At The Well

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. John 4:1-6

Knowing that the Pharisees would continue to track Him and try to interfere in His ministry, Jesus headed back to Galilee, by way of Samaria. Samaria and the Samaritan people were despised by Jews, and especially by the Pharisees, who considered them a mongrel people, having been descended from a mixture of the fallen northern tribes of Israel and their Assyrian captors. Racial prejudice between the two people groups had been the norm for generations. The Samaritans studied the Pentateuch and worshiped the God of Israel, as that was also their heritage. Evangelizing and baptizing is rewarding work, but can be quite tiring, and Jesus was tired. It was high noon as He rested by the well.

Verse 7: A woman from Samaria came to draw water. High noon, remember. Hot sun. This was not a wealthy woman, or she would not have been drawing water. She was not a respected woman, or she would have come in a cooler time of day, when all the other women came to the well. She came alone to do her chore. Jesus initiated conversation.

Verse 8: Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 

Our omniscient Lord knew this woman would appear here, and He needed to speak privately with her, without the prying eyes and ears of his disciples, Jews, who had known nothing but contempt for Samaritans their whole lives. Prejudice works both ways, as we well know. Verse 9:

The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Not only a Samaritan, but a female Samaritan!
Double curse. Our Lord was not impressed with social restrictions.

  

Verses 10-12: Jesus answered her, “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.”  (The living water of eternal life). The woman said to him, “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.” 

Notice it is “our father Jacob.”  Her question implies “who do you think you are?” The Samaritans were also descended from Jacob, as were the Jews. This ancient well had special historical and religious significance to both peoples.

Verse 13-14: Jesus said to her, “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 that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Jesus, the creator of all things, created the water in Jacob’s well. That physical water must be consumed over and over again, as the body becomes thirsty, but the water He offers here is spiritual water of eternal life. The aorist tense of the word “drinks” in verse 14 indicates one drink is good forever. Then that spiritual water will be within the soul of that person for all eternity. Well, who wouldn’t want such water? She has become at least curious, if maybe a little sarcastic. As with Nicodemus, she thinks only in physical terms.

Verse 15: The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “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.” John 4:16-18. Now we see the reason she comes to the well alone, at high noon. This is a woman of ill repute. The other women of the town won’t be seen in her company.

Verse 19: The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 

Now the light is coming on. This man is no ordinary Jew. He has some deeper knowledge. Of course, she probably suspected that from the beginning of this exchange. Next, she tries to use a tactic that is quite common among unbelievers who find themselves talking with a messenger of God. Let’s quibble about religion; denominational details; place of meeting. Jesus never raised any issue regarding the place of worship. It was entirely the challenge of the unbeliever. The Jews had their temple at Jerusalem, where the Samaritans were not welcome. The Samaritans had a temple, also, on Mt. Gerizim. The woman was reacting to a perceived prejudice which Jesus did not have. He was here out of compassion for her, and He offered her His living water with no requirements from her except she receive it.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. John 4:20-21

Place of worship is a false issue.

Verse 22: You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 

People who are simply practicing religion don’t know what they are worshiping. The Jews were the conduits of God’s Word to the world. The Savior was a Jew and Jews were the first messengers of the good news. Ignoring her smoke screen and her sin, Jesus got directly to the true issue:

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.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” John 4:23-25

True worship is not a place or a ritual. True worshipers will now worship God the Father in the filling of the Holy Spirit and in doctrinal truth. The coming of the Messiah made that so. The woman was beginning to realize this man might have knowledge of the Messiah.

Verse 26: Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” The English translations have the “he” in italics, which means the word is added, supposedly for clarity. In this case, it dilutes the meaning. His statement is, “the one speaking to you, I AM.”

Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him. John 4:27-30

Jesus was not, as some secularists believe and teach, a rebel or a revolutionary. However, he was a nonconformist to tradition and taboo. He was not afraid to be seen speaking with a woman, but the disciples were afraid to question Him about it. She finally realized the importance of what she had just seen and heard, and took her news to town.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” John 4:31-38

What wonderful refreshment it is to give someone the truth and see them begin to grasp it. Jesus didn’t need physical food to be fulfilled. His fulfillment was seeing the lost woman come to understand Who He was and what He would do for her. Even better, she was about to share that witness with the town. Her testimony got their attention, but when they heard and saw Him, they knew.

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.  And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” John 4:39-42. 

We have heard and we know.

The woman got it. She had to share it. She evangelized the whole town. 

After the two days he departed for Galilee.  (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.