Let's check it out together . . .
When we join this story, Jesus has decided to leave Judea, because of the rumors that He was baptizing more people than John the Baptist. (So we see that pettiness ruled the ancient religious culture as well) Scripture tells us that despite the fact that the rumor was not true, (His disciples were the ones actually doing the baptisms), Jesus felt that it was time to leave. He starts back toward Galilee, which requires Him to travel through Samaria.
Of course we recognize that there are no accidents when it came to Jesus and the people He interacted with on a daily basis. Traveling through Samaria was a divine appointment, but it would prove to be interesting on several different levels. First, the conversation that Jesus was about to have would be the longest recorded conversation He had with anyone in the Bible. Second, this conversation would be with a woman - who remains nameless in this encounter. Third, this woman would be a Samaritan, who did not associate with Jews. And finally, this woman is traveling to a well in midday, which normally was not the practice of women when charged with drawing water. Women generally travelled together, for safety, and for relief from the heat of the sun, either during dawn or dusk, but definitely not at noon.
So we have Jesus arriving at a well, in Samaria, ahead of his disciples, and he was very tired. Jesus initiated a conversation with a woman also at this well, asking her if she would draw Him some water. The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Not sure why she answers with an attitude, she was also probably fatigued from her journey under the midday sun, we can also assume that she was traveling at noon to avoid people and conversations, so that probably also had to factor into her response. And maybe she was just tired of playing the games required by women of the ancient world in regard to their stature versus the stature of men. Either way she was not going to comply with Jesus's request without some verbal sparring.
"Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
"Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. [My commentary: "pivot"] Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time 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 know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am He.”
Just then His disciples returned and were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him."
So we have a woman who attempts to avert every question Jesus asks her, redirecting the conversation into worship traditions and semantics, yet she ends up believing that He is the Messiah because He tells her about her past, and most importantly, gives her hope for her future.
And now, for the rest of the . . . well you know the rest of that statement.
"Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. And because of His words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Because of one conversation, with one woman, who had very little social capital but shared it willingly with the rest of her town, many people came to faith, and the Kingdom of God was greatly expanded.
There is so much to unpack from these verses, but I keep coming back to this lesson, 'Never underestimate the people that God places in your path, and definitely don't underestimate the power of God to transform every conversation into a divine moment in someone's life.'
To God be the glory!
