and did that which convinced them that he was the Christ; and the
labours of a minister are best told by the good fruit of them. Their
hearing of him had a good effect, but now their eyes saw
him; and the effect was,
1. That their number grew
(v. 41):
Many more believed: many that would not be persuaded to go out
of the town to him were yet wrought upon, when he came among them, to
believe in him. Note, It is comfortable to see the number of believers;
and sometimes the zeal and forwardness of some may be a means to
provoke many, and to stir them up to a holy emulation,
2. That their faith grew. Those who had been wrought upon by the
report of the woman now saw cause to say, Now we believe, not
because of thy saying,
v. 42.
Here are three things in which their faith grew:—
(1.) In the matter of it, or that which they did believe. Upon the
testimony of the woman, they believed him to be a prophet, or
some extraordinary messenger from heaven; but now that they have
conversed with him they believe that he is the Christ, the
Anointed One, the very same that was promised to the fathers and
expected by them, and that, being the Christ, he is the
Saviour of the world; for the work to which he was anointed was
to save his people from their sins. They believed him to be the
Saviour not only of the Jews, but of the world, which they hoped
would take them in, though Samaritans, for it was promised that he
should be Salvation to the ends of the earth,
Isa. xlix. 6.
(2.) In the certainty of it; their faith now grew up to a full
assurance: We know that this is indeed the Christ;
alethos—truly; not a pretended Christ, but a real
one; not a typical Saviour, as many under the Old Testament, but
truly one. Such an assurance as this of divine truths is what we
should labour after; not only, We think it probable, and are willing to
suppose that Jesus may be the Christ, but, We know that
he is indeed the Christ.
(3.) In the ground of it, which was a kind of spiritual
sensation and experience: Now we believe, not because of thy saying,
for we have heard him ourselves. They had before believed for
her saying, and it was well, it was a good step; but now they find
further and much firmer footing for their faith: “Now
we believe because we have heard him ourselves, and have
heard such excellent and divine truths, accompanied with such
commanding power and evidence, that we are abundantly satisfied and
assured that this is the Christ.” This is like what the queen of
Sheba said of Solomon
The one half was not told me. The Samaritans, who believed for
the woman’s saying, now gained further light; for to him that hath
shall be given; he that is faithful in a little shall be trusted
with more. In this instance we may see how faith comes by
hearing.
[1.] Faith comes to the birth by hearing the report of
men. These Samaritans, for the sake of the woman’s saying, believed
so far as to come and see, to come and make trial. Thus the
instructions of parents and preachers, and the testimony of the church
and our experienced neighbours, recommend the doctrine of Christ
to our acquaintance, and incline us to entertain it as highly
probable. But,
[2.] Faith comes to its growth, strength, and maturity, by
hearing the testimony of Christ himself; and this goes further, and
recommends his doctrine to our acceptance, and obliges us to
believe it as undoubtedly certain. We were induced to look into the
scriptures by the saying of those who told us that in them they
had found eternal life; but when we ourselves have found it in them
too, have experienced the enlightening, convincing, regenerating,
sanctifying, comforting, power of the word, now we believe, not for
their saying, but because we have searched them ourselves: and our
faith stands not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God,
1 Cor. ii. 5; 1 John v. 9, 10.
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43 Now after two days he departed thence, and went into
Galilee.
44 For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour
in his own country.
45 Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilæans received
him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the
feast: for they also went unto the feast.
46 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the
water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick
at Capernaum.
47 When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judæa into
Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come
down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.
48 Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders,
ye will not believe.
49 The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child
die.
50 Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the
man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went
his way.
51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told
him, saying, Thy son liveth.
52 Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend.
And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever
left him.
53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the
which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed,
and his whole house.
54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he
was come out of Judæa into Galilee.
In these verses we have,
I. Christ’s coming into Galilee,
Though he was as welcome among the Samaritans as he could be any where,
and had better success, yet after two days he left them, not so
much because they were Samaritans, and he would not confirm those in
their prejudices against him who said, He is a Samaritan
(ch. viii. 48),
but because he must preach to other cities,
Luke iv. 43.
He went into Galilee, for there he spent much of his time. Now
see here,
1. Whither Christ went; into Galilee, into the country of Galilee, but
not to Nazareth, which was strictly his own country. He went
among the villages, but declined going to Nazareth, the head city, for
a reason here given, which Jesus himself testified, who knew the
temper of his countrymen, the hearts of all men, and the experiences of
all prophets, and it is this, That a prophet has no honour in his
own country. Note,
(1.) Prophets ought to have honour, because God has put honour upon
them and we do or may receive benefit by them.
(2.) The honour due to the Lord’s prophets has very often been denied
them, and contempt put upon them.
(3.) This due honour is more frequently denied them in their
own country; see
Not that it is universally true (no rule but has some exceptions), but
it holds for the most part. Joseph, when he began to be a prophet, was
most hated by his brethren; David was disdained by his brother
Jeremiah was maligned by the men of Anathoth
(Jer. xi. 21),
Paul by his countrymen the Jews; and Christ’s near kinsmen spoke most
slightly of him,
Men’s pride and envy make them scorn to be instructed by those who once
were their school-fellows and play-fellows. Desire of novelty, and of
that which is far-fetched and dear-bought, and seems to drop out of the
sky to them, makes them despise those persons and things which they
have been long used to and know the rise of.
(4.) It is a great discouragement to a minister to go among a people
who have no value for him or his labours. Christ would not go to
Nazareth, because he knew how little respect he should have there.
(5.) It is just with God to deny his gospel to those that despise the
ministers of it. They that mock the messengers forfeit the benefit of
the message.
2. What entertainment he met with among the Galileans in the country
(v. 45):
They received him, bade him welcome, and cheerfully attended on
his doctrine. Christ and his gospel are not sent in vain; if they have
not honour with some, they shall have with others. Now
the reason given why these Galileans were so ready to receive Christ is
because they had seen the miracles he did at Jerusalem,
v. 45.
Observe,
(1.) They went up to Jerusalem at the feast, the feast of the passover.
The Galileans lay very remote from Jerusalem, and their way thither lay
through the country of the Samaritans, which was troublesome for a Jew
to pass through, worse than Baca’s valley of old; yet, in obedience to
God’s command, they went up to the feast, and there they became
acquainted with Christ. Note, They that are diligent and constant in
attending on public ordinances some time or other meet with more
spiritual benefit than they expect.
(2.) At Jerusalem they saw Christ’s miracles, which recommended
him and his doctrine very much to their faith and affections. The
miracles were wrought for the benefit of those at Jerusalem; yet the
Galileans who were accidentally there got more advantage by them than
they did for whom they were chiefly designed. Thus the word preached
to a mixed multitude may perhaps edify occasional hearers
more than the constant auditory.
3. What city he went to. When he would go to a city, he chose to go to
Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine
(v. 46);
thither he went, to see if there were any good fruits of that miracle
remaining; and, if there were, to confirm their faith, and water what
he had planted. The evangelist mentions this miracle here to teach us
to keep in remembrance what we have seen of the works of
Christ.
II. His curing the nobleman’s son that was sick of a
fever. This story is not recorded by any other of the evangelists; it
comes in
Observe,
1. Who the petitioner was, and who the patient: the
petitioner was a nobleman; the patient was his son: There was
a certain nobleman. Regulus (so the Latin), a little king;
so called, either for the largeness of his estate, or the extent of his
power, or the royalties that belonged to his manor. Some understand it
as denoting his preferment–he was a courtier in some office
about the king; others as denoting his party–he was an
Herodian, a royalist, a prerogative-man, one that espoused the
interests of the Herods, father and son; perhaps it was Chuza, Herod’s
steward
(Luke viii. 3),
or Manæn, Herod’s foster-brother,
There were saints in Cæsar’s household. The father a nobleman,
and yet the son sick; for dignities and titles of honour will be no
security to persons and families from the assaults of sickness and
death. It was fifteen miles from Capernaum where this nobleman lived to
Cana, where Christ now was; yet this affliction in his family sent him
so far to Christ.
2. How the petitioner made his application to the physician.
Having heard that Jesus was come out of Judea to Galilee, and
finding that he did not come towards Capernaum, but turned off towards
the other side of the country, he went to him himself, and
besought him to come and heal his son,
v. 47.
See here,
(1.) His tender affection to his son, that when he was sick he
would spare no pains to get help for him.
(2.) His great respect to our Lord Jesus, that he would come
himself to wait upon him, when he might have sent a servant; and that
he besought him, when, as a man in authority, some would think
he might have ordered his attendance. The greatest men, when they come
to God, must become beggars, and sue sub forma pauperis–as
paupers. As to the errand he came upon, we may observe a mixture in
his faith.
[1.] There was sincerity in it; he did believe that Christ could
heal his son, though his disease was dangerous. It is probable he had
physicians to him, who had given him over; but he believed that Christ
could cure him when the case seemed deplorable.
[2.] Yet there was infirmity in his faith; he believed that
Christ could heal his son, but, as it should seem, he thought he could
not heal him at a distance, and therefore he besought him that he would
come down and heal him, expecting, as Naaman did, that he would
come and strike his hand over the patient, as if he could not
cure him but by a physical contact. Thus we are apt to limit
the Holy One of Israel, and to stint him to our forms. The
centurion, a Gentile, a soldier, was so strong in faith as to say,
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof,
Matt. viii. 8.
This nobleman, a Jew, must have Christ to come down, though it was a
good day’s journey, and despairs of a cure unless he come down, as if
he must teach Christ how to work. We are encouraged to pray, but
we are not allowed to prescribe: Lord, heal me; but, whether with a
word or a touch, thy will be done.
3. The gentle rebuke he met with in this address
(v. 48):
Jesus said to him, “I see how it is; except you see signs and
wonders, you will not believe, as the Samaritans did, though they
saw no signs and wonders, and therefore I must work miracles among
you.” Though he was a nobleman, and now in grief about
his son, and had shown great respect to Christ in coming so far to him,
yet Christ gives him a reproof. Men’s dignity in the world shall not
exempt them from the rebukes of the word or providence; for Christ
reproves not after the hearing of his ears, but with
equity,
Isa. xi. 3, 4.
Observe, Christ first shows him his sin and weakness, to prepare him
for mercy, and then grants his request. Those whom Christ intends to
honour with his favours he first humbles with his
frowns. The Comforter shall first convince. Herod
longed to see some miracle
and this courtier was of the same mind, and the generality of the
people too. Now that which is blamed is,
(1.) That, whereas they had heard by credible and incontestable report
of the miracles he had wrought in other places, they would not believe
except they saw them with their own eyes,
They must be honoured, and they must be humoured, or they
will not be convinced. Their country must be graced, and their
curiosity gratified, with signs and wonders, or else, though the
doctrine of Christ be sufficiently proved by miracles wrought
elsewhere, they will not believe. Like Thomas, they will yield
to no method of conviction but what they shall prescribe.
(2.) That, whereas they had seen divers miracles, the evidence of which
they could not gainsay, but which sufficiently proved Christ to be a
teacher come from God, and should now have applied themselves to him
for instruction in his doctrine, which by its native excellency would
have gently led them on, in believing, to a spiritual
perfection, instead of this they would go no further in believing than
they were driven by signs and wonders. The spiritual
power of the word did not affect them, did not attract
them, but only the sensible power of miracles, which were for
those who believe not, while prophesying was for those
that believe,
1 Cor. xiv. 22.
Those that admire miracles only, and despise prophesying,
rank themselves with unbelievers.
4. His continued importunity in his address
(v. 49):
Sir, come down ere my child die.
Kyrie—Lord; so it should be rendered. In this
reply of his we have,
(1.) Something that was commendable: he took the reproof patiently; he
spoke to Christ respectfully. Though he was one of those that wore soft
clothing, yet he could bear reproof. It is none of the privileges of
peerage to be above the reproofs of the word of Christ; but it is a
sign of a good temper and disposition in men, especially in great men,
when they can be told of their faults and not be angry. And, as he did
not take the reproof for an affront, so he did not take it for a
denial, but still prosecuted his request, and continued to wrestle till
he prevailed. Nay, he might argue thus: “If Christ heal my
soul, surely he will heal my son; if he cure my
unbelief, he will cure his fever.” This is the method Christ
takes, first to work upon us, and then to work for us;
and there is hope if we find him entering upon this method.
(2.) Something that was blameworthy, that was his infirmity; for,
[1.] He seems to take no notice of the reproof Christ gave him, says
nothing to it, by way either of confession or of excuse, for he is so
wholly taken up with concern about his child that he can mind nothing
else. Note, The sorrow of the world is a great prejudice to our
profiting by the word of Christ. Inordinate care and grief are thorns
that choke the good seed; see
[2.] He still discovered the weakness of his faith in the power of
Christ. First, He must have Christ to come down, thinking that
else he could do the child no kindness. It is hard to persuade
ourselves that distance of time and place are no obstructions to the
knowledge and power of our Lord Jesus; yet so it is: he sees afar off,
for his word, the word of his power, runs very swiftly.
Secondly, He believes that Christ could heal a sick child,
but not that he could raise a dead child, and therefore, “O
come down, ere my child die,” as if then it would be too late;
whereas Christ has the same power over death that he has over bodily
diseases. He forgot that Elijah and Elisha had raised dead children;
and is Christ’s power inferior to theirs? Observe what haste he is in:
Come down, ere my child die; as if there were danger of Christ’s
slipping his time. He that believeth does not make haste, but
refers himself to Christ. “Lord, what and when and how thou pleasest.”
5. The answer of peace which Christ gave to his request at last
(v. 50):
Go thy way, thy son liveth. Christ here gives us an instance,
(1.) Of his power, that he not only could heal, but could heal
with so much ease, without the trouble of a visit. Here is nothing
said, nothing done, nothing ordered to be done,
and yet the cure wrought: Thy son liveth. The healing beams of
the Sun of righteousness dispense benign influences from one end of
heaven to another, and there is nothing hid from the heat
thereof. Though Christ is now in heaven, and his church on earth,
he can send from above. This nobleman would have Christ come
down and heal his son; Christ will heal his son, and not come
down. And thus the cure is the sooner wrought, the nobleman’s
mistake rectified, and his faith confirmed; so that the thing was
better done in Christ’s way. When he denies what we ask, he gives what
is much more to our advantage; we ask for ease, he gives patience.
Observe, His power was exerted by his word. In saying, Thy son
lives, he showed that he has life in himself, and power to
quicken whom he will. Christ’s saying, Thy soul lives,
makes it alive.
(2.) Of his pity; he observed the nobleman to be in pain
about his son, and his natural affection discovered itself in that
word, Ere my child, my dear child, die; and therefore Christ
dropped the reproof, and gave him assurance of the recovery of his
child; for he knows how a father pities his children.
6. The nobleman’s belief of the word of Christ: He believed, and
went away. Though Christ did not gratify him so far as to go
down with him, he is satisfied with the method Christ took, and reckons
he has gained his point. How quickly, how easily, is that which is
lacking in our faith perfected by the word and power of Christ. Now he
sees no sign or wonder, and yet believes the wonder done.
(1.) Christ said, Thy son liveth, and the man believed
him; not only believed the omniscience of Christ, that he knew
the child had recovered, but the omnipotence of Christ, that the cure
was effected by his word. He left him dying; yet, when
Christ said, He lives, like the father of the faithful,
against hope he believed in hope, and staggered not through
unbelief.
(2.) Christ said, Go thy way; and, as an evidence of the
sincerity of his faith, he went his way, and gave neither Christ
nor himself any further disturbance. He did not press Christ to come
down, did not say, “If he do recover, yet a visit will be acceptable;”
no, he seems no further solicitous, but, like Hannah, he goes his way,
and his countenance is no more sad. As one entirely satisfied,
he made no great haste home; did not hurry home that night, but
returned leisurely, as one that was perfectly easy in his own mind.
7. The further confirmation of his faith, by comparing notes with his
servants at his return.
(1.) His servants met him with the agreeable news of the child’s
recovery,
Probably they met him not far from his own house, and, knowing what
their master’s cares were, they were willing as soon as they could to
make him easy. David’s servants were loth to tell him when the child
was dead. Christ said, Thy son liveth; and now the servants say
the same. Good news will meet those that hope in God’s word.
(2.) He enquired what hour the child began to recover
(v. 52);
not as if he doubted the influence of Christ’s word upon the child’s
recovery, but he was desirous to have his faith confirmed, that he
might be able to satisfy any to whom he should mention the miracle; for
it was a material circumstance. Note,
[1.] It is good to furnish ourselves with all the corroborating proofs
and evidences that may be, to strengthen our faith in the word of
Christ, that it may grow up to a full assurance. Show me a token
for good.
[2.] The diligent comparison of the works of Christ with his word will
be of great use to us for the confirming of our faith. This was the
course the nobleman took: He enquired of the servants the hour when
he began to amend; and they told him, Yesterday at the seventh
hour (at one o’clock in the afternoon, or, as some think this
evangelist reckons, at seven o’clock at night) the fever left
him; not only he began to amend, but he was perfectly well on a
sudden; so the father knew that it was at the same hour when
Jesus said to him, Thy son liveth. As the word of God,
well-studied, will help us to understand his providences, so the
providence of God, well observed, will help us to understand his word;
for God is every day fulfilling the scripture. Two things would
help to confirm his faith:–First, That the child’s recovery was
sudden and not gradual. They name the precise time to an
hour: Yesterday, not about, but at the seventh
hour, the fever left him; not it abated, or began to
decrease, but it left him in an instant. The word of
Christ did not work like physic, which must have time to operate, and
produce the effect, and perhaps cures by expectation only; no,
with Christ it was dictum factum–he spoke and it was done;
not, He spoke and it was set a doing. Secondly, That it was just
at the same time that Christ spoke to him: at that very hour.
The synchronisms and coincidents of events add very much to the beauty
and harmony of Providence. Observe the time, and the
thing itself will be more illustrious, for every thing is
beautiful in its time; at the very time when it is
promised, as Israel’s deliverance
at the very time when it is prayed for, as Peter’s deliverance,
In men’s works, distance of place is the delay of time and the
retarding of business; but it is not so in the works of Christ. The
pardon, and peace, and comfort, and spiritual healing, which he speaks
in heaven, are, if he pleases, at the same time effected and wrought in
the souls of believers; and, when these two come to be compared
in the great day, Christ will be glorified in his saints, and
admired in all them that believe.
8. The happy effect and issue of this. The bringing of the cure
to the family brought salvation to it.
(1.) The nobleman himself believed. He had before
believed the word of Christ, with reference to this particular
occasion; but now he believed in Christ as the Messiah promised,
and became one of his disciples. Thus the particular experience
of the power and efficacy of one word of Christ may be a happy
means to introduce and settle the whole authority of Christ’s dominion
in the soul. Christ has many ways of gaining the heart, and by the
grant of a temporal mercy may make way for better things.
(2.) His whole house believed likewise.
[1.] Because of the interest they all had in the miracle, which
preserved the blossom and hopes of the family; this
affected them all, and endeared Christ to them, and recommended him to
their best thoughts.
[2.] Because of the influence the master of the family had upon
them all. A master of a family cannot give faith to those under
his charge, nor force them to believe, but he may be
instrumental to remove external prejudices, which obstruct the
operation of the evidence, and then the work is more than half done.
Abraham was famous for this
and Joshua,
This was a nobleman, and probably he had a great
household; but, when he comes into Christ’s school, he brings them
all along with him. What a blessed change was here in this house,
occasioned by the sickness of the child! This should reconcile us to
afflictions; we know not what good may follow from them. Probably, the
conversion of this nobleman and his family at Capernaum might
induce Christ to come afterwards, and settle at Capernaum, as his
head-quarters in Galilee. When great men receive the gospel, they may
be instrumental to bring it to the places where they live.
9. Here is the evangelist’s remark upon this cure
(v. 54);
This is the second miracle, referring to
where the turning of water into wine is said to be the first; that was
soon after his first return out of Judea, this soon after his second.
In Judea he had wrought many miracles,
They had the first offer; but, being driven thence, he wrought miracles
in Galilee. Somewhere or other Christ will find a welcome. People may,
if they please, shut the sun out of their own houses, but they
cannot shut it out of the world. This is noted to be the
second miracle,
1. To remind us of the first, wrought in the same place some months
before. Fresh mercies should revive the remembrance of former
mercies, as former mercies should encourage our hopes of further
mercies. Christ keeps account of his favours, whether we do or no.
2. To let us know that this cure was before those many
cures which the other evangelists mention to be wrought in Galilee,
Mark i. 34; Luke iv. 40.
Probably, the patient being a person of quality, the cure was the more
talked of and sent him crowds of patients; when this nobleman applied
himself to Christ, multitudes followed. What abundance of good may
great men do, if they be good men!
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