She waited until it was mid-day, when no one else would be at the well. She was tired of answering the embarrassing question: How about your husband? Even though she now lives with another man, she does not consider him her husband. She was surprised this afternoon to meet someone at the well. She didn’t wish for another conversation that will call up her guilt and shame. She quickly drew from the well, and was about to go when this gentle looking man asked her for a drink. Wanting to dismiss Him, she said rudely: “… I am a Samaritan woman”. That should be enough to put any Jew away, because Jews don’t associate with Samaritans.
But this one was different. The fact that He even asked for a drink got the woman thinking. To prove He was indeed different, He said to her: “You don’t know what God can give you. And you don’t know who I am, the one who asked you for a drink. If you knew, you would have asked me, and I would have given you living water” John 4:10. She taunted him: “you don’t have anything to draw with, the well is deep”, “and besides, who do you think you are?” she must have asked in her heart. Then she voiced out: “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” Her question revealed something of her religious inclination. By calling Jacob her father, she was trying to tell Jesus that they (the Samaritans) are not illegitimate as the Jews see them. She also wanted to let Him know that she too has a rich spiritual heritage. She pointed to the mountains where their fathers go up to pray (John 4:20), and where most probably, she also goes to pray.
From the discussion, we could see that this woman was a very religious person. I can infer that she may have fetched that water for some religious purpose, considering how she venerated the well, the stress she took to draw from such a deep well, and how she jealously guarded the water (she would not give even a cup to Jesus). Jesus busted whatever satisfaction (spiritual or physical) she thought she would gain from drinking that water when He said: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again” (John 4:13). She took it for a joke, and replied: “Give me this water. Then I will never be thirsty again and won’t have to come back here to get more water”. Jesus told her “Go get your husband and come”. He had just step into her ‘no -go-area’. She didn’t want further talks in that direction, she simply replied: “I have no husband”. Jesus said to her, “you are right to say you have no husband. That’s because, although you have had five husbands, the man you live with now is not your husband” (John 4:18). The woman was shocked. This was a thing she has kept secret for so long. She has covered it up with religious observance, and carefully avoided talking about it. “How come this man knew? He must be a prophet” She thought to herself. But this is a no-go-area. She diverted the talk to something more religious, as if to convince Jesus; “I am not that bad, I even go to the mountains to pray. I have a relationship with God” But Jesus blatantly told her “You worship what you don’t know” (John 4:22). In other words, “yours is an empty religion”
Are you sure you are not like this woman? You may be going to church every day, but you don’t know what you are worshipping. You have a lot of secrets you are covering up with religion. Like this woman you do not have true satisfaction, even though you had such rich religious heritage (your parents may even be ministers of the gospel). Jesus said to her: “The time is coming, and is in fact now, when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). In other words, “now is the time to get real with God, from the very depth of your heart. No more hiding in ignorance and hypocrisy”. The scripture says: “[God] desires truth in the inward parts” (Ps.51:6). Are you ready to sincerely pursue after God from the inner most part of your being? Are you ready to be honest with God? Are you tired of the secret defeat, the inner struggles, guilt and shame? Jesus wants to give you the living water. You will find the true satisfaction that empty religion, relationship with the opposite sex, and wealth couldn’t give. He said: “whoever (and that include you) drinks of the water I give shall never thirst…” John 4:14
Would you have this water? There is only one thing you must do. “Go and call your husband”. This simply means it’s time to say the truth. It’s time to give up all self-deceit, and hypocrisy you have been living in, and open up to Jesus. Here was a woman who have had five husbands, yet she had no husband. She was just a prostitute. When she saw that there was nothing to hide anymore, and that her religious fig-leaves (See Gen.3:7) could no longer cover her, she left her water pot. That water pot represents all her empty religion. She left it all. And indeed, she needed it no more, because the fountain of living waters have been opened to her. She went into the village, and proclaimed: “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside out, could this be the Christ”? (Jn.4:21). He knew her, yet he never condemned her, rather He told her: “I am He (the Messiah, the only one that can save you from your sin)”. Do you want to experience newness of life? Drop that water pot, and come to the fountain of living water. Come to Jesus. Open up to Him, and seek him with a broken and a humble heart.
