All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ
We’ve come to chapter 4 of John’s epistle where Jesus has caught the attention of the Pharisees. It became known to them that Jesus was baptizing more people than John the baptist. We find in John 4:2 a clarification that Jesus was not actually baptising people, but his disciples were. This may cause some of us confusion, because of our assumptions of what the bible says. Always use your bible as the authority of God’s word if you have questions.
There are a couple of reasons why Jesus would not actually baptise people, but let his disciples handle that task.
- By not doing so He presented baptism as being apart from Him.
- People were less likely to put salvation into the meaning of water baptism, as many people have done down through time, including today, and have been misled as to their eternal status. To be saved, one must exercise faith alone in Christ alone, not rely upon some outward act.
- Christ demonstrated that baptism is not the chief end of the Christian experience.
Jesus had decided to move from Judea in the South, to Galilee in the North. (John 4:3) Making this move, He had chosen to travel through Samaria, which is what most if not all Jews traveling that way would not do. Jews and Samaritans were not friendly to each other. Samaritans were known as half breed Jews and that caused the authentic full blooded Jews to look down on them and travel way out of their way to avoid setting foot in their land.
These half Jew half Gentiles were actually descendants of the Northern Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who survived the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) by the Assyrians in 722 BC.
Jesus had none of His people’s prejudices, so took the shorter path and for good reason, He had a woman to talk to. I do not believe that there are any Old Testament prophecies concerning the woman at the well, but God’s plans are His plans.
Jesus and His disciples had traveled through Samaria and stopped at a well near a town named Sychar. (John 4:6) It is in the lower middle of the map, to the right of Mt. Gerizim. This place is full of history. Mt. Gerizim is where God blessed His people in Deuteronomy 11:29 and the well that they had stopped at was Jacob’s well. Known universally as Bir Ya`qub, the well of Jacob. This is only mentioned in John’s gospel and not in the Old Testament. The traditional site of Jacob’s well cannot be located by finding Sychar, as that city is no longer in existence. However, the site thought to be the biblical Shechem, called Tel Balata by archaeologists, is near a well. This is important because the Bible says Jacob bought land from Shechem and lived at that place for a long time (Genesis 33:19). He would have required a well, and it is perfectly reasonable that he dug one.
Jesus is hot and tired and since it’s around noon or the sixth hour in the land of Samaria, He decides to stop near a well. (John 4:6) His disciples went off to town to buy food, while Jesus rested by the 
well. A woman approached the well to draw water and Jesus said to her “Give Me a drink.” (John 4:8) Reading this, 2000 years later, we would think nothing of this, other than Jesus was sorta abrupt with His request for water. Couple of things here; first, the English language quite often gives us a poor understanding of what the bible is actually telling us, and two, our morality is not anywhere close to what it was 2000 years ago. A woman coming to a well is no big thing. Nobody had indoor plumbing back then and since it was the task of women to get water, yes, men and women had different roles to play back then, the reputable women all went together, in the morning, to get water. Here we have a single woman, at noon, coming to draw water. Why she did it then and not with her fellow sisters in the morning will soon be evident. The important thing here is God knew why she was coming for water at noon, just like God knows you and what you do. (Psalm 139:1-24) Is this troubling to you or reassuring?
As for why Jesus was there alone, while His disciples went to get food, God knew that a sinner would be there, a sinner who would accept the conviction of her life and would listen with an open heart. His disciples still had their prejudices and would probably be an interference rather than silent observers.
The main thing here is, you search for God, God will let you find Him (Proverbs 8:17) and don’t expect to be unchanged, to keep living in sin, once you’ve found what was never lost. This woman had a need for salvation and on some level, knew it. After all she’s in the bible and talking to Christ.
This woman, who was asked for a drink, must have wondered if this man had been in the sun too long. Surely He must be aware that she is a Samaritan and He is a Jew. (John 4:10) Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter. “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)
Here she starts the negotiations, I am thinking. Sure she’s a woman coming for water at noon and all that that means, but she’s not stupid. She’d like to know where this gift of Living Water is coming from and is talking to Him in a way that a man and a woman that are not family or married, would talk. Pointing out the obvious, (John 4:11) some name dropping and reference to an important person in Samaritain lives, (John 4:12) all this is dancing around what I think she is drawn to. Jesus knows this, after all, it is why He made the trip. He answers her in His very direct way, as there is no need for artifice when talking about salvation. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)
Have you ever heard something so astounding, so good that it can’t possibly be true, but you really want it to be? In every other situation it would be too good to be true, but not when God comes calling. She is in this very position, (John 4:15) she asks Him to give her this water, for practical reasons, but as I said, she’s not stupid, I think she is probably tingling with “It can’t be true, but it might” at this point. However there is a condition to this Living Water. This would be the C portion of the ABC’s of salvation. If you’ve not heard, spreading the Good News of Christ can be hard for some people. They claim they don’t know what to say. Funny, prophets of old never seemed to have that problem. If you can’t do it, let the Lord do it through you. Works every time. Somebody somewhere came up with something easy to remember. ABC:
A. Accept Christ as your Savior.
B. Believe that He was crucified, dead and raised again for our sins.
C. Confess your sins.
So, as I said, she was stuck briefly at C. However, a true heart is willing to confess its sins. Jesus asked her to call her husband and come back here. (John 4:16) She confessed to Him that she had no husband.
I ask you, do you speak the truth? Would you confess to something that was your shame as a matter of course or would you have to think about it? We have such deceitful hearts, we lie even when we are trying to tell the truth. This is what it means to be fallen. She spoke the truth to her Savior.
I think Jesus was pleased with her response. “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.” (John 4:16-17)
Because of all He has told her, she perceives Him to be a prophet and because prophets know things she asks Him where is the correct place to worship. We worship here at Mt. Gerizim, but your Jews say Jerusalem is where you should worship. I think she is trying to sort some things out in her mind and her cultural mindset is showing that. We worship here, you worship there, what is true? Jesus clears up her thinking and tells her that her people worship what they do not know. (John 4:22) “But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)
This must have rocked her world. Being told that her people are worshiping what they do not know and salvation is from the Jews. That had to be unhappy news. But a time is coming, even now when the Father will be worshiped in our hearts, not in a place. (Ezekiel 36:26)
I think one of the more interesting things about this dialog between God and His creation is that this harlot had more than conversational knowledge of worship practices and prophecies. Could we say the same of ourselves? If you are one that says you could never give the Good News to somebody because you don’t know what to say, that pretty much says you would not be able to do what this woman had done. Read your bible, all your answers are there, so when the time comes, you will be able to do what your Lord wants of you.
The woman said she knew a Messiah was coming and He would declare all things to us. (John 4:25) Jesus tells her “I am He.” (John 4:26)
There could be no better news. She is standing before her Messiah, as he declared, with a willing and contrite heart. Someday we too will be standing before our Lord and what a glorious day that will be. My wish for you is to take your salvation seriously. Study your bible, for how else will you know how to obey God? This book was not written to be gathering dust on a shelf. It is our users manual, treat it as such. Will you measure up as this harlot did? We can hope so. Go forth and serve your King!