“Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), 3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans) John 4:1-9.
If you look at a map Palestine is 120 miles long, with Galilee to the north, Judea to the south, and in the center sits Samaria. So when Jesus hears that the Pharisees were stirring up the pot about baptism He heads north from Judea to Galilee, and takes the quickest route straight through Samaria. The challenge for Jesus going through Samaria is regarding a long-standing feud between the Jews and the Samaritans. More than 700 years earlier the Assyrians invaded and took over Samaria, dragging with them different people and races from their previous conquests. Some of the Jews began to intermarry with these different people, which was a serious Jewish crime, punishable by losing their right to be called Jews.
A similar invasion took place much later in Jerusalem and the inhabitants were carried off to Babylon, but they never lost their identity and remained stubbornly Jewish. These Jews returned from the Babylonian exile to Jerusalem eventually and rebuilt the Temple that had been destroyed. When the Samaritans came and offered their help the Jews turned them away, and thus began a long, bitter feud between the Jews and the Samaritans.
It was no small wonder, then, that the Samaritan woman was so astonished when Jesus, a Jew, spoke to her, a Samaritan. Furthermore it was astonishing that Jesus spoke to her, a woman, for Rabbis were forbidden to speak to any women in public — and they were even forbidden to speak with their wives and daughters in public. For a Rabbi to be seen speaking to a woman in public would destroy his reputation — yet Jesus spoke to her! Here sat Jesus, the Son of God, tired and thirsty, speaking to a Samaritan woman who told Him her sad and sorry story.
Sitting at the well at the sixth hour meant that Jesus was there at 12 Noon, the hottest part of the day. But Jesus was beginning to pull down the barriers that separated people from one another, and His disciples were begging to join Him. Before they met Jesus they would never have considered going into a Samaritan town to buy food. And being the moral outcast that she was, the woman snuck out to the well for water at a time in the day when no one would be there because of the heat. Remember that John is writing to the Greeks who had no knowledge of the history between the Jews and the Samaritans, so John is keen to include the parenthetical comment: “(For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans)”John 3:9.
The conversation must have taken longer than what is reported by John, for it was quite a hike to walk into the city, buy food, and return again — all on foot in the hottest time of the day. The Samaritan woman undoubtedly opened up her heart to Jesus, a Jew! But Jesus, tired physically from the long and hot journey, is never tired from helping people tired from the self-inflicted struggles of their lives. At the well meet a sympathetic Jesus in this story who listens in such a way that even a Samaritan women would bare her soul to Him rather than run away from embarrassment. And yet it seems the most natural thing in the world to talk with Jesus.
Dear friends, I invite you to talk to Jesus, even about the most private things in your life. He listens and has great sympathy. He wants to heal you and forgive You, so don’t hesitate. Take time in quiet prayer today and come to the Lord.
Oh dear Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner. For I am so sorry for having repeatedly sinned against You and You alone. Bring me back to Your heart of mercy and of love. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
From the Bible:
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” 2 Chronicles 7:14.
“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them” Psalm 145:18-19.
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” Mark 11:24.
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” James 5:16.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9.
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” John 4:10-14.
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He” John 4:15-26.
27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.” John 4:27-38.
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