John 4:1-26
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, 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 the sixth hour.
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 flocks and herds?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him 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 fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, 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 spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in 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 who speak to you am he.”
Water is a very important part of life...Without water, life cannot sustain itself...We all need some water regularly to survive...Sometimes, I think that God's people lived and are from the desert (and God purposely put them there) to show of the importance of water...And in His Son's meeting with a woman at the well, He shows us the ever more importance of the Living Water...
Jesus talked to a Samaritan woman...It was very unusual that a Jew and Israelite and Teacher like Jesus to even communicate with a Samaritan, let alone a woman -who was a Samaritan...He was thirsty...He had a need for some water...Jesus ask her, the Samaritan woman, if she would give Him a drink of the well water...She also had a need, but may have known about it, or at least the depth of it -until she met Him...
We all have needs...We all have wants and desires...Our desires and wants (I think) are many things we can actually live without most of the time...They are things we would like to have, but could do without...Many desires and wants are therefore fleeting...Both in wants and needs some are personally more important to us...
Jesus talks and teaches us about the real needs we have...He teaches us the eternities...He teaches us about the important needs...The need He was talking to the Samaritan woman about was the "thirst need" of God and the gifts of God...We need God, and she needed God...Jesus' Son, God in the Flesh, was right beside her...She at first did not see that or recognized that it was Him...But He makes it perfectly clear, the One asking for the drink of water, has the very holy water that will quench the thirst of life itself...He invited her into His world...He is telling her, He is from God, and later tells Him that He is the Messiah...So much for a Jew, let alone THE God of the Jews don't or not saying they associate with Samaritans (or anyone for that matter)...Jesus was very much in touch with women and men...Jesus was telling her, this Samaritan woman, personal things in a frank and understandable way that He was the One that was to come and was her Messiah...And when He spoke, we can tell that her interest is perked up...She knows that there is something very different about this Man at the well...
The Gift of God He speaks of maybe His very Self, and that she gets to meet and physically talk to the Messiah...When He tells her about the Living Water in us, we might assume it is our Holy Spirit that can become like a spring of water welling in us and getting us to eternal life...She has certainly been blessed, and has received a gift -just to talk to Him...The Samaritan woman got a great teaching and had a great meeting and great conversation with Jesus...One that she would never forget...And the only thing she ask of Him, was for one of her needs...Jesus shows us for who we are...She realizes this...The Messiah is not prejudiced or biased towards others, woman or Samaritan, black, yellow, white, or red... His teachings apply to all of us...
We can feel the forgiveness in His words about her life...Jesus touches her mind, as well as her heart...She is given much hope...Jesus has spoken to her and given her the Gift of the Spirit and the Words of eternal life...Her faith is very much strengthened that day, with her meeting the Man at the Well...We must be like her and ask - “Sir, give me this Living Water."...