John 4:1-26
Jesus Speaks to a Samaritan Woman
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Jesus spoke to a lot of people and used metaphors often to help us understand Him and to remember what He had said and taught...I think we need Jesus to speak metaphorically because He comes from above, and when He lived among us on earth, it somehow makes better sense as we read about His teachings...Maybe the metaphors tie together heaven and earth as we read about His ministry...
So when He spoke to people He understood how much faith they had and their willingness to learn about Him and He knew how they would receive Him...So as He talked to the Samaritan woman at the well He knew her actually very well and He knew all about her...He knew she had five previous husbands and He knew that she lived with another man, who was not her husband...He knew she had no husband...And importantly, He knew her level of faith...He knew that she was curious about Him...But when the Samaritan woman first met Him at the well she had no idea of His abilities or who He was...She had no idea that He was divine and what He was thinking or the Way He could think...When the woman and Jesus asks for a drink of her water, they are discussing the water in the well literally...She understands about His need for drinking water...She knew a male Jew would normally not drink socially together at the well with a Samaritan woman...She knew the Jews and their past history and how the Jews interacted with Samaritans...She knew that Jewish men did not associate much, if at all, with Samaritans and Samaritan women....
But she could tell just in a short while that this Jewish Man was quite different than the rest...She could see that He was a prophet...And ethnic backgrounds and race do not matter to Jesus...He is not prejudice...When He says to her metaphorically (about water, the Living Water) that “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you Living Water.”...He is talking about water then talking about another kind of water -the offering of Life, the very Living Water that He has...He has invited her to better get to know Him, the One who has been with God from the beginning is in conversation with her...I think this conversation has taken her back a bit, yet I think she understands after talking to Him awhile that He is from really from above, that He is the Messiah and is the One who was appointed by God to come to earth to save us...
And it does not hurt that He tells her, that God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in Truth...The Samaritan woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming...When He comes, he will explain everything to us.”...She believed in the Old Testament Messiah, who has the ability to tell us everything that we want to know...And this Anointed One now right beside her, talking to her...The Messiah that she has just mentioned is the One talking to her...Then Jesus declared, “I, the One speaking to you—I AM He.”...
She had found the One who could give her everything she ever needed, and could explain everything to her...Her Savior was beside her...What a Gift, this Living Water...