A Samaritan Woman Encounters Jesus

“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.’” --John 4:10 (NKJV) [Read John 4:4-42]

The woman of Samaria was not well thought of in her own town of Sychar. She went to the well to fetch water at an “off” hour to avoid the crowd. She, according to Jesus, had been married five times, and the man with whom she then lived was not her husband. Why did Jesus spend so much time in the presence of this “Woman at the Well,” instructing her in the Water of Life and that He was the Messiah whom they expected to come?

The Samaritans had a history that made them despised by “better-than-thou” devout Jews. They were a mixed race of people because long ago in the tribal era, descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim who had settled in the central area of Palestine with Galilee to the north and Judea to the south had intermarried with the Assyrian conquerors who had taken over their land. Those among the Samaritans who had intermarried with the foreigners also took up the worship of idols. Ezra and Nehemiah would not allow the Samaritans to help rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. The Samaritans, therefore, set up their own place at Mt. Gerizim for their center of worship. They had the five books of the Pentateuch, and they considered Moses as their prophet. The Jews hated the Samaritans so much they took the long way around in traveling to avoid going through their country. The Samaritans looked for a Messiah and Restorer who would live 110 years. They believed in the resurrection of the dead, judgment and punishment. It was in this context of beliefs that the Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well dug by Jacob, her ancestor and Jesus’ ancestor.

After an unusual exchange of ideas, for women did not talk to strangers then, and Samaritans did not talk to Jews, and vice-versa, Jesus told her, “I who speak to you am He” (v. 26)—meaning the Messiah for whom they looked.

The Samaritan woman was so impressed by the truth of what Jesus told her that she ran to her village and told them. She became an ambassador of the Good News. And the result: “Many believed on Him because of the woman’s word” (John 4:39) But better still, Jesus remained there preaching for two days, “And many more believed because of His own word” (John 4:42). Her life counted, after all.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Sunday, March 14, 2010