Lesson 19

 Today's Lesson

The conversation with the woman at the well begins chapter 4 in the same way that the conversation with Nicodemus began chapter 3. There is an intentional contrast being made between how Jesus deals with a Jewish religious leader and how He deals with a woman of questionable virtue from Samaria. Look back at the beginning of chapter 3 and reread how He deals with Nicodemus and compare the two conversations.

Jesus asks this woman for a drink of water for He is weary and thirsty and does not have the means to draw water from the well. The woman is taken aback that a Jewish man should ask even this small favor from an unknown Samaritan woman. As the text says, "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." There was also the fact that He was a man and she was a woman and within their culture there were rules governing when men should speak with women and when women could speak with a man who was a stranger. Jesus was stretching the limits of these unwritten mores as well. "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?"

The answer that Jesus gives to her corresponds to that which He gave to Nicodemus. To the Jewish leader, He says, "Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." To the woman He says "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that" asks, "you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The living water that Jesus is offering is the Spirit of God. "The water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." To be born anew, to be given living water, to be born of the Spirit, all of these are the same act of God in the lives of those who would believe in the Son of God.

To Nicodemus the gift of the Spirit was likened to the wind. (This imagery is made even more vivid in that the Greek word for Spirit is the same word for wind.) To the woman at the well the gift of the Spirit is likened to water, water that quenches the thirst permanently. The Spirit becomes within us an everlasting stream that springs up and fills our mortal lives with the life of God. To a desert culture, there was no more intense picture of life than water springing up from the ground. But, here was Jesus offering endless water ... endless life.

And, let us not overlook her question, "Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well?" Though her question is never directly answered, the purpose of this story is to answer it plainly. Only one greater than Jacob could offer this everlasting water. Jacob could offer his children the promise of God. Jesus delivers the promise and exceeds it. He offers "His children" God's very presence. He offers living water that eternally supplies all of their needs.

To accept the offer of Jesus Christ there are two conditions here. As He told the woman, If you knew who it was who ask you.... We must recognize who He is. How can we ask to be saved if we do not recognize the savior? And, we must be thirsty. Thirsty for God and thirsty for eternal life. A man who is unaware that he is dying might never seek out a doctor. In order to accept the gift of God that Jesus is offering, we must thirst after God.

How thirsty are you today? And, do you know who can satisfy your thirst?