But many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him because of the word of the woman who bore witness, He told me all things that I had ever done.
Jesus had left Judea, where the religious leaders had turned hostile, and He stopped at a well outside a Samaritan town. There He told a woman her whole life story, and her one sentence about it turned a crowd of her neighbours toward Him — so what makes a testimony work, and how far can faith go when it rests on someone else's word?
Jesus was in Samaria because Judea had turned hostile. One writer sees in that move what rejected grace does next.
Here the circumstances are completely different. For the moment the Lord is outside the circle of Judaism, among the despised Samaritans. Why? Because of the hostility in the Jewish heart... There He met the woman and brought blessing to her soul, and that brought blessing to many others too. If some reject His grace, their unbelief does not dry the channel up; it redirects it, and others receive it.
The Samaritans were a despised people. That a whole town of them believed turned every expectation around.
So despised Samaria stretches out her hands to God, and Galilee, the land of darkness and of the shadow of death, receives Him when Jerusalem rejects Him. The light springs up in the place of darkness. It may be rejected elsewhere, but it is never hidden — except in judgment.
Her whole message was that He had read her life. Notice what she chose to tell people: not that she was innocent, but that she had been found out.
Here again she testifies that His word searched her conscience: "He told me all that I ever did." When a person does not shrink from that kind of examination, it is a good guarantee that the work is Divine. Otherwise grace is easily misused as a cover for sin, or as a light way of dealing with a sinner, instead of judging everything in God's light.
A woman found out like that would usually hide. Something had taken the sting out of it.
A new object has been revealed to her soul — Christ — and it takes up her whole mind. It takes her up so completely that, without thinking, she becomes a preacher: she proclaims the Lord out of a full heart and with perfect simplicity. He had told her everything she had ever done. At that moment she is not thinking about what it was. Jesus had told it to her, and the thought of Jesus takes away the bitterness of the sin. The sense of His goodness removes the deceit in the heart that tries to hide its sin. In short, her heart is completely filled with Christ Himself.
No miracle happened in that town. Look at who carried the message, and at what God chose not to use.
In His grace God uses, not an angel, but a sinner born again, to carry the truth to others, as we see here in Samaria... It was a true work of God, done in the ordinary way of grace: the word dealing with the conscience. There was no miracle, and no persuasive words of human wisdom either, but a demonstration of the Spirit, so that their faith would stand in God's power.
She never claimed an office. She said what she knew and attached it to a Person.
She told what she knew; she testified of that which she had found, but in connection with a Person. "He told me," she declared, so pointing others to that One who, in grace, had met with her at the well. But how effectively she did her work! The fields were white to harvest... To stand up and preach was not her work... Yet she worked rightly and well, and that without intruding into another's sphere.
These townspeople believed because of someone else's report — faith at second hand.
The power of Jesus' testimony in the conscience is the great doorway into the knowledge of Jesus... Many believed because of this testimony, even at second hand. This is what opened the way for Him, and on that ground they begged Him to stay with them... Her word was the doorway; but once He was let in, everything fits the full glory of the One the heart is now taught to receive.
She wanted exactly that, and would not have settled for less.
She could not be satisfied with only telling them what she had heard, or who she had seen and talked with. She wanted others to meet Him for themselves... A true spiritual instinct led her to bring them to Christ, as the one thing that would settle their souls in the truth about Him.
- Diverted — Rejection in Judea did not stop grace. It turned the stream toward a despised town, and light rose where there had been darkness.
- Exposed — Her one line was that He knew everything about her. When a person does not flinch from that, it is good evidence the work is God's, and that grace is not covering up sin.
- Filled — She can tell her own story because her heart is full of Christ. The thought of Jesus takes the bitterness out of the sin.
- Sent — God used a sinner, not an angel. There was no miracle and no clever speech, so their faith would rest on God's power.
- Surpassed — Her word was the doorway, not the resting place. She wanted them to meet Him for themselves, and everything they found in Him agreed with His full glory.
When therefore the Samaritans came to him they asked him to abide with them, and he abode there two days.
The Samaritans were a people others looked down on. Yet when they came out to meet Jesus, they asked Him to stay — and He stayed two days. Two questions follow. Why did He accept? And what did those two days do for them?
Others met Jesus and asked Him to leave. These people asked the opposite.
The Samaritans begged the Son of God to stay with them, and there He did stay two days (v. 40). What confidence on their part! What grace on His! Others, more favoured, who looked down on them, begged Him with one voice to leave them (Luke 8:37). Who else is ever recorded as making such a request for His presence? But those who asked received a blessing both now and forever, as faith in Him always does.
He had not pushed Himself on the town. He sat at the well, and He entered only when they asked.
Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. But this was the time of gift and grace. The message went out to those counted worthless too. Jesus did not go to offer Himself to them, though He went when they invited Him. As He said, "Enter no town of the Samaritans." Yet the glory that was in Him, and what He was conscious of in the character and heart of God, went beyond His present ministry.
He stayed two days among a people counted defiled, and He showed no reserve. What made Him free there was what He found in them.
In Samaria He sat at the well with one of the defiled nation, and afterwards stayed for two days among many of them. Conscience was stirred there, and so He is among them without reserve. There is no weight on His spirit. He was in His right place. That place gave Him the opportunity to act from Himself, and to let people learn what He was and why He had come into this world. He found a home in Samaria, because He found stirred consciences there — contrite, humbled hearts.
No miracle happened there. Yet they came to know who He was.
So without a miracle Samaria acknowledged the Lord. One person first knew Him as a prophet. In the end all who believed there knew Him as Saviour of the world. The fullest confession of His grace came where you would expect the least understanding. But faith gives a new wisdom. It is so different from the old that the wise must become fools if they would be wise according to God.
The woman had brought them a report. The two days turned that report into their own knowledge. They also settled an old argument about which mountain was the right place to worship.
She had learnt from Him who He was. They had learnt from His two days' stay with them what He was, as meeting their need on the broad ground of grace. Here every question about whether Gerizim was better than Moriah fell away. Everything they had argued about in the ritual of Moses must have appeared in a new light. The Saviour of the world had come, had sat with them, had taught them.
Some commentators read the two days as more than a detail of the itinerary — they see the shape of the present age in it, though this is offered as a suggestion rather than a stated fact of the text.
We should consider well here that it was not His miracles that drew them to Him, but His word. First came His words to the woman, which she testified to, then His own direct word to them. No doubt these two days picture the present age of grace to sinners of every class, Jews and Gentiles.
- Asked — Others begged Him to leave; this town begged Him to stay. He never forces His company, but He goes where people want Him.
- Stayed — He came in when they invited Him. He was at home there, because stirred consciences and humbled hearts gave Him a place to be Himself.
- Spoke — No miracle happened in Samaria. Faith came through His word alone — first carried by the woman, then heard first-hand.
- Known — She had learnt who He was. The two days taught them what He was: grace that met their need and ended the old quarrel over the right mountain.
- Blessed — Those who asked for His presence received a blessing now and forever. Faith in Him always receives it.
And more a great deal believed on account of his word;
The woman's report brought a crowd of Samaritans out of the town to meet Jesus, and they asked Him to stay. Verse 41 records the result: a second, larger wave of faith — this time from hearing Him.
The count rises from "many" who believed her report to "many more" who believed Him. One writer sees God honouring her testimony, and sees real faith moving past the messenger to the Lord Himself.
It is cheering to see how God honoured the simple testimony of the woman. Many out of that town believed on Him because of her word... But faith, whenever it is real, rises from the instrument to Him who graciously chooses to use it, and God loves to put honour upon the word of Jesus Himself.
Those two extra days were their own idea. One writer sets their asking beside others who asked Him to leave.
The Samaritans asked the Son of God to stay with them, and there He did stay two days (v. 40). What confidence on their part! What grace on His! Others more favoured, who despised them, asked Him with one voice to leave them (Luke 8:37). Where else do we read of anyone asking for His presence like this? But those who asked received a blessing both now and forever, as faith in Him always does.
Their faith had nothing to do with miracles. It grew from two rounds of speaking — hers, then His.
We should think carefully here. They were not drawn to Him by His miracles, but by His word. First came His words to the woman, which she then told them about. Then came His own direct word to them. No doubt His two days with them are a picture of the present age of grace to sinners of every class, Jews and Gentiles. "And many more believed because of His word" (v. 41). The fruit of His word becomes abundant indeed.
One kind of faith follows miracles. Another rests on the person Himself. The same writer sets the two side by side.
At the feast of the Passover... many believed in His name. But it was because of His miraculous signs. The various people mentioned in Chapter 1 are a clear contrast. They held to the Lord Jesus because of what they saw in Him. The moral beauty of His own person, His truth and His grace drew their hearts. Or others later at Samaria... He had done no miracles there, but His word had penetrated their hearts: they believed Him, not simply believing certain things about Him.
The town already believed because of what she said. That was not enough for her.
She had learned for herself the value of meeting Christ in person. She wanted the same for the people of her town, so she urged them to come and see the man who had told her everything she ever did. She could not rest satisfied with simply telling them what she had heard, or whom she had seen. She wanted others to meet Him for themselves. They came, though at first they believed in Him because of what the woman said. She would not let them settle for less than meeting Him, and they did not settle for less.
Nobody today hears Christ speak in person as these Samaritans did. One writer reads this moment as a picture of how anyone believes now.
This was the simple and blessed fact for these Samaritans. It beautifully foreshadows the true and unchangeable ground of faith for all who would hear and believe the gospel once the Lord was no longer here on earth in person. Anyone and anything may stop a soul in its tracks with revealed truth: a man, a woman, a child; a sermon, a conversation, a book or a leaflet. But whatever the means, the soul believes God. Without believing God there is no true faith, and no divine authority and grace over heart and conscience.
- Word, not wonder. No miracle happened in that town. The many more believed because His word reached them, and the fruit was abundant.
- Instrument, then Person. God honoured the woman's testimony, but real faith rises from the messenger to the One who used her.
- Asked and received. Others asked Him to leave; these asked Him to stay. Those two extra days of His own words produced the many more of verse 41.
- Him, not facts about Him. Earlier crowds believed because of miraculous signs. Here they believed Him — not just certain things about Him.
- Your turn to hear. A sermon, a book, a conversation may stop anyone in their tracks — but real faith is the soul believing God for itself.
and they said to the woman, [It is] no longer on account of thy saying that we believe, for we have heard him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.
Jesus spent two days in the Samaritan town of Sychar, and the people there said something no Jew of that day would say. This verse raises two questions: what happens when borrowed belief becomes personal, and how a despised village came to call Jesus the Saviour of the world.
Her story brought them out to Jesus; His own word kept them there.
Faith, whenever it is real, rises from the instrument to Him who is pleased to use it, and God loves to put honour upon the word of Jesus Himself.
She had not simply passed on information. She had pushed them toward a meeting she could not arrange for them.
She could not be content to tell them only what she had heard, whom she had seen, and whom she had talked with. She wanted others to meet Him for themselves. They did so. Short of that she would not have them rest; short of that they did not stop. A true spiritual instinct made her bring them to Christ. That was what would settle their souls in the truth about Him.
Their words could have stung her. One writer reads her reaction the other way:
Nothing could have been more welcome to the woman of Samaria than the words of the many who believed because of His own word. They told her plainly that they no longer believed because of what she said, for they had heard Him themselves. Nature might take that as a snub, but grace in her would give the saying a loud Amen.
Some old copies of John read "the Christ, the Saviour of the world" here. Commentators judge those two words a copyist's addition. Leave them out, and two confessions stand side by side:
Here the words "the Christ" should be omitted. Her testimony was that He was the Christ; theirs, that He was the Saviour of the world. She had learnt from His lips who He was. They learnt from His two days' stay among them what He was, as meeting their need on the broad ground of divine grace. Their faith about Him now rested on a firm basis, and they held this title firmly in their hearts — "the Saviour of the world." He could be their Saviour, for He was the Saviour of the world.
Gerizim was the mountain where the Samaritans worshipped. The wider name for Christ came from them, not from people with a religious standing to defend.
Notice too that the Samaritans call Jesus "the Saviour." At bottom they knew very well that their Gerizim was nothing. But grace opened their hearts to a wider idea of the Saviour's work. No Jew would have said, "the Saviour of the world."
Nothing spectacular happened in Sychar. There was no healing and no miracle. Jesus simply talked with them for two days.
So the Samaritans believed without a miracle, and entered into the blessing all the more deeply. They take their own place: not a word of rivalry with the Jew. They were sinners: Jesus is the Saviour. They were of the world. But "this is indeed the Saviour of the world." God saves us, not because we deserve it, but because He, Jesus, deserves it; and we believe on Him.
The villagers' words are also a test. Borrowed conviction is a starting point, not a resting place.
Have you, my friend, heard Him for yourself? And do you know indeed that He is the Christ, the Saviour of the world, and therefore your Saviour? One thing is certain: if you know beyond doubt that you have heard the Lord's own word, then you have heard Him.
- Instrument. Her word brought them out; real faith always rises from the messenger to the One who used the messenger.
- Meeting. She refused to let them stop at her report — she wanted them face to face with Christ, and that meeting settled their souls.
- Hearing. No miracle happened in Sychar. Two days of His own word carried them past her report.
- Widening. She said "the Christ." They went wider: "the Saviour of the world." No Jew of that day would say it, and it came from people with nothing to boast in.
- Yours. The verse turns their question back on you: have you heard Him yourself? Is He therefore your Saviour?