John 4:4-14

Spend time in prayer and silence with God asking Him to meet with you and speak to you.

Bible Reading

Now He (Jesus) had to go through Samaria. So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and Who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

– John 4:4-14

Devotion

Unlike His interview with Nicodemus, Jesus is now encountering a Samaritan woman with a questionable past. The contrast between Nicodemus and this woman is vast. This shows that Jesus came to save the ultra-religious and the vilest of sinners. We are all in need of God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness! From the story we glean that Jesus intended to be alone at the well at this exact moment in order to interact with this Samaritan woman. Based on her response to Jesus’ request for a drink, we see that she is surprised that He would even talk to her being a Samaritan and a woman. Jews did not associate themselves with Samaritans (they were considered half-breeds) and Jewish men did not communicate with women in public. Jesus breaks through both of these barriers in order to speak to her concerning eternal life.

The Big Question

What do we learn from Jesus’ willingness to cross cultural barriers when it comes to sharing the Good News? This conversation began with water. What type of water did Jesus change the focus to? Like Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman struggled to understand Jesus’ analogy. What kind of water was Jesus talking about? Have you quenched your spiritual thirst from the “Well of Life”, Jesus?