There’s times that you read and then there’s times that you read and really SEE…
John 4:1-26 – Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John — 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So 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 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.”
I have read this passage hundreds of times and the lesson I was always taught was the compassion that Jesus had for the Samaritan woman. It went against all social laws of that day. I love that about Jesus. He knew that love trumped man-made rules. He was not afraid to “look bad” by listening to God’s voice over the voice of that society. He knew that the message He came to bring was for all – man, woman and child – no matter who they were.
But today when I read this, I saw things I had never noticed before.
1. I saw the HUMANITY of Jesus. He was traveling with His disciples and he got tired. They stopped at a town in Samaria called Sychar. While His friends went into town, Jesus took a break and sat down by the famous “Jacob’s Well”. When the woman came to the well, He asked her for a drink. He was thirsty from the journey and humbly asked for a drink. He was God. He didn’t have to do that. He could have performed a miracle to supply His own need right then and there. But He allowed His humanness to show to connect with this woman.
2. I saw the FORESIGHT of Jesus. If He had gone into town with His disciples for food, He would have missed the opportunity of talking with this woman. He knew that their encounter had far more meaning than a cup of water and rest for His weary legs. He was ready and available for God to use Him even in His “down time”.
3. I saw MYSELF in this woman. Jesus was offering Himself to her and she was certain that He didn’t have what it took to “draw from the well”. “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.” Even though she was talking about the well, it was such an analogy to her life. There was a deep, empty, well-like void in her life that she was desperately trying to fill. She’d been married five times and was living with a sixth man. She longed for love. She also longed for her Messiah, her Savior. But she didn’t recognize that He was sitting right there with her. How many times do I look to other things, people, circumstances, projects to fill my well? Am I saying to Jesus, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep”?
4. I saw the LIVING WATER in a whole new light. Everything that the Samaritan woman was looking to fulfill her needs was temporal. It was going to let her down as all the men in her life had. It was going to come to an end and leave her feeling empty all over again. But Jesus was offering her Himself as the never-ending spring of water that would run so deep in her soul that she would never again feel empty. Her soul would never again feel like a well that had run dry. Do I thirst for Jesus and His deeply satisfying presence that will never ever end?
5. I saw Jesus Himself as the ANSWER to all of the woman’s questions. She said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” She was looking for Jesus and didn’t see Him when He was RIGHT THERE! She was waiting and looking for answers when the answer was looking right into her eyes. She had an idea in her head of what it would look like when her Messiah showed up. And once again, Jesus broke the rules of religion and met her right where she was at. And He says to her, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” Can you even imagine what went on in her heart and head at that moment? How many times have I missed Jesus by looking for Him to show up in some other way? Am I looking for the answer when the ANSWER is sitting right next to me, looking in my eyes?
I might never look at my bottled water the same again…
