Samaritan Woman

John 4:1-26

¹Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ²(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. ⁴And he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. ⁷A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” ¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” ²⁶Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

It is important that we understand exactly who the Samaritans were. We are told their history in 2 Kings 17. It is easy to say “they were half-breeds” and move on, but there is always more to know and the Bible provides our answers. The people who were the ancestors of the woman Jesus speaks with at the well come from the time of Israel’s greatest loss. The Northern Kingdom was steeped in idolatry and paid no heed to the God who loved them at all. The king of Israel at this time, Hoshea, was looking for help from any country that was willing. He stooped to ask the Egyptians (Israel’s former captors) for help, angering the king of Assyria, Shalmaneser to whom Hoshea had promised allegiance. In retribution, Shalmaneser swept through the Northern Kingdom and carried her people off into captivity, never to be seen again. All that was left of God’s people was Judah, the Southern Kingdom. The king of Assyria now had an entire region that was empty. There were cities and farms that needed people to work in them. So he transported his own people into the region, which was known as Samaria. These transplanted Assyrians became the ancestors of the woman that Jesus speaks with at the well that day. She knew the history of the people who had lived there before her and knew of the God of Israel but certainly did not know Him. That is the background of her story.

If you look at the map, you will find Samaria right in the middle of the region. Jerusalem is to the south, at the north end of the Dead Sea and Galilee (where Jesus spent most of His ministry) is to the north. In order to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which every Jew did at least once a year (and generally way more often than that) you would have to pass through Samaria. Most of the Jews went around. Not Jesus.

By the time Jesus arrives on the scene 700 years later, hatred for the Samaritans was ingrained into the Jewish culture. They were the usurpers. They were the ones who had taken their northern brothers into captivity. I can battle with my brother, but if you touch him, I’ll hate you forever! A Jewish person would never willingly even pass through Samaria. They would go around (extending their journey by several miles) rather than dirty themselves by associating with these half-breeds.

But Jesus spent the majority of his ministry in Galilee. That means he traveled in the area of Samaria extensively and if we are to trust our reading from John, He was not unwilling to speak with Samaritans or interact with them. This reading from John shows us a Savior who not only speaks with Samaritans, he also speaks to women!

This story is just so brilliant. And remarkably, John is the only one to record it. Here we find Jesus showing what is in the heart of God. The message of salvation is for everyone, including those the culture finds unlovable. Not only is the woman from a hated social class, she is, in all likelihood a prostitute or call girl. (Today we call that serial monogamy.) She’s at the well in the heat of the day because the other woman wouldn’t hang out with her. And she is completely shocked to find that Jesus is willing to even speak with her. Not only will he speak with her, (notice – He begins the conversation) He is willing to drink from her cup! Now all the rules of propriety are out the window! A Jewish man would never even touch a Samaritan little lone use one of their utensils. Clearly, Jesus comes from a different place.

There is not one of us who hasn’t struggled with the “am I good enough” questions. Let me just answer that for you – you’re not. That’s why Jesus came to the earth. We can never be good enough. You can’t be born to the right parents; you can’t live in the right region; you can’t have the right job; you can’t complete enough good works. But Jesus is the great equalizer. He came to earth to eliminate all that separates us from God. It doesn’t matter who your parents are. It doesn’t matter where you were born. It doesn’t matter what you do. All that matters is Jesus and His place in your life. This woman is astounded to have all of the societal props kicked out from under her and in that moment, her life is changed. Yours can be too.