Page 46 - The Gospel of John - Student textbook

This story gives hope to every person who loves someone
that seems beyond the reach of God. Never give up hope in
Jesus’ power to save. John comments that it was about the
6 hour (noon) when Jesus encounters a woman at Jacob’s
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well. Two things may be going on here. First, John may be
contrasting the fact that Nicodemus approached Jesus under
the cover of darkness, while the Samaritan woman
encountered Him under the noon day sun. Second, a woman
normally would not draw water during the hottest part of the
day, so she may have been something of an outcast because
of her lifestyle. John’s observation that Jesus was tired
highlights His true humanity (4:6). Unlike Jesus, we often miss
appointments God makes for us. Our smart phones and iPods
keep us from noticing people. We assume that people are not
interested in hearing a good word about Jesus. Yet we have no idea what God may be doing in someone’s life.
No one would have ever dreamed that God was about to do something so wonderful in this woman’s life – no
one except Jesus.

The Contact

John 4:7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give Me a drink,” Jesus said to her, for His disciples had
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gone into town to buy food. “How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she
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asked Him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and
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who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.” “Sir,” said
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the woman, “You don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’?
12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his
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sons and livestock.” Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever
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drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever! In fact, the water I will give him
will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life.” “Sir,” the woman said to Him, “give me
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this water so I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

Apparently, the woman liked the idea of a kind of water that would permanently take away thirst. But it is the
last part of this statement that I find most interesting: “nor come here to draw.” The woman was particularly
interested in a kind of water that would spare her from having to come to the well. It was as if she said: “I hated
every time I come here. I feel like I have a scarlet A sewn on my clothing. I have to sneak past the eyes of every
woman in the village. Whenever I come here and sit at this place to get my water, I feel ashamed, embarrassed,
and alone. If You have water like this, give it to me, and I’ll never have to come back to this well again.”

John 4:16 “Go call your husband,” He told her, “and come back here.” “I don’t have a husband,” she
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answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,” Jesus said. “For you’ve had five husbands, and
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the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see
that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, yet you [Jews] say that the place to
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worship is in Jerusalem.”

The Christ

John 4:21 Jesus told her, “Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on
this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do
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know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers
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will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. God is spirit,
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