Jesus And The Samaritan Woman I (J14)

For food, the disciples went into town,
While Jesus waited beside Jacob’s well;
Then a Samaritan woman came down;
Jesus spoke with her, the gospel to tell!
“May I have a drink?” He asked, speaking first;
“Why do you, a Jew, talk with me?” asked she;
“If you drank living water, you’d ne’er thirst;
I would give it to you, if you asked me!”
“Give it me! I won’t come back here again!”
“Go bring back your husband; I’ll give it you.”
“I have no husband,” said she, with some shame;
“There’s five; the man now, you’re not married to.”
She hurried back to town, issued the call,
“Come! Hear the prophet that has told me all!”

“Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour [noon]. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’ … The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ … 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,; “ (John 4:4-10) [Brackets added] (To understand the poem and commentary, please read the complete text in John 4:1-26.)

Not only did Jewish men avoid talking to any woman in public, the Jews despised all Samaritans; the Samaritan woman must have been very shocked by Jesus’ request. Of course, He saw an opportunity to spread the gospel to her and the townspeople. This is a perfect example to us; a Christian would show his love for others by ignoring customs and prejudices in all places and times. The greatest gift possible to give is eternal life in heaven.

Samaria was a region north of Jerusalem and south of Galilee; its eastern boundary was the Jordan River. Jews avoided walking through Samaria by going far out of their way to the eastern side of the river, going around Samaria, so that they would not happen to meet a Samaritan by chance. What Jesus did in opening the conversation with the woman at the well would have scandalized His disciples. He even showed willingness to drink from her utensil. I remember in my youth in the south when all drinking fountains were marked “colored” and others “white”. Jesus, if He had come through Mississippi would have faced the wrath of whites by drinking from the “taboo” colored fountains. How could we white Christians have so misinterpreted the Bible?

Jesus did not despise the Samaritan woman, not even when He told her she had had five husbands and was not married to the man she now lived with. He risked His own reputation by speaking with her in Christian love and showing how salvation is for all people on earth. This blog will be followed by others about Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)