John 4 NIV
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.
We know Jesus was tired. We know he was nearing the end of His journey, and the weight of what was going to occur must have been very heavy on Him. Also, Jesus was hounded by followers, and the constant questions and theatrics of the pharisees and their plans to trap him was constant. Jesus knew where He was headed. To the cross. Every step took Him nearer. I wonder about the toll on Him. Jesus was tired.
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?” 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.”
Jesus knew history. Their people didn’t communicate, and it was unusual for a man to address a woman.
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw, 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 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.”
Jesus knows this woman. He knows her story. He knows that she is supposed to be there at this time for this event, and that she - of all the people around, a woman, an outcast, a Samaritan, would deliver the message that Jesus wanted to be delivered.
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.”
Instantly she knows the difference about this man. She knows that He can give her this “water” to never thirst again. To fill the places that we fill with earthly things, He fills with love, peace, and spiritual things. And He restores her.
Jesus tells her about herself to show that even though He knows all about her, He still loves her. Accepts her. He was there not to condemn, but to save.
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
What did this woman do? She testified. She who was scorned, the lowest, told everyone about Jesus. She ran off to tell the people, who wouldn’t let her draw water with them, who scorned her, to tell them about Jesus.
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
The disciples still are not understanding what is going on, or even what the true nature of Jesus is. This woman saw it. She saw it so clearly, and believed it so profoundly, that she went to tell others about Him. In fact in appears she had too, she was compelled too.
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
We see the character of Jesus in this passage. Someone who loved all. We hear this so often in our culture now, that Jesus is love. And He is! But He is not merely love. He is conviction, He is truth. He is righteousness, and He is peace. He is mercy, and He is grace.
He does love this woman, and accepts her. But also in that acceptance there is the beautiful mercy of guiding her towards a righteous behavior, a standard that He wants us all to uphold.
Yes, we are chosen and loved. But we are also convicted and taught, directed and guided. That is how Jesus changes us. And He does it today.
God bless you.
PTV