During the days of Jesus, no Jew would travel through Samaria even if going to Samaria was the shortest route to get somewhere. The Samaritans were half breeds (part Gentile and part Jew), and the Jews treated them with great prejudice. They were considered unclean, and their approach to worshiping Jehovah was considered heretical. In John chapter 4, Jesus led his disciples through Samaria, thus breaking every social and religious rule. You have to remember that Jesus had said about himself that he only did those things he saw the Father doing; therefore, going through Samaria had to be in cooperation with the will of the Father. When he reached Jacob’s well, it was about noon which would’ve been the hottest part of the day, and in that part of Israel, it was likely over 100°. Jesus sent his disciples away to go into the nearby town to buy some food, and I believe that he also sent them away because they weren’t mature enough spiritually to handle what was about to happen. As he waited by the well, a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus stunned her by asking her to give him a drink.
This woman was at the well at noon to draw water because she did not dare come at dawn or dusk when the other women came because, at some point in her life, she could no longer handle all the rejection and murmuring among the other women about her. This was a very religious part of Israel, and she was a social and spiritual outcast, for she had been married five times and was now living in an immoral relationship with another man. She was the great scandal of the entire area, and the only emotionally safe time to take water from the well was in the hottest part of the day when nobody else would be there. Jesus, therefore, timed it perfectly; of course, he always does, doesn’t he? I can only imagine the shame and self-hatred and sense of worthlessness that this woman (history tells us that her name was Photini ) had lived with for years.
As I said earlier, she was stunned when Jesus asked her for a drink, for Jews had no dealings with Samaritans, especially a Samaritan woman. In the course of this story, Jesus offers her living water that would satisfy the deepest needs and desires of her heart, but first, he asks her to give something to him to satisfy his thirst. At the Cross, Jesus cried out “I Thirst,” revealing the thirsting heart of God to heal and make whole fallen and broken humanity, and in receiving His love, he thirsts for us to love him back.
What ministers to me so much about Jesus asking her for water is that regardless of what she felt about herself, Jesus was letting her know of her value in his eyes and her ability to offer him something of worth, satisfying his thirst. Anytime Jesus asks us to give him something, to surrender something up to him, he is affirming that we have value and worth, and we have something of value and worth to offer him. When we surrender something up to Jesus, it is always an expression of love for him that quenches his thirsting heart for us, and in return, he always fills us with a fresh draught of living water. When Jesus asks us to give something to him, it is never because he is disappointed in us. It is always because he values us so much and believes that we have much to offer him that has value. No one can be worthless if they have the ability to quench the thirsting heart of Jesus through simple surrender. There must be something extraordinarily special about you and me.