“And he must needs go through Samaria.” John 4:4

This verse jumped off the page recently. I thought about how Jesus went out of his way to meet the Samaritan woman.

Samaritans were mixed; half Jewish and half Gentile. The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, they were rejected. So, not only was Jesus going out of his way to meet a Samaritan, but he was also going to meet a woman. And not just any ole woman either.

Image: “Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Martha at Bethany” by J.J. Tissot – Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/13433    

In verse six, we see Jesus is weary from his journey and sits on Jacob’s well. When the Samaritan woman appears to get water.

In verse seven, Jesus asks her for a drink.

She responds in verse nine, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”

He responds to her in verse ten, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”

He goes on to say in verses thirteen and fourteen, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

She asks him for some of this water. And then the zinger comes in verse sixteen when he says, “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.”

She stops dead in her tracks and tells him she has no husband.

He responds by saying she’s correct, that she has had five husbands and the one she is with now isn’t her husband either.

I chuckled at verse nineteen, when she tells Jesus, “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.”

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I absolutely love the fact that Jesus didn’t allow the customs or prejudices of that time stop him from changing His course to go speak to her. It was a divine appointment. He didn’t judge or shame her. He basically let her know that these men she keeps sleeping with aren’t going to satisfy her. They aren’t going to be able to nullify the emptiness or fill the void she feels with sex. Jesus knew her pain and made it a point to go out of His way to help her; a Samaritan, woman and prostitute.

The religious folk couldn’t understand Him. They judged him for talking to sinners like her. But it didn’t matter what they said to Him or accused Him of, He knew her heart and He wanted her to know that He is what she’s searching for.

Today many are thirsting and trying to fill their void without Jesus. They are rejecting God which is why things are getting worse in our country and around the world. The more society shakes their first at God and rejects His Son Jesus Christ, the worst things will get.

Like the Samaritan woman, He comes to all of us offering living water, the question is will we drink from His eternal well?