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
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-------------
