I love reading the word of God! Yes, I do! And it is very hard for me to pick one favorite story of the Bible because I think I love them all equally.

However, the story of Jesus and the woman at the well, that story has a special place in my heart. I love the way Jesus approached the Samarian woman and how the woman was ready to be undone by the Living Water! Sometimes I get Goosebumps all over my body when I read this chapter.

Please read John 4:1-30

“Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria. So He *came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

There *came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus *said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman *said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” She *said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

The woman *said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” He *said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus *said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman *said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus *said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and *said to the men, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.” John 4:1-30 NASB

I may not be able to share with you everything that I am seeing in this passage because I think it will be a book. I am telling you, this passage carries in it tons and tons of truths of God. Let me try to share with you some of them.

Let me give you a back ground story first.

Some Pharisees claimed that Jesus baptized more people than John but it was not Jesus who was baptizing but Jesus’ Disciples. So, just to stay away from this issue, Jesus decided to leave Judea to go to Galilee. If you see it on the map, it is a short distance from Judea to Galilee if one passes through Samaria. However, Jews don’t like Samarians, they believed that Samarians are sinners (actually they see them worse than Pagans) and if they touch them, they too will be cursed. So, every Jew takes a long trip through Jordan to get to Galilee, just so they avoid crossing and seeing Samaria and Samarians. (There is a beautiful story online how this Samarians came into being and why Jews hate them.)

But Jesus, may His name be praised, but Jesus “He had to pass through Samaria.” Verse 4

He had to?

Yes, He had to if he wanted to find “one lost sheep” in Samaria. So, Jesus went to Samaria and met the woman at the well.

He asked her, “Give Me a drink.”

Wow! Hello! Cross-culture! The woman is a Samarian woman and You are a Jew, for crying out loud!

Yes, Jesus knows! Not only He talked to her but He asked her for a drink.

A Jew man, asking for a drink from a Samarian woman? I mean, not only Jesus was a Jew Man but also a Jew Teacher, Rabbi.

Yes, Jesus asked for a drink from a Samarian woman.

At this moment, I am sure this Samarian woman pitched herself just to make sure that she was not dreaming or having one of those early morning scary nightmares. Nope! She was not dreaming! It was real! A Rabbi is standing in front of her, asking her for a drink.

A drink?

Jesus got her attention. Not only her attention, He got her soul!

Nobody comes to this woman needing anything from her. She is an outcast. She is marginalized from the society. Why? Hello! She had five husbands. Every woman knows in Samaria. And nobody is willing to go with her anywhere, not even to get water (women go to the well early in the morning, this woman came at noon because maybe she wanted to avoid the rumor and those hateful looks from other women).

But here is a Jew Man asking her for water.

This woman has no problem of talking to men. So, she answered His question by a question:

“How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” verse 9

Jesus answered:

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”” Verse 10

Now He got her attention but not that much because she asked Him one of those “duh” questions: “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?” verse 11

You know, Jesus didn’t say to her, “water” but “living water” and that phrase didn’t really sink in her. It was a foreign phrase for her and she didn’t really care about it. Jesus also said, in effect, “I am the Gift of God.” That too went into one of her ears and left through the other one.

Then Jesus had to tell her a little more about this “living water” so she would know that it was not just water he was talking about. So, He said to her,

“Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” verse 13-14

Then she said something like, “Okay! Now You’re talking!”

She said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw” verse 15

Boom! Give me “this water” whatever You call it so “I will not be thirsty” again and I will not “come all the way here” again.

Again, she didn’t know that Jesus was talking about “living water,” not just “water.”

So, Jesus had to pose one last and very crucial question for her:

“Go, call your husband and come here.” Verse 16

Hello! Just give me the water You’re talking about! Why do You ask any further question?

No, she didn’t say that because Jesus touched a soft and sensitive part of her life and she replied, “I have no husband” verse 17

And to which Jesus quickly replied:

“You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly” verse 17-18

Phew!

Her hidden story! One by one!

(Why? A person first has to know that she/her is a sinner, heading to hell so that they would be able to seek and find “the Savior.” Until we know this truth about us, even while we speak to Jesus, we don’t see Him nor know Him.)

Jesus appreciated the fact that she didn’t call the man she was living with as “her husband” because they were not legally married. They were co-habiting. She didn’t call that cohabitation as “marriage.”

Why?

I think she was tired of living a lie!

But still she didn’t still know who she was talking to. And after a few exchange, she said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us” verse 25

She didn’t know that she was actually talking to the Messiah! So, Jesus had to simply say to her, “I who speak to you am He” verse 26.

He said to her, “I AM!”

Then “the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and *said to the men, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”” verse 28-29

What happened?

The woman met the Living Water! She realized that she was actually going around, trying different men, sex, money and all that this world could give her to quench her “thirst” and at last, the Samarian Woman found the One who could only quench her thirst. She realized that she was actually thirsty, not for just “water” but, for “the Living Water.”

Yes, like this Samaritan Woman we all have this thirst in our soul because God is our Creator and He creator us for Himself. But because of the fall of Adam and Eve, we all abandoned God to look for anything that could quench our God-given thirst for “the Living Water.”

Until we find what we are truly thirsty for, we all try everything this world can give us, drug, alcohol, prescription drugs, sex, different sexual identity, all sorts of tattoos and cutting our own bodies, work (by being workaholic), status, power, material possession, money and all sorts of things.

We run! We don’t rest! We run because we are created with this inborn “thirst” for “the Living Water.”

But none can satisfy our thirst except “the Living Water” Himself.

Are you that person? Are you trying to satisfy your thirst by all sorts of things except Jesus Christ?

Being thirsty is not a small thing. It is a life-threatening condition if it continues for more than 72 hours.

But know this: You have in-born thirst in your soul that can only be quenched by the Living Water and that Living Water is Jesus Christ, the Gift God has given to all of us. Without this Water, your end will be eternal death, eternal separation from God, to live eternally in hell because only this Living Water put in you “a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

That is why Jesus said,

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.” John 11:25 NASB

Please, I beg you, don’t leave this planet without this Living Water! Once you cross from this life to the next, no coming back. ///