Commentary - John 4:1-6

Bird's-eye view

In this opening section of the fourth chapter of John, we see the Lord Jesus Christ making a strategic and sovereignly ordained transition in His ministry. Having stirred the pot in Judea to the point where the religious authorities were taking notice, He withdraws. But this is no retreat. It is a tactical redeployment, moving from the hostile heart of orthodox Judaism to the despised territory of the Samaritans. The passage masterfully displays the twin realities of our Lord's nature. He is fully God, knowing what the Pharisees are thinking and moving according to a divine necessity. And He is fully man, becoming weary from the journey and needing to rest at a well. This section sets the stage for one of the most remarkable evangelistic encounters in the Gospels, demonstrating that Christ's kingdom advances not just in the centers of religious power, but often in the forgotten backwaters, and that God's appointments are never hindered by human hostility or physical exhaustion.

The key elements are all here: the rising opposition of the establishment, a clarification about the nature of the baptismal ministry, a divinely necessary detour, and the profound reality of the incarnation. Jesus is not simply avoiding a premature confrontation; He is initiating a planned offensive into territory long considered unclean and beyond the pale. He is going to show that the living water He offers is for thirsty sinners everywhere, not just for the respectable sons of Abraham.

Outline

Context In John

This passage marks a significant geographical and thematic shift in John's Gospel. Chapter 3 detailed Jesus' ministry in Judea, highlighted by His nocturnal conversation with Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. There, Jesus spoke of the necessity of the new birth. Now, in chapter 4, Jesus leaves the heartland of Jewish orthodoxy and heads north to Galilee. But instead of taking the customary route for pious Jews, which bypassed Samaria by crossing the Jordan, He goes straight through. This sets up a dramatic contrast. He moves from a conversation with a respected male teacher of Israel in the dark to a conversation with a disreputable female outcast of Samaria in the bright light of noon. The encounter with the Samaritan woman will demonstrate in living color the very truths He explained to Nicodemus. The kingdom He is building is not of this world, and it will demolish the ethnic and gender walls the Pharisees were so careful to maintain.

Key Issues

The Necessary Weariness

One of the central glories of the Christian faith is the doctrine of the incarnation, and this little passage puts it on full display. We have a Lord who is omniscient, knowing what the Pharisees have heard (v. 1). We have a Lord who operates on a divine timetable, for whom a trip through Samaria is a divine "must" (v. 4). This is God in control, the sovereign Lord of history moving His own story along exactly as planned. And then, in the same breath, we are told that this same Lord was "wearied from His journey" (v. 6). He got tired. His feet hurt. The sun beat down on Him. He was thirsty.

We must never separate these two truths. His weariness was not a momentary lapse in His divinity. It was the full expression of His humanity, which He took on for our sakes. He did not pretend to be tired; He was truly tired. The God who made the cosmos and "does not faint or grow weary" (Isa. 40:28) took on flesh and became weary for us. This is the great mystery. His sovereignty is demonstrated in the necessity of the journey, and His solidarity with us is demonstrated in the weariness of it. He had to go to Samaria to save a sinner, and He had to become a man to do it.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Therefore when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John

The word "therefore" links this action to the previous context. Jesus's ministry in Judea was becoming wildly successful, even eclipsing that of John the Baptist. And news of this success reached the ears of the Pharisees. These were the self-appointed guardians of Israel's religious purity, and they were not pleased. They saw John as a problem, but Jesus was becoming a far greater one. He was a rival power center, attracting a mass following, and doing so without their approval. The issue here is professional jealousy and the fear of losing control. Jesus, possessing divine knowledge, is fully aware of their chatter and their rising hostility. He knows their hearts, and He knows that their envy is about to curdle into something far more dangerous.

2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were),

John inserts a crucial parenthetical clarification here. It was not Jesus's personal practice to baptize. This was a task He delegated to His disciples. Why? For one, it prevented the formation of personality cults, where people could later boast of being baptized by the Master Himself, creating factions as Paul would later deal with in Corinth. More importantly, it kept the focus on the meaning of the baptism rather than the administrator of it. Jesus's unique baptism would be with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The water baptism performed by His disciples was a sign of repentance and allegiance to Him as the Messiah, an outward marker of an inward reality He alone could create.

3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee.

In response to the Pharisees' agitation, Jesus withdraws. This should not be mistaken for cowardice. His "hour had not yet come." This was a strategic decision, not a fearful flight. He was not going to force a premature confrontation in Jerusalem on their terms and on their timetable. He had work to do in Galilee, and now, as we see, in Samaria. He is the master strategist, always in control of the when and where of His ministry. He is demonstrating the wisdom of knowing when to engage and when to withdraw. He is leaving the hotbed of religious opposition for the hinterlands.

4 And He had to pass through Samaria.

This is the theological hinge of the entire passage. The Greek word is dei, which signifies a divine necessity. Geographically, the most direct route from Judea to Galilee went through Samaria. But most observant Jews, out of deep-seated ethnic and religious hatred for the Samaritans, would take a longer route east of the Jordan to avoid setting foot on "unclean" soil. For Jesus, this was not a geographical necessity but a redemptive one. There was a divine appointment at a well in Sychar that He had to keep. God the Father had elect sheep in this despised fold, and the Shepherd "had to" go and find them. This was a necessity born of the Father's will and the Son's love.

5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph;

John, as he often does, grounds the narrative in rich Old Testament soil. The location is not random. This is patriarchal land. This is the very area where Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes, settled after his return from Haran. He bought this piece of land (Gen. 33:19) and later bequeathed it to his favored son, Joseph (Gen. 48:22). The history is thick with meaning. Jesus, the true Israel, the ultimate Son of Jacob, has come back to the ancestral homeland. He is about to deal with the fractured inheritance of his people, bridging a centuries-old divide that began right after the reign of Solomon.

6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

The setting is Jacob's well. Jacob dug a well and gave his children water. But Jesus, the one greater than Jacob, is about to offer a "living water" that quenches thirst forever. The contrast is potent. And here we see the Lord in His full humanity. He is wearied. The long walk on dusty roads under the Middle Eastern sun has taken its toll. He sits down, exhausted. The phrase "sitting thus" has a sense of informality, like He just collapsed there. It was the "sixth hour," which by Jewish reckoning is high noon, the hottest part of the day. Everything about the scene emphasizes His genuine humanity and vulnerability. The eternal Word, through whom all things were made, is tired and thirsty.

Application

First, we must recognize that God's plans are often advanced through what look like strategic retreats. Jesus left Judea because of opposition. We too will face opposition, and there are times when wisdom dictates not a foolhardy confrontation but a tactical withdrawal in order to continue the mission elsewhere. Our Lord's kingdom is not advanced by bravado but by Spirit-led wisdom. Sometimes the most fruitful field is the one you are "forced" to enter because another door closed.

Second, we must learn to see the divine "necessity" in our own journeys. Jesus had to go through Samaria. We tend to see our lives as a series of choices, accidents, and interruptions. But for the believer, there are no spiritual detours, only divinely-appointed paths. The inconvenient place, the unexpected conversation, the interruption to our plans, this is often the very place of our Sychar, the place where God has ordained a ministry for us. We must ask God for eyes to see the "must" in our mundane travels.

Finally, we must be comforted and emboldened by the weariness of Jesus. He was not a detached deity, floating above the fray. He entered fully into our human frailty. This means He understands our exhaustion. He knows what it is to be spent. And it means that ministry is not limited to when we are feeling strong and rested. Jesus was weary from His journey, and He was about to have one of the most fruitful conversations of His entire ministry. God is pleased to use tired servants. Our weakness is the stage upon which His strength is most perfectly displayed. Therefore, do not despise your weariness, but sit down by the well and see who the Father brings to you.