The story of Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4 has always wrecked me in a good way because it is such a powerful story of the grace-love of God revealed in Christ. Jesus went out of his way for her to do the unacceptable. God’s scandalous generosity is like that. Jews didn’t travel through Samaria because of their prejudice towards them, so they would always go around that area when traveling between North and South in Israel. The Samaritans were considered unclean, yet here we find Jesus leading his disciples to the city of Samaria called Sychar, where Jacob’s well was. He arrived at Jacob’s well around noon, which would have been the hottest part of the day of an extremely hot region of Israel. He sent his disciples away to look for food and sat at the well as if he were waiting for someone, and of course, he was. He was waiting for an outcast, a sinner who had totally messed up her life, to offer her a gift from God. After a brief conversation which included Jesus asking this woman for water and her shocked response that as a Jew, he would even speak to her as a Samaritan woman, Jesus said these extraordinary words, “If you knew the GIFT of God, and who it is who says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would’ve given you living water.” Jesus went on to tell her the living he water was offering would result in her never thirsting again (of course, he was speaking about her lifelong shame-filled search for love, self-worth, and happiness) and that the living water in her would become a well of water springing up to an abundant life that would go on forever. Her response, of course, was to ask Jesus to give her that living water so that she would never thirst again or ever have to come all the way to the well again to draw water. Obviously, she didn’t fully understand what Jesus was offering, but she knew it was something good and lasting. The fascinating thing to me, besides the other dozens of fascinating things about this story, is the next thing that Jesus did. He asked her to go call her husband to come join them. She responded by saying that she had no husband, and then Jesus said, “You have well said,’ I have no husband’; you have had five husbands; and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” Why did Jesus ask her got get her husband since he already knew the facts about her life? Also, why didn’t she just tell Jesus the truth when he asked the question? I believe she didn’t tell the truth because she was afraid that if Jesus knew what kind of person she was and what kind of life she had lived, he might withdraw his offer of the living water. I believe that Jesus asked her to call her husband, and then told her that he knew the truth about her life was because he wanted her to understand very clearly that what he was offering was a free gift, that had nothing to do with what she deserved or earned. Remember, that’s how he started off. Jesus said, “If you knew the GIFT of God.” Jesus wanted her to know that he already knew everything about her when he told her he was offering her living water that would change her life forever and that it was a pure grace gift. It had nothing to do with her performance or her past.
Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He came that we would experience the living water of his unconditional love for us and the power of his indestructible life in us, which quenches all thirst forever, spontaneously springing up in us that we might have life more abundant that would go on forever. With His eyes wide open about everything we are and have been, he saves us from all forms of lostness in His life as a free gift.