Lesson Five: THE TESTIMONY OF THE SAMARITANS
This week, we are looking at who the samaritans are and how they responded to Jesus’ call of love through His teachings.
Memory Text: John 4:42
“Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
SABBATH: In 722 BC, when the Assyrians captured the Jews from Northern Israel, they were made prisoners and scattered all over the Assyrian empire. The Samaritans are a product of intermarriages between the Jews and the other natives from other nations who had been brought to populate Northern Israel. Being seen as heathens by the Jews because of their mixed religion on Judaism and idolatry, there was no relation between Jews and Samaritans in any form. This week focuses on Jesus’ relations with the Samaritans.
SUNDAY: Upon the discovery of Jesus’ disciples baptising more souls than those of John the Baptist by the Pharisees, Jesus decides to reach Galilee by passing through Samaria to avoid a confrontation. At Jacob’s well, He meets with a samaritan woman, whom He asks for a drink. Contrasting characteristics are seen between Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. One is a well-known Jewish leader while the other is a samaritan woman of low status. One meets Jesus by night and the other meets Jesus by day. In this case, Jesus meeting this woman changes her life.
(READ John 4:1-9, John 3:26-30)
MONDAY: Here in, we see that the hatred between Jews and Samaritans prevented the samaritan woman from offering kindness to Jesus Christ. However, this does not erase the fact that Jesus knows what is in her heart as was with His encounter with Nicodemus. Jesus’ words to her in John 4:10, similar to the ones He said to Nicodemus, all point both of them to the truths they needed to hear and understand and a true conversion experience needed for each of them. Water is an image of life everlasting achieved through Christ alone.
(READ John 4:7-15, Jeremiah 2:13, Zechariah 14:8)
TUESDAY: Similarly, with Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus uses scenarios most familiar to the Samaritan woman in John 4. Illustrations of water and being born again are interpreted literally by the samaritan woman and Nicodemus, respectively. Her request to have of this water offered by Christ is done out of her wish to carry on with avoidance to meet people. Jesus reads her heart and telling her to call her husbands shows that Jesus intends us to face our sinful situations just like she had to do so as to find healing which comes by recognising our need for the Saviour.
(READ Ezekiel 36:25-27, John 4:16, John 3:3)
WEDNESDAY: The more Jesus shows the samaritan her deepest secrets, she continues on with avoidance by bringing up the subject of the religious controversy between the Jews and Samaritans. Jesus points out that worship of the true God is not tied to a place but rather should be done in truth and spirit. Upon accepting the plain truth conveyed by Jesus, He reveals to the samaritan woman that He is the Messiah. This gives her a great reason to believe in Jesus Christ.
(READ John 4:16-26)
THURSDAY: Upon the return from the search for food, the disciples meet Jesus on this encounter with the samaritan woman. She leaves her water pot behind and rushes back to the city to share with her countrymen about her experience with Jesus. The narrative of a harvest used by Jesus Christ shows that He is aware of a great upcoming conversion of samaritans that follows the witness of the samaritan woman. Upon the request of these other samaritans, Jesus stays more two days and this leads many more of them to believe Christ as the Saviour of the world because of their experience with Him.
(READ John 4:27-42)
FRIDAY: The samaritan woman proved herself a more effective missionary for Christ more than His disciples. She carried the light she had received from Jesus Christ to her countrymen and invited them to come and receive drinks from Jesus Christ, the fountain of life. She further evidencifies that a receiver of the fountain of life becomes a giver of the same for the grace of God in the soul of the receiver is like a spring in the desert.
(READ “At Jacob’s well”, pages 183-195 in The Desire of Ages by Ellen G White).
CAPTIONS
SUNDAY: The setting of the encounter
MONDAY: The woman at the well
TUESDAY: “Sir, give me this water”
WEDNESDAY: The revelation of Jesus
THURSDAY: The testimony of the Samaritans
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- Why do you think Jesus got such warm reception among the Samaritans as opposed to among some of His own people?
Put yourself in the place of that Samaritan woman. A total stranger comes and lets her know that He is aware of her deepest secrets. How could anyone, much less a stranger, have known these things? No wonder she was impressed by Jesus. What should this story tell us about how the Lord knows everything about us, even the deepest, darkest secrets that we would not want anyone to know? And yet, what does the way He treated her say to us about how He wants to deal with us, even when He knows our secrets? What comfort can you draw from this truth?
Share this wonderful message with a friend or anyone you wish to include.
