The Woman at the Well, John 4

 

Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John ² (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), ³ He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.

Jesus was having a great time baptizing in the countryside of Judea, and so was His cousin, John the Baptist. But when the religious folks (Pharisees), started planting seeds of division, Jesus packed up and headed north toward Galilee.

⁴ But He needed to go through Samaria.

⁵ So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Sychar was over fifty miles from Jerusalem, so, Jesus may have traveled about that far, (depending on where He left Judea). If they traveled twenty miles a day, this may have been around noon (sixth hour) on the third day of travel.

No wonder He was “wearied from His journey.”  Jesus was the Word became flesh (John 1:14). He was Divine, yet, man. Not superman.

He sat, weary, probably hot and thirsty, but there’s no mention of Him performing a miracle to bring water from the well.

He waited.

Quenching His physical thirst was secondary to the Divine appointment He had with someone in dire need a quenching a Spiritual thirst.

He didn’t go to the well for Himself. He went for…

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

You see, He didn’t make that long, hard, journey, and stop at that particular time, and that particular place, just to quench His own thirst, but hers…and yours.

Or, did Jesus just happen to take that route that led them to this town, by this well, at this hour; a time when nobody visits the well? Oh, and did He just so happen to send all the disciples to town for food. All of them? Was it all just coincidence? Or, Providence?

Even though, as a man, He got tired and thirsty, He walked in the Spirit, so He was at the right place at the right time for the right reason.

He walked a life of Divine timing, and Divine connections.

We should follow His example. He walked in the Spirit, thus was not overcome by lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). The Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak (Mt. 26:41).

He could’ve done it Himself. Miraculously call water up from the well.

But He waited.

Picture it.

The Almighty, thirsty and weary, waited, to ask for help from someone most folks wouldn’t even talk to.

⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Jesus speaking to her may have startled her. Jewish men, rarely spoke to any women in public. Especially Samaritans. They were despised by Jews.

You see, after Joshua and crew settled the Promise Land, they grew and prospered as one nation under God. But then, they got fat and sassy and corrupt and divided.

A house divide cannot stand. They split into two tribes. Ten northern tribes had Samaria as their capital, and two southern tribes, (Judah and Benjamin) kept Jerusalem as capital.

Around 722 BC, God allowed Assyria to take captive the ten northern tribes, leaving only the poor and those who worked the land. Then, the king of Assyria sent foreigners into Samaria; they intermarried with the remnant of the northern tribes, and thus, birthed what is now known as the Samaritans. (2 Kings 17:24; Ezra 4:2-11).

The Jews were sinfully prejudice. They hated Samaritans so much, they’d cross to the other side of the Jordan when heading north or south, just so they didn’t step foot on Samaritan soil.  

So, the woman at the well was at the very least, surprised, that Jesus, a Jew, spoke with her.

Many say her answers were rude, snarky, sarcastic, sassy…but, she has a story. Everybody has a story. And hurt people, hurt people. Some folks are so full of hurt, that when they open up, it’s what falls out. They can’t help it, at first. It’s what’s inside. Jesus said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Luke 6:45.

So, cut her some slack.   

She was probably intimidated. Perhaps even scared.

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “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.”

I wonder if Jesus was thinking about the River of Life, flowing from the throne of God (Revelation 22:1). Or, the springs He just left a few days earlier. They were called Aenon which means, spring or natural fountain, or… living water.

Notice the giving heart of God. He immediately starts talking about what He has to offer her. We don’t know for sure if she ever gave Him a drink. We’ll see in a little while she leaves her waterpot.

¹¹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹² 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”

Notice now, she doesn’t just call Him, “You being a Jew,” but uses the respectful word, “Sir” also translated, lord, or, master.

Additionally, she says, “our father Jacob.” Not, my or, your, but, our father. The word, our, in the original text is only used when emphatic. As if with emphasis, she bares her heart’s desire to be a part of family.

His family.

Whatever is radiating from Him, she wants it.

How could this dear woman not be drawn to Jesus, who spoke to her like she was a person, not a dog. Did her heart catch a glimpse of the Messiah and spill out her mouth when she uttered the words, “Are you greater…”

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ 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.”

Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.  Say those words before every new venture, adventure, acquisition. No matter how much you drink, it’ll leave you thirsty. Whoever drinks of this water, this whatever, this relationship, spouse, career, house, RV, wealth, position, power, fame, fortune, drug…will thirst again.

Nothing but Jesus, can satisfy that thirsting soul.

¹⁵ The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

Now, finally, she asks what He told her she should ask at the beginning. “Give me this water.”

She didn’t catch the concept yet. She was still thinking of fulfilling the flesh. I won’t have to lug the jug all this way back and forth. But now at least she was asking the right question and looking in the right direction, toward Jesus—the Source of Living Water.  

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

This may seem like an odd thing to say. What does her husband have to do with anything?

Everything.

Now that she’s asked, Jesus is going to open her eyes to who He is. But first He must open her heart.

Jesus looked at her, loved her, saw her heart and said, “Go call your husband and come here.”

Do you remember how He did something like this to the rich young ruler? The rich young man asked how he could have eternal life. Jesus looked at him, loved him, saw his heart and said, “Go sell your riches and come follow me.” Mark 10:17-27

¹⁷ The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

Wasn’t He kind? He complimented her for telling the truth, technically, even though she was actually hiding the truth. The answer she gave would imply she is alone, no husband, perhaps never married, or widowed.

Jesus understands and doesn’t beat her up over it, but simply tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because He is the Way the Truth and the Life.

Dear woman at the well, no husband, will be able to quench that thirst, ever.   

She’s had five husbands. We don’t know what happened. Did they die? Not likely or she’d have been called a widow.

Preachers paint her in a poor light.

I don’t. I may be wrong.

They say she was men hopping.

But back in that day, a woman had a hard time surviving without a husband. It was the husband who could and would easily divorce his wife, for any and every reason (Matthew 19:3). Maybe she wasn’t a good cook. Perhaps she snored. Most likely, she was unable to have kids. We don’t know.

We do know that five times she made vows that were meant to be forever, and five times they failed. Now this time, the sixth guy, is letting her shack up, but not willing to tie the knot. Not willing to commit. So, tomorrow she may be out on the street.

She may feel stuck. I don’t like it, but I have no other choice. She’s probably embarrassed, ashamed. Why she goes to the well at noon—when no one’s there. Usually. Until today. When He showed up.  

The other women would typically, go together, to hang out at the water cooler and catch up on gossip, in the cool of the day, morning or evening, but not in the heat at noon.  

Jesus knew all this. Five times she put her trust in man. Five times she thought this is it, the one, now I’ll never thirst again…but, here she is, number six, no joy, no hope, no future, just settling, expecting nothing better than a place to stay.

Until today. Until He shows up.

Jesus.

The perfect number seven.

Someone she can trust in, and never thirst again.  

¹⁹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

Religion is a powerful thing. It makes of none effect the Word of God. Mark 7:13.

Jesus is talking about a Gift that bubbles up from within, never ending, never running dry.

And she wants to put it in a box. Just give me the rules, and I’ll follow. Tell me what to do, I’ll do.

He offers a relationship of Love and Truth and Freedom. John 8:32.

But her default mindset translates that into rituals, and rules, and religion…bondage.

The letter kills but the Spirit give life. 2 Corinthians 3:6.

²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. ²³ 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. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Woman…That is the same respectful name Jesus called Him mom, before turning water to wine. Now here, He’s about to turn years of tears into living water.

He told His mother, Mary, “My hour has not yet come.” John 2:4. He tells this woman the hour now is.

He spells it out perfectly clear. It’s not worshipping on this mountain (Gerizim) or in that temple, (Jerusalem), it’s not about what, and when, and where…but Who. Salvation, the Messiah, Jesus, comes from the Jews. Worship must be in Spirit, (not fleshly rituals, do this do that) from the integrity of the heart, and in Truth, there is only One Way… I AM the Way the Truth the Life. John 14:6.

²⁵ The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

Now her brain finally catches up with her heart.

Jesus affirms.

²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Only One Way, His name is Jesus.

²⁷ And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

As if on cue, the disciples showed up. They wondered why He’d be talking to a woman, especially a Samaritan—but didn’t ask.

²⁸ The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ²⁹ “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.

The waterpot lost its value after just one sip of living water. She ran to town, she just had to share.

³¹ In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

They didn’t say, “Rabbi drink” so they probably used her waterpot and guzzled some well water.

³² But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

³³ Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.

Doing the Father’s will is the most energizing, life giving, nourishing, thing one can do.

 ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

Picture this scene. While Jesus is talking to His disciples, He sees a cloud of dust, about a quarter mile away, toward town. There they come. People, lots of people headed toward them.

And who is that, leading the way? How can it be? Just ten minutes ago she was a shunned, despised, outcast, but now behold, lift up your eyes and look, she’s leading the whole town out to the WELL that never shall run dry.

 ³⁶ And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

³⁹ And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of His own word.

⁴² Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

Indeed. Hallelujah. Amen.