The Woman at the Well

He needed to go. “But He needed to go through Samaria” (4:4). Samaria was between Judea in the south and Galilee in the north. Jesus had a reason to go there: a woman who needed Him. A town and a well. Jesus came to Sychar, “near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph” (4:5). People had drawn water from Jacob's well for hundreds of years. Tired and thirsty. “Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well” (4:6). Wearied means worn out. Jesus is God the Son, and He also became a real man who got tired and thirsty. About noon. It was “about the sixth hour” (4:6). People counted the hours from sunrise, so this was the hot middle of the day. Jesus spoke first. He said, “Give Me a drink” (4:7). The woman was amazed: “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (4:9). Walls between people. “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (4:9). The two peoples had been enemies for hundreds of years. Later, even His disciples “marveled that He talked with a woman” (4:27). Jesus stepped right over those walls. What we learn. Jesus was not at the well by accident. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He came to this woman on purpose, and He comes looking for you too.

Why He left (4:1-3). The Pharisees heard that Jesus was making more disciples than John. Jesus did not stay to argue with them. He left Judea and headed north to Galilee. A must (4:4). “He needed to go through Samaria.” The Greek word is dei (say: DAY), it was necessary. The same word appears in John 3:14: “even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Samaria was on the road north, and many Christians also see God's plan in this word: the Father was seeking a worshiper in Sychar (4:23). Old ground (4:5-6). Sychar was near Shechem. Jacob bought land there, and Joseph's bones were buried there: “they buried at Shechem, in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought” (Joshua 24:32). The Samaritans were proud to call Jacob “our father” (4:12). True man (4:6). Wearied describes being worn out by hard work. The eternal Word who made the world sat down tired beside a well. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15). Who the Samaritans were. When Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, it moved people from other nations into the land, and they mixed their own gods with the worship of the Lord (2 Kings 17:24-41). Their descendants kept only the five books of Moses and worshiped on Mount Gerizim. Walls on every side (4:7-9). She was a Samaritan and a woman, and as Jesus would show, she carried a painful past. A Jewish rabbi was not expected to ask her for anything. Jesus spoke first and asked for her help. The Son of God made Himself the one in need. For you. Jesus crossed every wall to reach one person. He knows the walls around your life too, and He is not afraid to come to you.

The Bible says Jesus needed to go through Samaria. God had a plan for that trip. A woman there needed Jesus. Jesus was tired and thirsty from walking. Jesus is God's Son, and He was also a real man. He knows what it feels like to be tired. Jesus spoke to the woman first. Jews and Samaritans did not get along. Even His followers were surprised that He talked with her. But Jesus did not let those walls stop Him. He came to her because He loved her. Jesus still comes looking for people. He comes looking for you too.

Jesus walked a long way to Samaria. He was tired, but He stopped to meet one woman. Jesus came for her.

The gift of God. “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” (4:10). Jesus asked her for a drink, but He was the One with the real gift. Living water. People used the words living water for fresh water that flows from a spring. Jesus used them for the life that only God can give. A deep well. She said, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep” (4:11). She was thinking about buckets and ropes. Jesus was thinking about her heart. Greater than Jacob? She asked, “Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well…?” (4:12). She did not know it yet, but the answer was yes. Thirsty again. “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again” (4:13). Everything this world offers runs out, and soon we want more. Never thirsty. “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst” (4:14). Jesus' gift becomes “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” Give me this water. “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw” (4:15). She wanted it, even before she fully understood. What we learn. Every heart is thirsty for God. Jesus gives living water to anyone who asks: “Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

The gift (4:10). She wondered why a Jew would ask her for water. Jesus turned the question around: if she knew who He was, she would be asking Him. The gift is eternal life, freely given: “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Living water. The Greek phrase hydōr zōn (say: HOO-dor ZOHN) meant running water from a spring or stream, the best water there was. A cistern held still water that could go stale or leak away. Long before, God called Himself the spring of living water and grieved that His people had dug cracked cisterns that could hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13). Earthly thinking (4:11-12). Nicodemus heard “born again” and asked how a grown man could be born a second time (John 3:3-4). The woman heard living water and thought about ropes and buckets. Jesus patiently led her from the water in the well to the thirst in her soul. Greater than Jacob (4:12). Jacob gave a well that served his family for centuries. Jesus offered a spring that would never run dry. A spring inside (4:14). The water Jesus gives “will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” This life does not stay outside us; it fills us from within. In John 7:38-39 Jesus promised rivers of living water from the heart of a believer, and John adds, “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit.” The living water is the life of the Holy Spirit in everyone who trusts Jesus. The thirst of the soul. “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:2). Every person is made with that thirst, and only God can meet it. For you. When you feel empty, do not run to things that leave you thirsty again. Ask Jesus to fill you, and keep coming back to Him.

Jesus said He could give the woman living water. She thought He meant water from a stream. But Jesus was talking about something much better. Living water is the new life God gives. Everyone has a thirsty place inside their heart. People try to fill that place with many things. They try toys, friends, or being liked by everyone. Those things can be good, but they do not last. Soon we feel empty again. Only Jesus can fill our hearts all the way. His gift is eternal life, and it never runs out. It is a free gift. We just ask Jesus for it.

Jesus offered the woman living water. It is not water to drink with our mouths. It is God's gift of new life that lasts forever.

Go, call your husband. Jesus said, “Go, call your husband, and come here” (4:16). He was not trying to trap her. He was gently bringing her hidden hurt into the light. Jesus knew. She answered, “I have no husband.” Jesus said that was true: she had had five husbands, and the man she lived with now was not her husband (4:17-18). Living with a man who was not her husband was wrong, and Jesus knew it. He also knew how much hurt her life had held. Truth and love together. Jesus told her the truth, but He never took back His offer of living water. He is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). A prophet. “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet” (4:19). Perceive means see and understand. Only someone sent by God could know her life like that. Where to worship. She said, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship” (4:20). Her people and the Jews had argued about that for a long time. Spirit and truth. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (4:24). Worship is not about the right mountain. It is a real heart coming honestly to the real God. I am He. She said, “I know that Messiah is coming.” Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He” (4:25-26). Messiah means the Anointed One, the King God promised. What we learn. Jesus knows everything about you, the good and the bad. He tells you the truth because He loves you, and He still offers you His gift.

The hidden thirst (4:16). She had asked for living water. Jesus answered, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” Before she could drink, the thirst underneath had to come into the open. Jesus did not shame her; He opened a door for her to stop hiding. Five husbands (4:17-18). “I have no husband,” she said. Jesus agreed: she had had five husbands, and the man she was with now was not her husband. Her life had held much loss and sin. Jesus named it exactly, without one harsh word, and He stayed. Grace and truth. Jesus came “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Truth alone would have crushed her, and kindness without truth would have left her where she was. Jesus gave her both. Her question (4:19-20). Samaritans worshiped on Mount Gerizim, which rose above Jacob's well. Jews worshiped at the temple in Jerusalem, the place God had chosen (Deuteronomy 12:5). Her people and the Jews had fought over this for centuries, so it was a real question. Salvation is of the Jews (4:22). Jesus was honest: “You worship what you do not know.” The Samaritans had set aside most of God's Word. God had promised the Savior through Abraham, Judah and David, and Jesus is that promised Messiah. Now is the time (4:23). “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” Worship would no longer depend on a mountain or a building. And “the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” God seeks worshipers, just as Jesus sought her. In spirit and truth (4:24). God is Spirit, so He is not limited to one place. To worship in spirit is to worship from the heart, by the Holy Spirit. Worship in truth means worshiping God as He has shown Himself, above all in Jesus: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). I am He (4:26). “I who speak to you am He.” The Greek is egō eimi (say: eh-GOH ay-MEE), I am. Jesus told this Samaritan woman plainly that He is the Messiah. Many Christians also hear in it an echo of God's name I AM (Exodus 3:14), which Jesus claimed in John 8:58: “before Abraham was, I AM.”

Jesus knew everything about the woman's life. He knew the sad parts and the wrong choices too. Jesus did not tell her these things to shame her. He wanted her to stop hiding from God. Then the woman asked about worship. Where was the right place to worship God? Jesus said God is looking for true worshipers. They worship Him with honest, whole hearts. Then the woman talked about the Messiah. The Messiah is the Savior God promised to send. Jesus told her, “I am he.” She was talking with God's promised Savior! Jesus knows everything about you too. And He still loves you and wants you close.

Jesus knew everything about the woman. He still loved her and offered her living water. Jesus knows you and loves you too.

A waterpot left behind. “The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city” (4:28). She had come for water. She went home with something far better. Come, see. She told the people, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (4:29). She did not hide from her past anymore. She pointed everyone to Jesus. Real food. When the disciples urged Him to eat, Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (4:34). Doing His Father's work filled Jesus more than lunch. White for harvest. “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” (4:35). The grain needed four more months, but people were ready right now. Sowing and reaping. “One sows and another reaps” (4:37). God uses many people to help one person come to Jesus, and they all “rejoice together” (4:36). Many believed. “Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman” (4:39). Then “many more believed because of His own word” (4:41). Savior of the world. They said, “This is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (4:42). Jesus came for Jews and Samaritans, for men and women, for everyone. What we learn. You do not have to know everything to tell someone about Jesus. Tell them what He has done for you, and invite them to come and see Him.

The disciples return (4:27). They “marveled that He talked with a woman,” yet no one asked Him why. Jesus was breaking down walls they had always taken for granted. The waterpot (4:28). She left behind the very thing she had come to fill. The living water now mattered more to her than the water in her jar. Her invitation (4:29). “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” The past she might have hidden became the reason she pointed others to Jesus. A whole town came out to meet Him (4:30). His food (4:31-34). “Rabbi, eat,” the disciples urged. Rabbi means my teacher. Jesus answered that His food was to do the Father's will and finish His work. He finished that work on the cross, where He cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). The harvest (4:35-38). Farmers said the harvest was four months away. Jesus said the fields were “already white for harvest!” Many Christians see the prophets and John the Baptist as the ones who sowed. The disciples would reap, and sower and reaper would “rejoice together” (4:36). Two steps of faith (4:39-42). Many believed “because of the word of the woman.” Then “many more believed because of His own word.” They told her, “We ourselves have heard Him.” Faith that begins with someone's story grows strong when we hear Jesus ourselves: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Savior of the world (4:42). Samaritans, people many Jews looked down on, gave Jesus this great title. Later Jesus sent His church to be “witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In Acts 8, Samaria received the gospel with great joy. For you. Your story of what Jesus has done is worth telling. Tell it simply, and point people to Jesus Himself.

The woman left her water jar at the well. She had come for water, but she found Jesus. She did not wait until she knew everything. She just told people what Jesus had done. She said, “Come see him.” Jesus told His followers to look at the fields. He said the fields were ready for harvest. Jesus meant that people were ready to believe in Him. Many Samaritans believed because of what the woman said. Many more believed when they heard Jesus for themselves. They learned that Jesus is the Savior of the whole world. God can use anyone to tell others about Jesus. He can use you too!

The woman ran to tell her town about Jesus. Many people came and believed in Him. You can tell others about Jesus too!