Jacob's Well

But Yeshua said, we must today go through Samaria.

And you remember the story how they met, they went rather, they were at Jacob's well, and there was no food available, so they went nearby town to get some food.

During their absence, a woman came to get water, and Yeshua engaged her in conversation.

As a result of that, he made an entrance into the city, and many, many people believed on him because of that, but While she's away, the apostles come back with food and Yeshua is not hungry.

So the story here happens in John 4, happens with Jesus on his way from Judea to Galilee.

So John places the encounter in Saqqar in Samaria near Jacob's well near Mount Gerizim.

The route from Judea to Galilee could pass directly through Samaria.

The story makes the religion itself part of the message.

That's why they were willing to walk three extra days around the city to avoid the Samaritans.

That was something I didn't know and I didn't really understand until I was studying for this sermon today.

So, why these places matter? Jacob's Well connects the scene to Israel's patriarchal history.

Mount Gerizim was the Samaritan center of worship, which stands behind the woman in question in John 4.20. And Saqar is the nearby Samaritan town where the people would later come to meet Jesus.

And soon a radiant moon looked over the top of the great screen of mountains on our left.

And when, by and by, we turned somewhat suddenly West, we had sufficient light to be conscious of the great hills of Ebal and Gerizim on either hand, and to catch a glimpse of the enclosure around Joseph's tomb and, a little farther on, Jacob's well.

Our horses, who had been dejected and uninterested all day, seemed to be aware that the worst was over, and, suddenly reviving, were soon clattering over the cobblestones of Nablus.

At every turn we expected to be stopped by a demand for our teskeres, passports, or some other formality, as in no town in Palestine is the traveller so subject to demands for bakshish as here, and it was with some surprise as well as relief that we found ourselves in the spacious reception room of the convent.

Gerizim is historically the more famous of the two and that most frequented as by far the easier to climb.

But a view from Carmel to Jaffa, from the Mediterranean to the mountains of Moab, would have been to some of us more suggestive and of deeper significance than the Muslim well alleged to contain the skull of St. John the Baptist or even the church, possibly of the Justinian period, which may be on the site of the Temple of Gerizim destroyed by Hyrcanus, rival to that at Jerusalem.

At Jacob's Well also, we would have willingly lingered, grateful to Professor G.

A. Smith for leaving us still in possession of the traditional site, which he maintains against many opponents.

They were making their way from Jerusalem up about this, about, um, 50 kilometers north to the town of Sakaar in Samaria.

And finally they make it to this well, Jacob's well, right outside the town of Sakaar and it's noontime.

It's hot.

And Jesus, tired from his travels, sat down there by this well and Now, I want to pick up the story in the Gospel of John.

That's the fourth book in the New Testament, the second half of the Bible.

If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to John 4, 7 to 15.

Why are you asking me for a drink? Jesus replied, if you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water.

But sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket.

And then he went to the plot of ground actually where Jacob... gave his son Joseph, of course back in Genesis.

Now Jacob's well was there.

So it's this very famous well.

They all knew about it.

And that's why on festival occasions and so on, the people would come from all over the nation into Jerusalem for the purposes of worship.

But the Samaritans who had no dealings with the Jews had their own central sanctuary, which was on Mount Gerizim, which overlooked Jacob's Well.

If you've ever been to Palestine and visit the ancient site here in Sychar, you can stand by the well and just lift up your eyes and you see Gerizim there right in front of you.

And so this woman takes advantage of her new understanding that she's talking with a prophet to settle an ancient controversy between the Samaritans and the Jews.

It's about noon.

And Jesus says to his disciples, he says, you know what, I'm going to hang out here at Jacob's well.

Now, Jacob's well, you'll remember when we did our series in Genesis just a few weeks back, Jacob is the father of Joseph, and we just studied.

And so the disciples head on into Sychar there in Samaria, and we pick it up with verse 6.

Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.

It was about noon when a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman.

Only holiness reminds the enemies of God, both the demons and deluded men who seek the ruin of souls, that the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and that whatever attempts they might make, they will never be able to cast out Christ from the life of the world, Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world, the devil.

St. Nectarios of Pentapolis, St. Nicholas Planas, St. Savas of Calimnos, St. Anthimos of Chios, St. Nikephoros the leper, St. Silouan the athonite, St. George Karslidis, St. Sophia of Klisoura, St. Philoumanos the Cypriot of Jacob's Well, St. Porphyrios of Kapsokalivia, St. Paisios of the Holy Mountain, St. Iakovos of Evia, St. Amphilochios Makri, the holy elders Philotheos Servakos, Hieronymus of Aegina, Iosif the Hesychist, Ephraim of Catanachia, Evmenios the leper, Sophrony of Essex, Isaac Attala of Lebanon, the incorrupt hieromonk Bassarion, Elliptios Hasapis, the brother of St. Philoumenos, Anastasios of Koudoumas, Eldress Macaria who discovered St. Ephraim of Nea Macri, Euronissa Macrina of Portaia, the Cypriot spiritual fathers of the monastery of Stavrovouni, Cyprian and Germanos, and the Abbot Gabriel of the Holy Monastery of the Apostle Barnabas, the humble church candle lighter, Pananae, of Lysis in Cyprus, Evlogison, the prophet Hazi-Florenzo of Milia outside of Famagusta, a village in the occupied part of Cyprus, and many other contemporary people of God, all understood from very early on that they were dealing with a God who fervently desires that man, his creation, according to his image, become like him.

They understood that the passions, sin, and the spirit of this world ceased to have any authority over man from the moment when the God-man, Deanthropos Christ, abolished the power of death with his holy resurrection.

They freely chose to live with God.

We will move now to my particular homeland, Cyprus, the island of saints, which has remained without interruption an Orthodox Christian place since AD 45, when the apostles Paul, Barnabas, and Mark came to the island.

Every nook and cranny of the island confesses the faith in the one holy Catholic and apostolic church.

Contemporary Saints and Elders of Cyprus The village of Orunda, in our metropolis of Morfu, had the blessing of giving birth to St. Philoumenos, the new hero-martyr, 1913-1979, who sealed his holy life with his martyric end at Jacob's Well, near the city of Nablus in Palestine.

Specifically, on the evening of the 29th of November, 1979, the day on which our church celebrates the memory of the Holy Martyr Philoumenos, who was martyred in Ankara, in Asia Minor, in 8270, certain, quote, unknown assailants broke into Jacob's well and butchered St. Philoumenos, striking him with an axe on the face, the hands, and the feet.