¹ 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.
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?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
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.”
¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with 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 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.”
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.”
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.”
We flee the Giver—while searching frantically for that which only He can give.
Samaria
- The Northern Kingdom (Israel) fell to Assyria 722 BC. Mass deportation followed. 2 Kin 17:24 King of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 200 years later, their descendants resist building of the temple. Ezra 4. Jacob’s well (Bir Ya’qub 135’) ~1900 B.C. is outside Nablus.
Thoughts
- A Man on a Scandalous Mission (1-9): had to go through Samaria. δεῖ \= divine necessity, and the straight line of embrace. Tired as he was from the journey: we see the humanity of Jesus. cf. Joh 1:14. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans BUT cf. Acts 10:34,25 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.
- The Gift of God (10-14): She is a social outcast and Jesus reaches through gender, racial, moral, and social barriers to her. Jacob was venerated as the giver of the well of natural water; but Jesus is the source of living water for parched souls: Jer 2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”*
- The Eyes of God (15-18): We expect too little from Jesus! Nicodemus wants to know more—Jesus wants Nicodemus to know Him. The Samaritan woman wants to carry less weight—Jesus wants to carry the weight of her shame. Jesus ignores her head, and goes straight for her heart: Go, call your husband and come back. Jesus exposes the relational wreckage of her life—not to shame—but rather to name her pain, treat its source, and heal her. Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. cf. Joh 1:17 grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.*
Reflections
- Jesus meets you at your well, offering you living water for your dry and weary soul. What thirst do you need to bring to Him?
