Jesus And Samaritan Woman At The Well - John 4:4:26

 Jesus And Samaritan Woman At The Well 

Friends do you all know, which is the longest private conversation that Jesus had with anyone, yes this is the one taken from John's Gospel, Chapter 4:4-26 

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.[a]) 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 along with his disciples has left Judea and now he is going back to Galilee But he has to pass through Samaria. Now what is Samaria actually and why has he to pass through Samaria?

Samaria is the capital city of Northern Kingdom of Israel, that was conquered by Assyria in the 8th century B.C. The Assyrians brought many gentiles into Samaria, intermarried with them and began to worship their God, which lost their racial purity. They accepted only the first five books of the Bible, and their temple was on Mount Gerizim instead of on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. This caused a lot of tension and enmity between the Jews and Samaritans.   The Jews regarded the Samaritans as ignorant, cursed n outside of God’s favor, and they wouldn’t associate with Samaritans at all because they had abandoned Judaism & intermarried  idoltors.  Although   the shortest route from Jerusalem to Galilee was to travel through Samaria.  Majority Jewish people preferred travelling the longest route of 6 days as they wouldn’t walk on cursed ground & associate with cursed people. The Samaritans however were still very part of God’s plans and so he passes through Samaria. He comes to  a city in Samaria called Sychar at 6th hour i.e. at 12 noon and being tired of a 20 miles walk he  is exhausted and so he sits on the edge of Jacob’s well. We see His humanity here.  The stage is set for this amazing encounter that is about to happen. John 4:7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her,

“Give Me a drink.”

There comes a Samaritan woman to draw water but at 12 noon, When the sun is at its peak. Why at midday? Because she is a socially outcast Adulterous woman  who is thirsty by many means & more importantly, her life doesn’t reflect God’s presence at all & to such a woman  Jesus says ,

 “Give Me a drink.”

Now Jesus’s request to this woman for a drink is unusual for 2 reasons. Because during those days  for a Rabbi to speak in public with a woman was just the end of his reputation. And second reason is that this woman was a Samaritan(the traditional enemy of the Jews). But Jesus by speaking to her crosses the man made bot social/ religious barriers that were made by Religious Jewish leaders who regarded the Samaritans as ignorant  and outside of God’s favor. Jesus was against all such non biblical traditions. He wanted to give a new attitude to these people. And so he asks her for a drink.

One more thing to note here is that ... 

Jesus the architect of universe, who was with god in the beginning , through whom all things   were made, who  himself  was  a  source of water looks at this unworthy, outcast, immoral Samaritan woman and asks her,

“Give Me a drink.”

Does he really need her water? In fact is she worthy to give him anything?  Then what is it that he asking her to give? We will definitely come to this point but at the end.

“Give Me a drink.”

The woman is clearly is surprised by His request for water, and that’s natural because from his clothing, she understands that he is a Jew & the Jews would never ask for favor from the Samaritans. And so she replies him that

“How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink?”  

After the woman’s disrespectful comment, He doesn’t say anything about this conflict between Jews and Samaritans. He ignores that completely.  Because he wants to speak with her on a very important topic and that is the gift of God.  He says her that “you really don’t know that God has a gift for you & here I stand before u to give u that gift, only thing u have to do is to Ask. If you ask me , I m ready to give you that living water.

 What is living water?

 Living water is a Jewish synonym for flowing water. But here Jesus gives the term “living Water” a much deeper meaning.  Living water is a new spiritual/eternal  life which comes from the holy spirit. But the woman isn’t on Jesus’ wavelength as yet...she’s still having an earthly conversation that misses Jesus’ point. She assumes He’s just talking about the ordinary moving water. And so  John 4:11 She says to Him, 

"Sir, You have nothing to draw with and this well is deep; so from where then are you going to get this  living water?

Jesus points to the water in her well and says that.

1.      Physical water only provides temporary satisfaction

2.      No matter how often u drinks of this water, sooner or later u will be thirsty again and u will have to come to this well daily to draw water.

3.      In other words he is trying to make her n us understand that we often run after the worldly pleasures like Money, Power, Fame, Drink, Sex to fulfill our deep desires.

4.      But in fact the more we run after these worldly pleasures, the more we get trapped in it & none of these is going to satisfy us.

 But when we come to him by faith and receive him as our savior, he deposits within us this Living Water. He further adds that when the spirit of God comes n resides in a person, it brings an entirely new dimension into heart, mind n life of that person and, it not only satisfies & quenches his innermost desire but it overflows through him and touches other people’s lives.           

That’s what is  the most beautiful thing  of being a Christian.  

Once more, the woman misses his point and she asks him to give her his “Living water” so that she won’t get thirsty again & will never have to come to this well.

1.      This woman is asking for Jesus to solve her earthly problem, not realizing Jesus is the solution to an eternal problem

2.      This woman is in the darkness, and she won’t enter into Jesus’ spiritual conversation because it would require stepping into the Light.

3.      And coming into that Light will expose her evil deeds

4.      This isn’t a conscious process, she needs to repent.

5.      And so in kindness, Jesus takes the first step to provoke repentance.

He says her “Go, call your husband”, in saying so his purpose is to awaken her consciousness of her sin. So by raising the question of a husband, Jesus opens the door on her evil deeds. She replies she has no husband on which Jesus says, “yes you are right for you had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband;  & this you have said honestly.”

She is shocked now by Jesus’s knowledge of her past  and she realizes  that this man is definitely a prophet because he can’t know this unless  God  is telling him. Her conscious is pained, her soul is pierced.  She realizes now that she should repent by worshiping  god  & make her life right but she is unable to decide as to which temple shall she go to offer a sacrifice for her sins & obtain forgiveness. Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem.

Jesus replies her that true worship doesn’t demand a place, alter, candle, incense or sacrificial offering. But It’s all about honoring, serving, obeying & loving God from the heart n in full truth.  Since she just cannot understand the spiritual things which Jesus is telling she replies him that she believes in the coming Messiah who would reveal all things to her? What does Jesus do now as she is waiting for the Messiah to come? What would happen in Old Testament with such woman do you all know ? To know this lets see Numbers 5:16-18 

 Do you know that In Old Testament, if a woman was accused of committing adultery, she was brought to the Tabernacle & she would stand before the high priest? He would then take some holy water, kneel down, pick some dust from the tabernacle floor & sprinkle it in holy water. He would then force her to drink this bitter cup of curse. And as she drank of this cup of curse, if she was guilty of adultery she would become infertile/barren unable to produce child in her life but if she was innocent, she would escape from it.

Well that was the old covenant….

We see the same picture here, this adulterous woman is at Jacob’s well. Jesus is the high priest.  He    would have taken the water, made it bitter & forced the curse to her mouth. But here we see that he doesn’t curse her but when he is saying her in Verse 7

 “Give Me a drink.” 

He is actually asking her to give him her shame, sin, curse, punishment & bitter life so that in exchange he would give her a new eternal life.   She now recognizes him as the Messiah & accepts him; he gives her the gift of Living Water. She immediately leaves her water jar and heads toward the village to give witness to this great revelation. And Because of her testimony, many Samaritans believed in Jesus.

Conclusion :

Friends Jesus is telling us today that we are a mess too. Not like her, exactly, but like her in many ways.  He is telling all of us to pour all our sins upon him so that in exchange he would give us a new life which will not only flow through us but will also touch the lives of the people we meet. This is unmerited, undeserved & unearned favor which we cannot get from anybody else but from Jesus.

And this is what makes Christianity so different.   

                      --------Glory To Almighty-------------