So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” – John 4: 5-10
Our Lord, while traveling through Samaria, rested at a well in a town called Sychar. He waited there while his disciples went into the town to buy food. Shortly after, a woman supposedly of ill repute, came to the well to draw water.
Jesus was thirsty and asked her for a drink. The woman was quite surprised that a person of his ethnicity would ask her for a drink. He was a Jew and she a Samaritan.
Samaria was once the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Assyrian invaded and destroyed the nation in 722 BC. They exiled most of the inhabitants and repopulated it with foreigners. Consequently, the Jews who were left intermarried the new people brought into the land.
Because of this, the Jews would not have any dealings with the Samaritan, who were of Jewish heritage. This is evident in the woman’s conversation with Jesus. In her conversation with Jesus, she talked about their father Jacob, who gave them the well. She said they were waiting for the Messiah.
The woman had come to the well to draw water at an inordinate hour. The women of the town went to the well either in the morning or in the evening to draw water.
The unusual time the woman went to the well to draw water suggested that she was at odds with the women of the village. Probably the women of the community did not think much of her because she had had many husbands and the man with whom she was living was not her husband.
Notwithstanding this, Jesus used this encounter to evangelize the woman. When she protested giving him a drink because of the difference in ethnicity, Jesus spoke to her of another kind of water. He told her that had she requested water from him, he would have given here living water.
Unfortunately, she did not understand what he was talking about. She thought he was speaking of secular water, which would have relieved her from having to visit the well at noon.
However, the water about which he spoke was a spiritual water. That living water, which Christ offered the woman is a spiritual water.
It’s like a river of living water flowing through the soul. That water changes the soul and gives one a new life, a new prospective. It quiets the heart and brings peace and joy into one’s life.
When the woman experienced the living water which Jesus gave to her, she became a new person. Her whole life changed. Even though she was an outcast among her community, her first inclination was to share it with the people who obviously despised her.
That is the power of the gospel. The first people she thought about were here enemies. Consequently, she rushed into the village and asked the people to come out and see a man who had changed her life. She wanted them to share in her wonderful experience.
What about you, have you sought out those who need an encounter with Jesus? Have you thought about your family members, your friends and associated?
This Lenten season is a great time to share Jesus with the people in your life. Help them to have a wonderful encounter with Jesus. Like the woman at the well, share Jesus with them. Amen.
• Reverend Samuel M. Boodle, pastor at the Lutheran Church of Nassau, 119 John F. Kennedy Dr can be reached at P.O. Box N 4794, Nassau, Bahamas; or telephone 426-9084; website: www.nassaulutheranchurch.org.
