Living Water in Jesus: John 4:1-42 Reflections
John 4 seems to be addressing the very deep question of human longing and a deep desire for fulfillment. In this passage we see Jesus encounter a woman that according to cultural standards He had no business talking to. Jesus, as a Jewish man, would have had no business talking to this Samaritan woman because Samaritan’s were seen as “half-breeds” in the most derogatory sense of the word. Samaritan’s were half Jewish and half Gentile. Much like Whites in the slavery and post-antebellum sharecropping and Jim Crow South would have looked on bi-racial whites with black blood with disdain, Jews were prejudiced against Samaritans. So much so that although traveling through Samaria would have been the fastest way to get to Judea or Jerusalem from Galilee and vice versa, Jews would have traveled around Samaria just to avoid Samaritans. These are the reasons that Jesus would have had no business talking to the woman at the well, but one thing that we always remember about Jesus is that He is no respecter of human guidelines, traditions, and norms—He will not be contained into anyone’s box and He especially will not live a life dictated by human prejudice. He is, afterall, not merely human, but God.
And yet woman at the well’s Samaritan background speaks volumes about what is coloring her reaction to Jesus. And yet, as the story unfolds, we learn more about what is influencing her resistance to Jesus’ interaction with her. We learn that this woman is an outcast in her community. Whereas most women would go in the company of other women to fetch water from the well in the early morning hours to avoid the heat of the noon-day sun, this woman goes to the well by herself during the hottest time of day—noon. We learn later that this woman has had five husbands and is currently living with a man who is not her husband. This is a reality that would lead to stigmatization in contemporary times let alone around the 1st century BC. And herein lies the source of the woman’s shame. During those days, women were not allowed to divorce their husbands, which means that 5 men divorced her. Culturally, this would have been extremely detrimental to this woman’s character and reputation—she would have been known as the woman who couldn’t keep a husband and kept company with men to whom she was not married. Imagine the whispers that must have gone around about her. This is the reason why she is marginalized and comes to the well alone. Now think about what it must be like to be this woman. To exist under the weight of perpetual shame, the sideglances, the rumors, the loneliness of being used, marginalized, and seen as unworthy of anybody’s company or love and yet still desiring deep down to be loved—still hoping for affection in the midst of loneliness. We are, after all, social beings, and it is difficult for any of us to exist apart from caring human contact. And yet, to what extent does being accustomed to people talking about you put you in a position where you start not to care about the people around you, what they think of you, and where you are forced to be your own protector and defend yourself from accusations of people who think that they know you based on your reputation. Her situation is enough to make anyone defensive. This is all of the baggage that this woman carries into her conversation with Jesus. And yet, though she is resistant to this interaction, Jesus proceeds to pursue her with His love and offer her fulfillment in Him.
Jesus begins the conversation with the woman at the well by asking her for a drink. Immediately she raises a question about social norms in acknowledging that as a Jew he should not be talking to her. She would have known that He was a Jew by the way that He dressed. Immediately, Jesus begins to speak to her about spiritual realities in asserting that “if [she] knew the gift of God and who it was that asked her for a drink, [she] would have asked him and he would have given [her] living water.” The woman believes that Jesus is talking about physical water but He is speaking about something much more gratifying—water that is suitable to quench a soul thirst. He tells her that the water that He gives will become a “spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman asks for this water still unaware that Jesus is offering her something spiritual. Jesus tells the woman to go and call her husband. During this time period, for any agreement between a woman and a man to be made official, a woman’s husband would have had to be present. The woman lies and says that she has no husband. Jesus affirms that what she says is true, she has no husband, she has had 5 and the man that she is currently with is not her husband. In revealing this truth, Jesus exposes the source of her shame. But recognize that whereas other people may have wielded this information in a way that would have caused this woman harm, Jesus does not expose the source of her shame to hurt her, but rather to heal her. The woman, clearly uncomfortable that Jesus knows what she had hoped to keep a secret, changes the subject and begins to talk about religious matters and divisions between Jews and Samaritans concerning the appropriate place of worship. Jesus responds that it’s not about where you worship but how you worship. That true worshippers will worship in “spirit and in truth” referring to the heart posture with which one worships. Are we worshipping God on this mountain or at this or that church out of tradition, or are we worshipping God with our hearts—pursuing truth and life in Him because of who He is and because He is worthy. Once again, the woman seeks to evade the issue at hand when she says the Messiah will come to reveal these things and Jesus reveals Himself as the Messiah.
Jesus revealing Himself as the Messiah to this woman is a big deal for so many reasons. Rarely, in any of the gospels, do we see Jesus come right out and say that He is the Messiah, and in the gospel of John, this is the first time that this occurs. Whereas many religious persons would have expected Jesus to reveal Himself as the Messiah to the religious elite, Jesus reveals Himself to this outcast of a woman who would have been seen as dirty and unworthy of such a revelation to her peers. And yet, Jesus comes to her and makes Himself known to her. He offers her living water in Him. In a way, Jesus exposes her shame as a way of acknowledging that she has been looking for fulfillment in all of the wrong places, she has sought it out in men and marriage, but He is saying that true living water is found in Him. That He is the wellspring who has come to quench our thirst and fulfill our deepest desires in Him. In revealing Himself as the giver of living waters, Jesus is offering this woman healing in Him. However, not only is Jesus offering this woman healing, but He is offering her a new identity in Him. Where are the places in your life where you have sought out fulfillment but have instead found dryness? Where are the places that you have placed your identity that turned out to be inadequate? What would it be like to picture Jesus offering you His living water—a deep soul nourishing, healing, and fulfillment in Him?
The woman at the well, overwhelmed by the revelation she has received goes back to the same community that has caused her to feel isolated and brings them to Jesus to come to know the Messiah for themselves. It is amazing how Jesus uses this broken woman to bring an entire village to faith. The lives of these villagers would have been forever changed because of the boldness of this woman’s testimony even after just one encounter with Christ. This account is a powerful reminder of how Jesus sees us as we are, loves us as we are, calls us to healing in Him, and then uses us for His kingdom purposes. Has Christ ever done a work so powerful in your life that you couldn’t keep it to yourself? Who may Christ be calling you to share your testimony and the truth of His living waters with? Who may Christ use you to call to His hope, healing, and transformation?
