A Story About Jesus, a Woman, and Water
photo by Kevin Carden on Lightstock.com
A Meeting at Jacob’s Well
It’s important to read a story from the author’s point of view—including their time and culture. If we don’t see it from their point of view, we’ll miss both essential and nuanced details.
At the beginning of John Chapter 4, Jesus and His followers are traveling from Jerusalem in Judea in the south to Galilee in the north. This causes them to go through the region of Samaria. The Samaritans were considered a mixed-breed people with a false religion by the Jews. Their ancestors were from the time when the Kingdom of Israel was divided into Northern and Southern Israel (see 1 Kings 12 and 2 Chronicles 10).
The Jews were prejudiced against the Samaritans, who responded with antagonism towards the Jews. The Jews saw the Samaritans as half-breeds with a corrupt religion, and themselves as pure, the true people of God. Samaritans saw the Jews as uppity, too strict, and self-righteous.
Prejudice and mistrust between people groups have existed since ancient times. Much of this prejudice is tied to forgotten reasons and is usually not rational or reasonable.
Jesus and the disciples stopped in Sychar in Samaria near Shechem at Jacob’s Well. He stayed there while His followers went to town to buy food. Jesus had a reason to remain at the well.
While Jesus rests at the well, a Samaritan woman comes to draw water in the heat of the day, an unusual time to go there. Jesus asks the woman for a drink of water. This in itself would be unusual, as revealed in the story (below), but their conversation takes an even more unexpected turn.
What may seem unexpected to her and us was God’s plan, and the Father had obviously revealed this to Jesus.
Scripture
Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John. (Actually, Jesus was not baptizing people. His disciples were.) So he left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.
Jesus had to go through Samaria. He arrived at a city in Samaria called Sychar. Sychar was near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s Well was there. Jesus sat down by the well because he was tired from traveling. The time was about six o’clock in the evening. [vss 1-6]
A Samaritan woman went to get some water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” (His disciples had gone into the city to buy some food.) The Samaritan woman asked him, “How can a Jewish man like you ask a Samaritan woman like me for a drink of water?” (Jews, of course, don’t associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus replied to her, “If you only knew what God’s gift is and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink. He would have given you living water.” [vss 7-10]
The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have anything to use to get water, and the well is deep. So where are you going to get this living water? You’re not more important than our ancestor Jacob, are you? He gave us this well. He and his sons and his animals drank water from it.”
Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. But those who drink the water that I will give them will never become thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give them will become in them a spring that gushes up to eternal life.” [vss 11-14]
(John 4:1-14 GW) [Context– John 4]
Key phrase—
The water I will give them will become in them a spring that gushes up to eternal life.
Reflections...
Jacob’s Well was hundreds of years old even in the time of Jesus and was quite deep. The region of Samaria was disputed land then, as it is now. This is evident in the story by the woman’s contentious responses to Jesus when He asks her for a drink.
Jesus flips the contentious conversation by telling her she should ask Him for a drink of living water. Of course, what Jesus said to her and her perception of it are quite different. Jesus speaks of spiritual things, and she only knows of natural things.
The woman doesn’t back down from her previous contentious talk and challenges Jesus in a mocking, impudent way. This is the natural response many people have when it comes to spiritual truth.
As Jesus so often did, He turned this contentious conversation into an opportunity to reveal spiritual truth. He offers her living water—water that continues to flow like an artesian spring—giving eternal life.
This conversation and the story continue, but we’ll stop here to consider how Jesus turns a contentious situation into an opportunity to share spiritual truth. We see Jesus do this often throughout the Gospels. As the young Jesus told His mother, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49)
How often do we miss the opportunities God provides us to engage people in conversation about the Lord? I know for myself, I can be so preoccupied with what I’m doing or want to do that I’m oblivious to these opportunities.
Jesus engaged this woman with a simple request for water. I’m still learning to be more aware of the opportunities the Lord gives me and to engage people with simple questions. Sometimes we can ask open-ended questions to see what the Lord opens up.
Digging Deeper...
What are the specific details we're told about the situation in this story?
What seems to be the turning point in the conversation between Jesus and the woman?
How does the woman respond to the statements Jesus makes?
What kind of water does Jesus offer, and what do you think He means by this?
Taking it to heart...
How do you typically handle or respond to contentious people and situations?
We are not Jesus, but what can we learn from how He responded to the woman?
How does Jesus describe what He has to offer her, and us, by shifting the conversation from a focus on the physical to the spiritual?
Have you experienced what Jesus says about the living water He offers?
Personalize it...
When we focus on the genuine needs of a person, we can choose to see them through the lens of God’s love. We can trust God’s Spirit to lead us in how to turn everyday conversations into opportunities to consider eternal concerns.
Ask the Lord each day to help you see the people you encounter as He sees them—who they are, their needs, and life situations. Pray for wisdom and grace to turn everyday conversations into opportunities to share your faith.
