Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life. (John 4:14)
Jesus was on his way north, returning to Galilee from Judah. Most Jews would take the long way around to avoid passing through Samaria, For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. The problem seems rather silly to us. Samaritans refused to worship in Jerusalem. Instead, they worshipped in this mountain in Samaria. The Samaritans had also taken Gentiles for wives back in the day. Such failures were inexcusable to observant Jews, so they avoided Samaria. Jesus was on the direct route.
By midday, our Lord was exhausted from his constant ministering to the needy and the efforts of travel. For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy food, leaving Jesus alone at Jacob’s well now known to be only about 250 yards from the town. At the well, there was a woman about to draw water. It was mid-day and, normally, the women would have come to draw water early in the morning. The setting suggests this woman at the well was an outcast.
I suspect that the Apostle John stayed with him, as it is unlikely they would leave him by himself in such a place. If so, that would explain how John knows what happened with the woman at the well and can testify to it. I think it unlikely that Jesus bragged on himself with the details of the story when his disciples returned. Surely, it would not have been safe to leave him alone in Samaritan territory.
Imagine her surprise when Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. Likely his dialect and clothing gave him away. I suspect she gave him the look, like my wife used to do when I said something curious and unexpected. The Apostle tells us, The Samaritan woman therefore saith unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman? Any water a Samaritan had touched would have been considered unclean by a good Jew.
An encounter with Jesus does not always result in what we expect. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. How could this be, she wondered. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: whence then hast thou that living water? By living water, she assumed he meant naturally flowing fresh water, the kind she was expecting to draw out of the well.
Even after Jesus explained what he meant, she was confused. Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again. That sounded like good water to her. Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come all the way hither to draw. But she only heard the first part of the message, as we often do. We hear the good stuff and ignore the true teaching. She caught on to the idea that this water would sustain life and make her life easier. But, like Nicodemus, she did not at first catch on to the spiritual significance of the message.
Gradually, the whole message began to sink in. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life. The water Jesus gives us refreshes our soul. After being with Jesus for some time, she recognized him as a prophet and went back to spread the good news to all who lived in the nearby city, saying, can this be the Christ?
How are we to get this living water? Surely not by lowering our pot into Jacob’s well. It is spiritual water, given by God to those who ask.
What is the effect of this living water on our lives as Christians?
