Read John 4 – 4:26
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 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?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but 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.”
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.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“Woman,”Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
The Samaritan people were looked down upon by the Jews, yet here we see Jesus deep in conversation with a Samaritan woman…which could have been a scandal in and of itself! But Jesus had more important things to reveal that day and this encounter set the perfect stage!
I love how Jesus acknowledged the differences between the beliefs of the Samaritans and the Jews, but made a distinction that the time had arrived for a new way of worship. One when it didn’t matter where your physical location was because authentic worship would happen inside us…in our spirits…and, in fact, that was what God wanted most! Jesus then goes on to reveal plainly that He is indeed the Messiah – the one who will make it all make sense. The one by whom it all will be accomplished. The one who can truly offer living water.
The larger implications of the encounter in today’s passage of scripture are huge for you and me. Jesus could have revealed himself in this way to anyone. But he chose an encounter with someone who was not a Jew. Someone even despised by the Jews! And He chose a woman to have this beautiful conversation with. Something that simply was not done in his culture. To top it off, she was a woman with a past! And finally, He also chose someone whose worship practices were very different from their own.
These were huge, seemingly impossible obstacles to overcome! But in choosing this encounter to reveal himself, he made it clear that He had come to shake things up a bit! This kingdom he was ushering in would welcome not just Jews…and perfect ones at that…but any man or woman who would choose to believe in him. Not only that, but he came to offer a new way to worship that was less about the where and what you do to worship, but one that aims to seek God with your heart. One that worships God with all that is inside of you – wherever you are! Jesus made all that possible! It was revolutionary in Jesus’ time. And it is a beautiful gift that is still ours today.
