John 4:6-29
It would do us all good to read and re-read this beautiful story of Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria. He goes to this town on purpose, not by coincidence (verse 4), and this woman will never be the same because of it.
Jesus stops to rest on the town water well at noon when He is met by a woman of Samaria who has come to draw water. This is a red flag about the woman’s reputation. Most women came to the well in the early morning when it was cool, and they drew enough water to last them all day, sufficient for their various tasks. To wait until noon to come to the well denoted either laziness or an attempt to avoid contact with others. This woman has had five divorces and is living with a man that she is not married to. Perhaps the gossip and the insults around the well with the other women had driven her to solitude.
It is beautiful how Jesus finds people when they are at their lowest state and are accepted by no one else. His interest in her stuns the woman, as she asks how He could have anything to do with her, seeing she was a Samaritan (verse 9). Jesus’ response is, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that said to you, ‘Give me to drink’; you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10).
Oh that the world only knew what the gift of God is! “If you knew the gift of God” is such a powerful cry from Jesus. God’s love for us is the greatest gift that man could ever receive, yet so many know so little of it. The blame for that must first fall at the foot of the church, which has done a rather poor job of letting the woman at the well know just how much that God loves her. Much of the church is so busy making sure that the world feels sufficiently pitiful and guilty for their sins that they ignore the beauty of the gift of God. I even heard a minister say once, “Don’t tell them of God’s grace too soon or they won’t feel guilty enough to get saved”. Jesus ignored this method of evangelism.
True revelation of God’s love for you comes not from a chance encounter with religion. Nearly all sinners will speak highly of God’s love for the world, but they do not see God’s love as focused in on them alone. The woman asks Jesus for the water that He provides, but it is obvious that she still thinks the water is physical, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, nether come here to draw” (verse 15). Jesus ignores her request, not because He is cold-hearted and unwilling to save, but because she still sees His salvation as corporate and not personal. In order to prove to her that He is real, He reveals a secret about her life that only God could know and this prompts her to recognize His love for her (verse 18). With a heart tendered by His love, she can now see Him as the Christ (verse 26), and this leads her to tell her family, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that I ever did: is not this the Christ?” (John 4:29).
Thank God for the encounters that we have had with Jesus by the various wells of our life. Never once have these encounters been by chance but always by design. Pray for this encounter for your lost loved ones today, that they too may know the love that Jesus has, not just for the rest of the world, but for them.
It would do us all good to read and re-read this beautiful story of Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria. He goes to this town on purpose, not by coincidence (verse 4), and this woman will never be the same because of it.
Jesus stops to rest on the town water well at noon when He is met by a woman of Samaria who has come to draw water. This is a red flag about the woman’s reputation. Most women came to the well in the early morning when it was cool, and they drew enough water to last them all day, sufficient for their various tasks. To wait until noon to come to the well denoted either laziness or an attempt to avoid contact with others. This woman has had five divorces and is living with a man that she is not married to. Perhaps the gossip and the insults around the well with the other women had driven her to solitude.
It is beautiful how Jesus finds people when they are at their lowest state and are accepted by no one else. His interest in her stuns the woman, as she asks how He could have anything to do with her, seeing she was a Samaritan (verse 9). Jesus’ response is, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that said to you, ‘Give me to drink’; you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10).
Oh that the world only knew what the gift of God is! “If you knew the gift of God” is such a powerful cry from Jesus. God’s love for us is the greatest gift that man could ever receive, yet so many know so little of it. The blame for that must first fall at the foot of the church, which has done a rather poor job of letting the woman at the well know just how much that God loves her. Much of the church is so busy making sure that the world feels sufficiently pitiful and guilty for their sins that they ignore the beauty of the gift of God. I even heard a minister say once, “Don’t tell them of God’s grace too soon or they won’t feel guilty enough to get saved”. Jesus ignored this method of evangelism.
True revelation of God’s love for you comes not from a chance encounter with religion. Nearly all sinners will speak highly of God’s love for the world, but they do not see God’s love as focused in on them alone. The woman asks Jesus for the water that He provides, but it is obvious that she still thinks the water is physical, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, nether come here to draw” (verse 15). Jesus ignores her request, not because He is cold-hearted and unwilling to save, but because she still sees His salvation as corporate and not personal. In order to prove to her that He is real, He reveals a secret about her life that only God could know and this prompts her to recognize His love for her (verse 18). With a heart tendered by His love, she can now see Him as the Christ (verse 26), and this leads her to tell her family, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that I ever did: is not this the Christ?” (John 4:29).
Thank God for the encounters that we have had with Jesus by the various wells of our life. Never once have these encounters been by chance but always by design. Pray for this encounter for your lost loved ones today, that they too may know the love that Jesus has, not just for the rest of the world, but for them.
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