Text: John 4:1-26 (NKJV)
1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. 4 But He needed to go through Samaria.
5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Devotional Thoughts and Commentary:
Here, we see Jesus gaining His first recorded foreign (non-Israelite) followers. Traveling in the land of Samaria was avoided as much as possible by Jews of Jesus's day. The Samaritan people were originally half-Jewish, and the Israelites saw them as traitorous and lowly. As would be expected, the Samaritans were pretty inhospitable to Jews in their land. The Samaritans practiced a pseudo-Judaism, attempting to do things their way and in their places. When forced to travel through Samaria, it was evidently custom for Jews to avoid any contact with the Samaritan people. This is the setting for verses 7-9 where Jesus shocked the woman by speaking to her. Jesus's ministry is a shocking one, from what to He said to whom He said it.
As He often did, Jesus used one of the mundane things of life to teach a spiritual lesson. The drawing of water from a well served that purpose here. Not directly referencing the water in His allusion to the gift of God in verse 10 (see John 3:16). On a superficial level, Jesus's statement of "living water" would refer to a spring-fed well that was consistently supplied. The well referenced here was more of a gathering place for water that was run off from rains and was thus seasonal. I think the woman's reaction in verse 11 reflects that her first thought was superficial. "Hey, this guy found a spring we didn't know about? Sweet!" Jesus expands the metaphor though, and she begins to get it. Verses 13-14 reveal that this living, flowing water Jesus mentioned was not a physical spring, but something spiritual that only He could provide. No physical water can permanently quench thirst, but Jesus is using this metaphorical analogy to show Himself as the giver of eternal life (water being often used to symbolize life for obvious reasons).
Now Jesus really has her attention, but He is about to blow her mind. In verses 16-18, He reveals His divinity by telling her that of which He could have no human knowledge. This sets the table for what He is about to reveal to her.
Salvation is "of the Jews" as provided through Jesus, Himself a Jew. His obvious knowledge of Scripture, His claim to divinity, His prophetic ability, and the time in which He lived all have now led the woman to her statement that the promised, Anointed One (Messiah, or Christ) was coming. "Could it be him?" she probably was thinking to herself. Jesus immediately acknowledges that He is the Promised One of Israel who brought spiritual, living water to provide eternal life for those who would follow Him.
We will see in our study of the next section that the woman was not entirely convinced at this point, but she calls the people of her city to come out and here Jesus out.
Applications:
The primary application here is that of accepting Jesus as Savior. He is the giver of eternal life, not the church or some person. He alone had the right to do so as God, and the sinless Son of Man who paid our debt of sin. The woman in the passage is undergoing a transformation of her mind, seeing Jesus go from a Jewish man, to a wise teacher, to a prophet, to the Son of God. We similarly must go through a transformation in our minds from seeing Jesus as _________ to being the Son of God who provides our salvation.
Other Studies from John
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