The Woman at the Well

“Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee Living Water.”  John 4:10

There were many folks who were saved before Jesus went to the cross.  However, the qualifications were the same as after Jesus’ crucifixion.  One must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and one must turn from sin.  This is how the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at Jacob’s well one day about noon came to believe in Jesus.  She was at Jacob’s well which had been dug by Jacob in Shechem many years before.  Her ancestors had been Jews who had intermarried with people of Assyria after the Assyrian army had attacked Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, also many years prior to this time.  The Jews despised the Samaritans and would not associate with them.  Jesus, tired from his journey from Judea to Galilee, a route which caused Him and His disciples to pass through Samaria, stopped at the well while the disciples had gone into town to buy food.  Jesus spoke to the woman, asking for a drink of water.

The Samaritan woman must have been flabbergasted.  Considering that they were in Samaria, I don’t know how she recognized Him to be a full-blooded Jewish Man unless there were some differences perhaps in skin color, accent, or facial features, but she spoke up and asked (paraphrasing), “Why are You, a Jewish Man, asking me to give you a drink?  Jews do not have any association with Samaritans.”  Jesus didn’t answer her question, but rather told her that if she knew with whom she was speaking, she would have asked Him for water, and it would have been Living Water.  Jesus didn’t have anything with which to draw water from such a deep well, so how could He have this Living Water?  She asked, “Are You greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drew water from it himself?”  (You bet your bottom dollar that He is!)  Jesus told her that plain water, H2O, would only satisfy thirst temporarily, but the water that He would provide would last for eternity.

What a deal!  She asked Jesus to give her this water so she would never thirst nor have to come to the well again.  I would imagine that her lifestyle, of which Jesus was about to reveal, made her ashamed to come to the well when there were other people there.  (Many people are ashamed of their sin, but not enough to turn from it.)  Jesus told her to go and get her husband and return.  She replied that she didn’t have a husband.  Jesus told her that she was right–she didn’t have a husband, but she had been married five times, and the man that she was living with now was not her husband.  Imagine how shocked that she was to hear a Man whom she did not know reveal the truth about her lifestyle.  How did He know?  She assumed that He was a prophet because prophets were known to have information revealed to them by the LORD.  She then said that the fathers of the Samaritans worshipped in the mountains, but the Jews said the proper place of worship was in Jerusalem.  It seems like a strange thing for her to say unless she was trying to change the subject.  Folks don’t like to be reminded of their sinful lifestyles, particularly by one who is righteous.  If indeed it was a subject-changing maneuver on her part, Jesus didn’t fall for it because He always knows what folks are thinking.  There is no way to be evasive with the Lord.

Jesus pointed out to her that the physical place of worship is not what’s important, but the object of worship, the Lord, is what is necessary.  Her worship had been that of an outward show of reverence for God, who, to the Samaritans was not close and personal.  Jesus wanted her to know that true worshippers worship God in spirit and truth–deep down, internally from the heart–and not just with a head knowledge.  The Samaritan woman had a head knowledge that God would send a Messiah, but she didn’t realize that she could have a personal relationship with Him.  Jesus revealed His true identity to her, and she believed Him to be the Christ.  She was so excited that she dropped her water buckets and ran back to town to tell everyone that she had met Christ the Messiah.  Many, likely very curious, went to meet Jesus and also believed in Him.  Her life and the lives of many of her fellow citizens were changed forever that day.  Her encounter with Jesus was not a coincidence.  “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).