John 4:1-42
“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst...’” John 4:13-14a
Have you ever felt God nudging you into a divine appointment? Jesus obviously felt that nudge from His Father. He was traveling from Judea to Galilee, and He chose to go through Samaria, which was between Judea and Galilee. But most Jews traveling that way went along the east of the Jordan River through Perea, a long way around, to avoid Samaria.
There had been bad blood between the Jews and the Samaritans for several hundred years. In 722 BC the Assyrians captured Samaria and moved other people into that area. The Samaritans intermarried with these other people and lost their racial purity which was so important to the Jews. In 400 BC the Samaritans built a temple on Mt. Gerazim and worshiped there rather than at the temple in Jerusalem. When Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews who had been in Babylonian captivity to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, the Samaritans offered to help, but the Jews refused their assistance, so they tried to hinder the rebuilding. In 128 BC the Jews burned down the Samaritan temple. It’s easy to see why there was hostility between the two groups. It really wasn’t safe for a Jew to travel through Samaria. But Jesus chose to do that. He felt that He needed to go through Samaria. The Holy Spirit was nudging.
There was a town in Samaria named Sychar, and there was a well there. Jesus was tired, and He sat down by the well. It was about noon and Jesus was alone because His disciples had gone to buy food. A Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus asked her for a drink. She was very surprised that a Jew would speak to her since she was a Samaritan. Jesus told the woman that He had come to give her living water. She replied that the well was deep, and He had nothing to draw with; she wondered how He could get any water. Jesus told her that whoever drank the water from the well would get thirsty again, but whoever drank from His water would never thirst. The woman asked Jesus to give her some of this water so she wouldn’t have to keep coming back to the well.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman to go call her husband and come back. She said she didn’t have a husband. Jesus told her she was right. She had had five husbands, and this man wasn’t her husband. Then she began to squirm and tried to change the subject.
When the disciples returned, they were surprised to see Jesus talking with this woman. Not only was she a Samaritan, but Jewish men did not speak with women in public. But Jesus’ companions kept quiet.
The woman went back to town and told people about Jesus, wondering if he could be the Messiah. Many of the people came to see Jesus, and many of them believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony. They urged Jesus to stay in Sychar, and He stayed two more days! Many more Samaritans believed in Him during that time.
What can we learn about witnessing from this story? Jesus initiated the conversation. He found common ground with the woman--water. He ignored the prejudices in His society. He did what was loving rather than what was considered “correct”. When the woman was skeptical about Jesus’ living water, He responded in love. We need not become angry if others display hostility or sarcasm. Jesus gained the woman’s attention, and then He led her to spiritual truth.
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