Long ago, wells in hilly lands were made with great labor; but when carefully walled with stone on the inside, with a low wall built around the top outside, they lasted many years.
One day the Lord Jesus and the disciples were on the way from Judea to Galilee and came to a good well made by Jacob hundreds of years before. It was about “the sixth hour,” near noon, and the disciples went on to a town to buy food. Jesus sat at the well to rest.
A woman came with water jugs to get water, and Jesus asked her to give Him a drink. That surprised her, because she saw by His dress or appearance that He was a Jew. The Jews were descended from Jacob’s son, Judah, and did not talk or deal with her people. Her people were of other sons of Jacob, but long before had rebelled against the king and would not worship God as He had said (1 Kings 12).
Living Water
But Jesus had come for good to all (though to the Jews first) and He wanted to bless the woman. If she had known who He was, she would have known it was a favor to her if she could give Him a drink of water. He told her if she knew who asked her for a drink, she would ask Him for “living water.”
She thought He meant water from the well, and she said, “Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is deep: from whence hast Thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well?”
She did not then know He could have commanded the water of the well to come to Him, since all things obeyed His word. It is not told He ever used His power for Himself; it was always for others. He was far greater than Jacob, who was the same as other men.
He did not yet tell her who He was, but told her more of the “living water”. He said all who drank from that well would thirst again, but continued “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Wells are supplied by unseen springs in the ground, so the life He would give by the Spirit. She could not see the Spirit, but He would be in her forever.
But the woman still thought of real water, and that this would save her from carrying more, which was a hard task, so she said, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”
Her Deep Need
Jesus wanted her to think of something she needed far more than water for her thirst or for her house. She had sins which would keep her forever from God unless she had new life from Him. He spoke of her life and her wrong ways. It was as a miracle to her that He, a stranger, knew her past life and her sins, and she said, “Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet” (one to whom God had told events).
She knew the promise of the Holy One to come, and said, “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ; when He is come, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said, “I that speak unto thee am He.”
Further Meditation:
1. What was one reason the Jews did not want to talk to the Samaritans?
2. Who else in this gospel failed to understand what Jesus was really saying when they first heard His words?
3. For a really in-depth understanding of this passage and others in the book of John you might find An Exposition of the Gospel of John by W. Kelly challenging to read but very helpful.