The woman of Samaria came to the well to fill her empty jug with fresh water. It was in the heat of the day around noon. No one would be there!
The women normally came from town early in the mornings or in the early evenings in small groups. This woman was alone, not the normal thing, and during the heat of the day!
She obviously intended to get her needed water while returning home before mixing with the other women coming to get their own water supply. Little did she realize she would return home with eternal water leaving her own water jug at the well full of natural water!
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14.
Jesus meets each of us personally at the deepest needs we have. It doesn’t matter if He is changing water to wine for a mom, being “born again” for a religious Nicodemus, healing an impotent man laying by a pool of water or a Peter who sees the difference between phileo love and agape love. Jesus provides continuously, eternal water changing us from finite humanity into personal spiritual Friends in the Kingdom of Heaven; Jesus Himself is our source!
Jesus is on his way back to Galilee with His disciples from the Passover in Jerusalem. The shortest route was through Samaria. After being on the road for three days, He has arrived at Jacob’s well. Interestingly, his stop at Jacob’s well is timed just before a Samaritan woman’s arrival
The disciples had left Jesus resting at the well while they went into Sychar to pick up food supplies; they may have passed this Samaritan woman. Meanwhile, Jesus waits, resting at Jacob’s well!
The Samaritan woman soon appears carrying her empty water jug. Jesus immediately engages her for a drink…
“Give me to drink!”
Talk about direct!
“How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”
This woman is not a lady and is carrying an attitude! Jewish men do not speak to women publicly, and on top of that, she is a Samaritan woman. She also did not come to the well with other town ladies, as was the custom, she came in the heat of the day, around noon! She has reason to be defensive!
The Samaritans of Jesus’ day are a mixture of old remnant Israelites whom the Assyrians conquered in 722 BC. These contemporary Samaritans are blended foreigners imported by Assyria. They were noted for idolatry and did not have the complete Old Testament Bible. But they did have the Torah as their “Bible” which spoke of a future prophet like Moses, Deuteronomy 18:18. This woman is a Jewish remnant!
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
We have here the gentle Jesus! He loves this lost sheep and gently probes her heart in meekness with truth and grace. Water is what she wanted and water is what Jesus offers! Living water is thought by her to be fresh stream water but Jesus was offering eternal water for her soul!
“Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
The woman of Samaria softens her tone; notice she responds with “sir.” But still, she has an edge in her manner and by taking ownership of the well, she is making it a local possession with distinction. She knew Jesus was not Samaritan and takes offence that His water could be better than her father Jacob who gave this land to Joseph. But at the same time, she senses His authority and genuineness.
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jesus is going deep here but the Holy Spirit is also working in the woman’s soul so that she can hear what Jesus is saying! Eternal life water connects with her in a practical way. (If this man can produce fresh living water which I can drink, then perhaps he can also produce eternal water).
“Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Now this gets her attention! She doesn’t understand how this is possible but if it is … she wants it! This is being “born again” to Nicodemus but “living Water” to the woman of Samaria. Jesus is giving her much more than He gave Nicodemus. Her heart is ready to receive more than Nicodemus could accept. She was ready to receive, not just being “born again,” but a well of living water welling up within her with the power to sustain living into eternal life!
Jesus’ discussion with the Samaritan woman goes far beyond being “born again” or created new in Christ Jesus. This water becomes a spring welling up into eternal life. In other words, being filled with the fulness of Jesus for the long term. She has been looking for the rock on which to build her life. Here it is!
“Go call your husband, and come here.”
Now Jesus reaches into her heart and makes it personal. Jesus uses this same direct approach with scholarly Nicodemus even though he was a man and a ruler of the Jews. It is direct but at the same time meek , the woman of Samaria is a believer!
“I have no husband.”
Her answer is a cover story but also honest. Her heart is vulnerable to absolutes values of truth and righteousness.
“You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband;’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
Jesus is loving this lady with agape love! He knows her nuances; He knows her on the inside and with a gentle hand reveals Himself to her soul! Whatever this Living water includes, she is willing to accept by faith!
“Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship,”
She only has the Torah for a Bible. She knows God has revealed more truth than the Samaritans have in their books of Moses. Jesus is seen as a prophet of God sharing with her God’s own truth and she wants to understand what she does not know! She recognizes in both her heart and soul this is Truth and Righteousness talking to her!
“Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you don’t know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
“Spirit and Truth,” penetrates our soul when it is birthed anew, when it is created new in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit is making the woman of Samaria vulnerable to the Spirit and Truth, to holiness … and she already wants it! She is looking beyond being born again, she looking for completeness she can apply in truth to her circumstances and share in her neighborhood!
“I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”
Here we now have honest respectful dialogue. The suspicion is gone! Jesus is connected with the woman of Samaria. Her soul has been made ready to receive both God’s Spirit and His Truth.
“I who speak to you am he.”
This is amazing! The Samaritans did not have the prophets and Psalms in their bible; they knew less about God’s Kingdom than the Jews. But this Samaritan woman is talking to the Jew’s Yeshua and the Truth has penetrated her heart and soul. This woman is totally excited!
The disciples enter the scene, interrupting at just the right moment. The women of Samaria is given the opportunity to leave the scene with some good news. No, she doesn’t just leave, she runs back to Sychar telling everybody about the prophet at the well … and they are listening!
She left her water jug at the well, probably full of physical water!
Tradition says the name of this woman is Photina. Orthodox tradition has venerated Photina as a martyr who was “flayed alive and thrown down a well in Rome by the emperor Nero.”
If tradition holds true and this woman is indeed Photina, martyred in Rome as were Peter and Paul, then, we know she was drinking from Jesus Christ! She was nurtured into Sainthood by the Greek Orthodox Church because she was drinking from the eternal water Jesus offered while learning personally to commune with God Himself through the Holy Spirit who ministered to her in Spirit and Truth.
She was a woman shunned by her community but drank Jesus’ living water, giving it to her community who had shunned her.
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”