Healing Rays of Righteousness

Read John 4:4-26 

The story begins with Jesus, a Jew, seated and resting by Jacob’s well near Sychar, the capital town in Samaria.  It is about noontime and a Samaritan woman comes alone to the well to draw water for herself.  Seeing the stranger and realizing that he was a Jewish man, she hesitated, wondering why he was there, because Jewish people usually avoided contact and conversation with Samaritans.

John says in verse 4, “Now he (Jesus) had to go through Samaria.”  Palestine is only 120 miles long from north to south.  But within that 120 miles there were in the time of Jesus three definite divisions of territory.  In the extreme north was Galilee — in the extreme south was Judea — and in between was Samaria.

The quickest route from Judea to Galilee was to go through Samaria.  But there was a centuries-old feud between the Jews and the Samaritans.   The Samaritans were descendants of those Jews who had not been deported into exile and had intermarried with the heathen colonist brought in from Babylonia by the Assyrian conquerors.  And so they were looked upon by the returning Jewish exiles as unclean half-breeds of Jewish blood.   The hatred and feuding between them deepened when the Samaritans’ offer to help rebuild the temple was refused.

So the Jews would cross the Jordan River in Judea, go up the eastern side of the river to avoid Samaria, then re-cross the Jordan north of Samaria and enter Galilee.  However, this alternative route took twice as long — another three days of travel.

Jesus chose to go through Samaria, I believe, because his primary reason for coming into the world was to love the world — all of it, not just some parts of it.  His coming was to break down barriers — all barriers, not just some of them.  And so, Jesus “had to go through Samaria” because he knew and understood the spiritual thirst and yearnings of the Samaritan people.

And why did this woman come to this well, located more than a mile outside of town, when there was a good well in town — and why did she come during the hottest time of the day?  I think this woman felt deeply hurt by the resentment and rejection from her own townspeople.  She knew she was an outcast because of her immoral lifestyle, and was most likely the daily gossip at the town well.   And so, to avoid the pain and embarrassment, she walked the greater distance in the heat of the day along to get her water supply.

As the woman comes closer to the well, Jesus lifts his head and looking at her, makes a simple, unexpected request of her — “Will you give me a drink?” (v.7).   In politely asking this Samaritan woman for a drink of water, Jesus cuts through centuries of suspicion and animosity, and treats her with respect and dignity as a human being.   He treats her with respect even though he knows the immorality and emptiness she tries to hide.

The woman can only respond with undisguised amazement, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.  How can you ask me for a drink?”  She is well aware that any self-respecting Jew would never consider even touching the water jar of a Samaritan, and most would avoid being touched by even the shadow of a Samaritan.

But it is not long before the woman who has been asked for water is addressing the thirsty traveler as “Sir” and asking him for the water he offers.  Jesus offers this morally corrupt, Samaritan woman water that can quench her deepest spiritual soul-thirst, not just for a day, but forever.   He offers her water that is continuously fresh and abundant — “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  He offers this woman “living water” as “the gift from God” and it is hers for the asking.

All through Scripture, water is a rich symbol of varied spiritual meanings — but always of life.  The precious physical water, coming from well or river, bringing life and beauty to the barren desert land of Jesus, had become a symbol of that everlasting spiritual water which could quench and revive the parched, dying human spirit.  So the Psalmist cries out, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”  (Psalm 42:1).

And the Apostle John records that on the last day of the annual Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus throws out an amazing invitation to all who hear him, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”  (John 7:37-39).  Then John explains, “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.”

This is the invitation the Samaritan woman is hearing.  And it is the invitation Jesus still gives to all whose lives are empty, barren, and thirsty.  To all who feel unloved, abused, rejected, and lonely, Jesus offers, “living water — a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

Are you drinking living water — the ultimate thirst quencher?  It can be yours for the asking. “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’  … Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”  (Rev. 22:17).