There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water . . . From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:7-10, 39-42, NASB)
This is an interesting story: The Samaritan Woman at the Well. Jesus is traveling with His disciples through the region of Samaria. They arrive on the outskirts of a town called Sychar. The disciples go into town to buy some food. Jesus sits down at a well. He’s waiting for her.
Interestingly, this is Jacob’s Well, dug by the patriarch himself! The woman arrives, and starts to draw water. Jesus asks her for a drink. She is amazed, John explains, because she is a Samaritan, and He is a Jew. The Jews at the time looked down on the Samaritans, thinking of them as a mongrel race. Sometime before, the Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. Many people were exiled, and the Assyrians settled many of their people in the region. The people intermarried, producing people called Samaritans. The Samaritans worshiped idols, and some worshiped the God of Israel.
Jesus and the woman converse. Jesus tells her that He is source of living water; that His water is such that she would never thirst again, and would provide springs of water leading to eternal life. She doesn’t understand, and asks for this water so she doesn’t have to keep coming to the well to schlep water to her home. Jesus then tells her things about her life that a stranger wouldn’t know: How she’s had five husbands; and the man she lives with now is not her husband. She believes that He is a prophet, and tells Him that she expects the Messiah, the Christ, to appear soon. Jesus tells her that He is the One!
The woman runs back to town to spread the word about Jesus. The townspeople come to see for themselves. They ask, and Jesus agrees, to stay with them for two days to teach them.
The disciples were “amazed” that Jesus had been speaking with a woman. I believe that Jesus was serving notice to his students that even in this culture that was dominated by men, His message of salvation was for women, too. That He would spend time with the Samaritans said that salvation was not only for the people of Israel, but also for Gentiles!
The story of the Samaritan Woman teaches us lessons of salvation: She believed. She went to tell others. They came to see, and then believed. Salvation is for everyone.
Have you heard the news of God’s salvation? Have you believed? Have you told somebody else who needs to be saved?
“Woman at the Well,” by Olivia Lane (video scene from “The Chosen”)