When You’re At The Well

Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.” John 4:42

We too must hear Him to believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world. All of us, as the Samaritan woman learned while at the well, must drink the living water. However, first, we must find ourselves as she was living: dead in her sin and in a seemingly rejected land. Many of us live in a place, whether that is by location or frame of mind, where we don’t expect the Lord to come speak to us. We don’t think it can happen because we don’t feel worthy and if you feel that way, you’re correct. We aren’t deserving, but still, He loves those Whom His Father gave to Him. As Jesus went to Samaria then and possibly into your home today, He went because that is where the harvest is ripe, and it wasn’t by happenstance that our seemingly itinerant but ubiquitous Savior visited there and here.

What made the Samaritan woman, and the town that she lived, a place of harvest? Well, we know from the story that she was sensitive to their differences. Jesus was a Jew, and they had no dealings with Samaritans; thus, she was probably surprised to hear Him ask for a drink. She also knew her history, and that she was a descendant of Jacob. He had built that well and drank from it himself. I came from a family; well, my mother at least, that taught me the Gospel. My mother certainly provided me a well to draw from, as Jacob did the Samaritan woman, to recall the story of the promised Messiah. I hope and pray that you also have that wellspring present in your life.

Then, when Jesus told her to go and call her husband and then come back, He knew what He was asking her to do. He knew her situation coming into the discussion. Would she be honest or would she lie about the fact that she had five husbands and was then living with another man? I suspect there was something in His voice, and in His eyes, that told her she ought not to lie. Out of shame, she probably turned away or looked down when she answered, “I have no husband.” Of course, she was honest in her reply, but she didn’t tell all. How true that is of us; well, before the Lord corrects us. He gently corrected her story by revealing her present relationship with another man. In the presence of God, and the petition of His Spirit, there is little that is not sufficiently revealed to draw upon that living water.

No wonder she perceived him to be a prophet at that point. He told her what He could not have known otherwise. Well, at least you can say that her opinion of Him was improving. Jesus had gone from just another Jew to a prophet. At this point, I would have been looking for the exit. I’m uncomfortable. I feel the walls caving in on me. I want to run; so as she did, I would have quickly countered with an excuse. “Well, you don’t worship as I do. You believe it must be in Jerusalem,” she said. “We worship here, on the mountain.” However, our Lord does not put up with excuses and reveals “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.”

Is it astonishing that the woman spoke of the Messiah after she heard Jesus tell her what she was doing and how she had lived? Again, we see the progressive nature of Christ’s appeal to those dead in their sin but soon to be quickened unto the elect. At first at a distance, Jesus was a Jew; merely a man—an historical figure. Closer still, He is a prophet; as our conscience amplified His voice; pointing out our transgressions—bidding us to come in and find rest. Finally, we begin to search as the Samaritan woman did, by acknowledging what she had heard and was told: there was One to come; the Messiah. For us? We remember how we were told of the One Who died and rose again.

I can imagine the pounding of her heart. Oh, to think! Could it be? Again, she couldn’t be direct; she couldn’t come right out and ask, but she suspected; even as we might wonder. Whether she directed the final words that she said to Him or if she spoke them as a self-affirmation, she replied, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” To which, He answered: “I AM the Messiah!” And with that, His disciples returned and she ran into the city. There, she told everyone what Jesus had said, but it wasn’t until they heard and believed themselves that they were saved. Even so, as I run to tell you…

Oh, how our precious Lord appeals to us; so surprisingly and softly as we find ourselves drawn to His well, which runs deep and ever. From His recognition as a mere man, we may find ourselves struggling; resisting; excusing; kicking at the goads of our bondage, but Our God prevails for He is Emmanuel, God with us. Hallelujah, Amen.