The Woman at the Well: Living Water

2(ESV)

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman from Samaria came 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 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

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16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on 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 the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 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 he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town 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 said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 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, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Last week we talked about some of the differences between this conversation and the one with Nicodemus.

But there is one significant similarity between the two conversations: That is, the ability of Jesus to see into the heart of a person and to address the needs of the heart, either spoken or unspoken.

We saw Jesus doing it with Nicodemus and we see Him doing it again with this woman.

So Jesus is on his way from Jerusalem to Galilee and He passes through the territory of Samaria.

And it is about noon time; the sun is high overhead and he is hot, and tired, and weary.

John makes sure that we know this because in order to emphasize the Glory of Christ, he also has to emphasize the humanity of Christ.

That God the Son put on skin and dwelt among us and dealt with the same things that you and I face.

The Bible says that Jesus was tempted like us, but we also know that he got tired like us.

So he comes into the village of Sychar.

He sends his disciples into the village to buy bread. Why all of his disciples for such a simple errand?

Perhaps because He knew what a crucial conversation was about to take place and how much out of the norm it was. My guess is that He didn’t want His disciples there who wouldn’t understand what He was doing and who might have protested the fact that he was talking to a Samaritan woman.

And he sits down beside Jacob’s well, probably the only thing that this little town had to offer

Then here comes the woman.

And we’ve already talked about why she might have been coming at this hour

“Give me a drink”

What an unexpected thing to ask! Who would have tought that a man who could talk as equals with a respected Jewish Pharisee would dare to strike up a conversation with a Samaritan woman?

But at this stage in our walk with the Lord, this shouldn’t surprise us, should it?

Because if there’s anything that I have learned about Him is that I should expect Him to do the unexpected. To ask the unanticipated questions.

We see Him doing it over and over in the Scriptures:

choosing simple, rough fishermen to be his disciples and the future leaders of His church

eating with tax collectors

healing on the Sabbath

feeding a multitude with a few morsels of food

Jesus rarely, if ever, did things or responded in ways that you would expect.

And the woman is taken off guard

“How can you, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”

You’re Jew, I’m a Samaritan

You’re a man, I’m a woman

You’re God, I’m just a mere human.

“If you knew who was asking you for a drink, you would have asked and He would have given you the water of life”

Wow, I love His response! Because it shows me something about the heart of Jesus

Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus asks something of you, it’s not because He needs you to do something for Him. It’s because He wants to ask Him for something greater than what He asked of you.

When he asks you to go overseas, it’s because he wants to give you courage greater than you have ever had before

When he asks you to learn another language it’s because he want’s to give you abilities that you have never had before

When he asks you to have a difficult conversation with someone, it’s because He wants to give you words that you didn’t know were inside of you

When He asks you to put that extra $50 in the offering it’s because He want’s to give you a spirit of generosity which will bless countless others.

When He asks for what is in your hand, it’s because he has something much greater to give to you.

Lady, don’t you know who you are talking to? He’s got something to give you which is so much greater than that liquid in your jar!

He wants to give you LIVING WATER!

The woman doesn’t get what he’s talking about

What are you talking about? she says.

Where are you going to get water like that?

Our ancestor, Jacob, was one of the greatest men who ever lived. He dug this well and used it. So did his sons and his livestock.

And now we benefit from it!

This water has kept us alive for generations!

Sir, do you really have something better than what our father, Jacob, gave us? And if so, how did you get it? Where did you get it?

We, too, benefit from foundations laid by our ancestors. Our traditions and our language. We find them refreshing and familiar.

Jesus, are you greater than our ancestors? Do you really offer something greater than what our traditions offer? Do you really offer something greater than the things that I have always done to show that I’m alive spiritually?

English Standard Version Chapter 4

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Jesus says to the woman, “Here’s the thing about your water from Jacob’s well: you have to keep coming back to it, because it doesn’t take care of the source of thirst.” It doesn’t take care of what is really doing on.

Yes, I am greater than your ancestors! Yes, I offer the water of life! It will quench your thirst.

Not only will it quench your thirst, it will take care of the problem of thirst.

See, this living water doesn’t just bring moistness to what is already there. It doesn’t just renew the cells that are already there.

It brings life and healing to the source of thirst. That is, it cures a soul that is deals with death daily.

We drink water because our bodies inherently want to decay. If we don’t eat, if we don’t drink, we die. We constantly are nourishing our bodies because we are dying.

We feel it physically as well as spiritually. We want. We crave. We take a drink. We indulge. We binge. We do whatever is needed to take care of that craving in our bodies or our souls.

But soon we are thirsty again.

But the water that Jesus gives, the Living Water, actually has life. It brings an end to the decay. It actually brings life. Abundant life.

It brings an end to the constant searching, the constant craving. The constant desiring for more.

We still sweat. We still labor. But the Living Water is a constant flow which brings constant nourishment

I want some of that!

One of my greatest fears in Africa, in a hot, arid climate, was to find myself stranded without a source of water.

But a greater concern should be to find ourselves disconnected from true Living Water.

And the woman rightly says, “Sir! Give me some of this water so I never get thirsty again and so that I never have to come back here and draw water again!

Jesus identified her need

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