The Woman at the Well
John 4:5-30 – So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. Then there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
The above scriptures tell the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman who came to draw water. It was about the sixth hour of the day meaning it was nearly 12 noon in a hot and dry desert country.
Jesus apparently was wearied more than his disciples because he had sent them into the city to buy food. Why was that you may ask? It was probably because he had been in prayer most of the night while his disciples got their sleep.
A more plausible theory for the reason Jesus rested by the well while He sent his disciples into town was that He knew the Samaritan woman would be coming and He wanted to talk to her alone. (Remember the story of the demonic? After Jesus cast the demons from him the Bible says that the formerly naked man “Was clothed and in his right mind”. Where did the clothes come from? Answer: Jesus knew He was going to meet up with this Demonic man so He had the disciples buy clothes for him before He left on this trip. He also knew what size to buy)
Now back to our story of the Samaritan woman. Jesus asked her to give Him a drink and she replies “How is it that you ask me to draw water for you when Jews have no dealings with Samaritans?” She gets political right away.
However, Jesus ignores her political question and asks her a spiritual question saying “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
The woman then responds with “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” She tries to get political again.
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Finally she gets Jesus’ spiritual point an answers “Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” She’s still looking at the practical side though.
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband.” The woman answers and saying, “I have no husband.” This is when Jesus uses His revelation knowledge and “reads her mail” by saying “You have well said, ‘I have no husband’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
The Truth finally dawns on her and she says to Him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Duhh! But she can’t get her mind of the political situation so she says “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
Jesus says to her “Woman, believe Me. The hour is coming when you will neither worship the Father on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The woman says to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus says to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
At this point His disciples came, and marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “Why are You talking with her?” The woman then left her water pot, went into the city, and says to the men, “Come and see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they left the city and came to Him.
Jesus changed her from a political minded skeptic into a spiritual minded evangelist!
Hal Mitchell
The Bard of Hearthstone Hills