Her day started like any other, a routine visit to the well to draw water. But this day would not be like any other. She would meet a man who would change her life.

Jesus and His disciples were traveling through Samaria and stopped near the city of Sychar. The disciples had gone into the city to buy food and left Jesus alone sitting by the well. John 4 says that Jesus was tired.

When a woman approached, Jesus asked her for a drink. What a surprised that must have been for her, and she expressed that by saying, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”

Jesus answered her by telling her that if she knew to whom she was speaking, she would ask for living water. Her reaction was to ask Him if He was greater than Jacob, who gave this well, drank from it, and used it as the source of water for his sons and their livestock.

Then Jesus changed the subject. He asked her to call her husband. The woman responded by telling Jesus that she had no husband. Jesus said, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.”

The woman realized that this man was a prophet, and she identified Him as such; but she immediately changed the subject and began to talk about the differences in where the Jews and Samaritans worshiped. Jesus responded that there was coming a time when the location would not be as important as worshiping in spirit and in truth.

Once more the woman changed the subject, and expressed her anticipation about the coming of the Messiah. At this point, Jesus identified Himself as that Messiah.

Think about all the lessons we see in the short exchange between Jesus and this woman:

1. There was the promise of water that would prevent her from ever being thirsty again.
2. The fact that she had five husbands and now another husband or a man with whom she was living was wrong.
3. The Samaritans’ view of where to worship was insignificant compared to worshiping in spirit and in truth.
4. Jesus was not only a prophet, but He was also the promised Messiah.

The disciples returned and were quite surprised to find Jesus talking with a woman, especially a Samaritan woman, but they did not dare ask Jesus why.

The woman left them and went into the city to encourage people to go to the well to “See a man who told me all that I ever did.” The people did go to the well, and many believed in Him because of what the woman told them. They begged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. During these two days many believed, this time because they had heard His words for themselves.

What can we gain from this story? There are as many lessons for us as there were for the Samaritan woman.

1. Jesus was and is no respecter of persons. We shouldn’t be either. We should take the gospel wherever and to whomever we have opportunity.
2. We all have sin in our lives, and we need to be willing to acknowledge it and change.
3. Worship is important. It has been from the beginning, and it will continue to be until the end of time.
4. Worshiping with the right spirit and worshiping in truth is now God’s will.
5. Jesus was and is the promised Messiah. He is the one that came to this earth, lived and died for our sins.
6. Belief in Jesus as the Son of God is still necessary, along with obedience to the gospel.

Just as the Samaritans responded to the teachings of Jesus, so must we to receive that living water.

Sandra Oliver