August 9, 2023

The Woman at the Well

Treasures

Although most of us have often heard the term “good Samaritan,” we may not be aware of who the Samaritans were and the enmity that existed between the Jewish people and the Samaritans. To the Jews of Jesus’ day, the word “Samaritan” was an insult. (See John 8:48.) This enmity was rooted in history.

In the year 720 BC, Shalmaneser, the king of the Assyrian Empire, had invaded Israel and carried the ten northern tribes away as captives to the land of Assyria. He then brought in foreign people from the faraway lands of Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath and Sepharvaim to inhabit the cities of northern Israel where the Jews had once lived, which then became known as Samaria (2 Kings 17:22–34).

Many inhabitants of this region were descendants of the northern kingdom of Israel, but had intermarried and assimilated into the non-Jewish culture of the people who came to settle there. These people came to worship the God of the Jews, but they did not consider Jerusalem to be a holy city, nor did they worship in the Jewish temple there. To them, Mount Gerizim in Samaria was the holiest spot where God was to be worshipped, and they built a temple atop it. Because the Samaritans were a mixed race and their customs and religious worship were different, the Jews avoided associating with them.

One time, when fleeing from His religious enemies in the land of Judea, Jesus decided to go north to His home province of Galilee. The shortest, most direct route between Judea and Galilee was through Samaria, but since the Jews would have no dealings with the Samaritans, they would cross the Jordan River and make a long detour around Samaria to avoid crossing through their land. But to His disciples’ surprise, Jesus ignored such conventions and led them straight through Samaria.

Jesus and His disciples had walked through Samaria for many miles over rough and rugged terrain since early morning, and it was nearly noon and the sun was hot overhead as they trudged along the high road that wound between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. As they came around a curve in the road, they saw an inviting sight: Jacob’s well, which the great patriarch Jacob and his sons had dug nearly 2,000 years earlier.

The thirsty, travel-weary band gathered round the famous well, longing to slake their thirst, but they had no water jug to draw water with and the well was over 100 feet deep. They were also out of food. Only half a mile ahead, in the beautiful valley between the two mountains, lay the Samaritan city of Sychar (called Shechem in the Old Testament), so it was decided that the disciples would go on into the city to buy food. But Jesus was weary from the journey, so as His disciples continued on down the road into the city, He sat down by the well to rest (John 4:5–6).

After the disciples had left, Jesus heard footsteps approaching. He looked up and saw a woman coming down the road toward the well, carrying an empty water jug in her hands. As the woman approached the well, she was surprised to see a stranger sitting in the shade nearby. She looked at him suspiciously a couple of times. “Obviously a Jew,” she thought. Hoping he wouldn’t bother her, she prepared to lower her bucket into the well.

“Will you give me a drink?” Jesus asked (John 4:7).

Surprised, the woman looked at Him. “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” she asked. According to Jewish tradition, it was forbidden for a Jew to drink out of a vessel that an “unclean” Samaritan—and especially a Samaritan woman—had touched. The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans (John 4:9).

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that said to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water!”

The woman, amazed at Him, replied, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this ‘living water’ from?” Perhaps seeking to put this Jewish stranger in his place, she added, “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and his herds?” (John 4:10–12).

Jesus rose, and walking over to the well, rested His hand upon it, and said, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life!”

Now here was an extraordinary statement, the woman thought. Imagine!—Having an inner water supply so she would never thirst again! Not quite sure if she understood Him, she answered, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming all the way here to draw water” (John 4:13–15).

Jesus unexpectedly replied, “First go call your husband, and come back,” to which she replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus then said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true” (John 4:16–18).

The woman was shocked. How could this total stranger know such details of her private life? How could He know unless He was a prophet? Suddenly an inspiration came to her. Here then would be a good person to ask the most controversial and disputed religious question of the day!

“Sir,” she said, “I can see that you are a prophet.” She paused a second, then pointing up to the temple atop nearby Mount Gerizim, said, “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain, nor even in Jerusalem. But the time is coming—and has now come—when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:19–24).

The woman was astonished at His answer. “How wonderful,” she thought, “if we could just worship God in our hearts wherever we are!” Given the response she received to her previous question, she decided to ask a greater question about the long-awaited coming of the Savior, the Messiah.

“I know that the Messiah is coming, he who is called the Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things.”

Jesus looked deeply into her eyes and said, “I who speak to you am He” (John 4:25–26).

The woman looked at Jesus in amazement. Could He really be the Messiah, the Christ?

Just at that moment, they were suddenly interrupted by the sound of Jesus’ disciples, returning from town. As they approached, the woman jumped up, and leaving her water pot, ran back up the road toward the town a half mile away.

Gasping for breath, she came running back into Sychar. Shoppers still crowded the busy marketplace and men sat in the shade of the city gates, resting and talking. “Come!” she called out excitedly, drawing a crowd, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Can He be the Christ?!” (John 4:28–29). Seeing her conviction and enthusiasm, many of the people believed her that the man she had met at the well was the long-awaited Messiah.

It wasn’t long before Jesus’ disciples saw a large crowd of people rushing down the road from the city toward them, the woman in their midst, still talking excitedly. The crowd came up to the well where Jesus and His disciples were, and immediately began to urge Jesus to please stay with them in their city and teach them. Jesus consented to stay with them for a couple of days, and the Samaritans, rejoicing, led them back to Sychar and gave them the finest food and lodgings they could prepare.

For two days, Jesus taught in their city, and hearing the beautiful words of truth that He taught, many people came to believe in Him, and marveling, remarked to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; for now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world!” (John 4:39–42).

On the last day, as Jesus and His disciples were preparing to continue on their journey to Galilee, a great multitude from the city gathered to bid them farewell and give them gifts of food and wine for their journey. The Samaritan woman, her heart full of love for Jesus, came up through the crowd to bid Him goodbye. A smile of joy was on her face, for now she fully understood the meaning of His words that day at the well, and a spring of living water now welled up in her soul.

From this beautiful story in the book of John, we learn that Jesus did not hesitate to break the traditions of His day to reach lost and lonely souls with God’s love and truth. Not only did He look past the cultural, racial, and religious differences of the Samaritans to offer them the truth, but He also looked past the sins of the woman at the well to see a soul that earnestly longed for God’s love and salvation.

Jesus told the woman that if she knew what the gift of God was, she would have asked for the living water that would spring up in her for eternal life. This is one of the most beautiful promises in the Bible—God’s gift of salvation, eternal life. Romans 6:23 says, “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The living water symbolizes not only eternal life but also the Holy Spirit of God, which Jesus promised would live in our hearts if we believe in Him (John 7:37–39).

The Bible tells us that “the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 7:48). The true temple of God dwells within us, as 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you, whom you have from God?”

If you haven’t already received God’s wonderful gift of eternal life through belief in Jesus, and His death on the cross for our forgiveness, you can do so by asking Him for His gift of salvation and that His Spirit will dwell within you!

From an article in Treasures, published by the Family International in 1987. Adapted and republished August 2023.

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