Presentation Transcript

1. Lesson 12 – John 4–5

   Living Water
2. What is this picture? Surface of Mars, taken by the Curiosity Rover Why is this an important picture?
3. Here’s a hint (the right is from Earth) Scientists believe that this was a river bed, that water used to flow through here. Why is this important, even groundbreaking? Where there is water, there is life. Where else have we talked about water so far?
4. We’ll come back to water… First, let’s talk about the Samaritans. Who are they? People from Samaria Bitter rivals of the Jews Started after the 10 tribes were captured by Assyrians Some managed to stay behind, other stragglers and random people came in They wanted to be part of Israel, so followed a strict interpretation of the Law of Moses
5. Greek Historian Geikie “[The Samaritans] claimed for their mountain a greater holiness than that of Moriah; accused the Jews of adding to the word of God, by receiving the writings of the prophets, and prided themselves on owning only the Pentateuch as inspired; favoured Herod because the Jews hated him, and were loyal to him and the equally hated Romans; had kindled false lights on the hills, to vitiate the Jewish reckoning by the new moons, and thus throw their feasts into confusion, and, in the early youth of Jesus, had even defiled the very Temple itself, by strewing human bones in it, at the Passover.” “Nor had hatred slumbered on the side of the Jews. They knew the Samaritans only as Cuthites, or heathens from Cuth. 'The race that I hate is no race,' says the son of Sirach. It was held that a people who once had worshipped five gods could have no part in Jehovah. The claim of the Samaritans that Moses had buried the Tabernacle and its vessels on the top of Gerizim, was laughed to scorn. It was said that they had dedicated their temple, under Antiochus Epiphanes, to the Greek Jupiter. “ Talmage: “The testimony of a Samaritan could not be heard before a Jewish tribunal. For a Jew to eat food prepared by a Samaritan was at one time regarded by rabbinical authority as an offense as great as that of eating[Pg 173] the flesh of swine. While it was admitted that produce from a field in Samaria was not unclean, inasmuch as it sprang directly from the soil, such produce became unclean if subjected to any treatment at Samaritan hands.” * Note the Jews adding to the Oral Law to further their own prejudice.
6. Why was Christ there? Turn to Map 11 Christ was in Judea, wanted to go to Cana. How do you get there? Through Samaria. Often Jews would go a longer way to avoid the area. Christ stopped at a well, and met a Samaritan woman.
7. The Woman at the Well https://si.lds.org/resources/ajax/pages/color-box/play-video?lang=eng&vidId=1691502102001&bd=true How is the woman’s understanding similar to Nicodemus? They didn’t understand the spiritual symbol. What is the “Living Water”?
8. Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin “These latter days are a time of great spiritual thirst. Many in the world are searching, often intensely, for a source of refreshment that will quench their yearning for meaning and direction in their lives. They crave a cool, satisfying drink of insight and knowledge that will soothe their parched souls. Their spirits cry out for life-sustaining experiences of peace and calm to nourish and enliven their withering hearts. The Lord provides the living water that can quench the burning thirst of those whose lives are parched by a drought of truth. He expects us to supply to them the fulness of the gospel by giving them the scriptures and the words of the prophets and to bear personal testimony as to the truth of the restored gospel to alleviate their thirst. When they drink from the cup of gospel knowledge, their thirst is satisfied as they come to understand our Heavenly Father’s great plan of happiness.”
9. Notebook Ideas How do you partake of the living water in your life? What do you feel as you “drink”? What drives you to want to share that living water with all of those around you? In what other ways can the imagery of water be likened to Christ?