7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:7-14 (ESV)

Opposites meet

Yesterday set the backdrop for this famous discussion between Jesus the Jew and a Samaritan woman. Jesus is alone at this well when a woman of Samaria comes to get water. Jesus asks, even commands her to give him some water. To us, it may seem rude – like when he talked to his mom at the wedding banquet. What was stranger, however, is that Jesus, a sinless Jewish man was talking to a hated Samaritan who was a woman, even an adultress (we’ll see this tomorrow).

Surely Jesus had every right to judge and shun her. But, as we said yesterday, He decided to pass through Samaria. This outcast of outcasts was the one through whom He would reach the city and the people.

Strange conversation

Jesus steers the conversation in a way He just patterned for us with Nicodemus – and will continue to demonstrate. The woman is thinking earthly, Jesus directs her to think spiritually. She’s thinking of natural water, Jesus is discussing living water. Note: the word Jesus used was commonly understood as “fresh water”. So the woman is wondering, “What is this special water and how can Jesus give it to her without a bucket”? Jesus is endeavoring to get her to recognize the deeper thirst, her real need, for salvation, for forgiveness, which leads to eternal life. In John 7:38 Jesus will discuss in greater depth rivers of living water.

<- Reflection ->

• Who gives eternal life? Who is eligible to gain eternal life? Even the outcast of the outcasts can.
• The Chosen TV series does a nice job with this interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman – with a little “ad-lib”.