Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so, Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
John 4:1-10, ESV
There were so many reasons that
Jesus shouldn't have stopped...
shouldn't have stayed....
shouldn't have spoken to her.
She was woman. He was a man.
She came in the heat of the day instead of with the women of the village during the cool of the morning. This tells us - she was either unwelcome by them or she had something to hide. Even among her people, she was an outsider.
Married multiple times and now living with a man who was not her husband - everything about her screamed "broken,"... "lost,"... "desperate."
And, not only that... she was a Samaritan.
Jesus' people - the Jews - did not associate with Samaritans.
They looked down upon them.
They spoke very low of them.
To drink from the same cup or eat from the same bowl would not have been done.
To touch them would have been seen as a "defilement."
There were so many reasons that
Jesus shouldn't have stopped...
shouldn't have stayed....
shouldn't have spoken to her.
AND YET HE DID.
Because it was never about a drink from that Samaritan well for a thirsty Jesus.
It was always about a drink from THE one, true Well for a thirsty Samaritan woman.
It was always about HER.
He was there for HER.
Stepping passed what was expected, allowed, approved...tradition.
Tearing through racial divisions and every reason why He shouldn't -
He stopped.
He stayed.
He spoke to her.
And because of it -
Because He stopped...He stayed...and He spoke...
The woman who had come to the well alone returned to her village and brought them back to meet Him.
In John 7:37, Jesus says, "Anyone who is thirsty, come to me and drink..."
ANYONE.
Let that word sink into our soul.
ANYONE.
"But you don't know what I've done..."
ANYONE.
"But I've done so many things wrong..."
ANYONE.
"But if you really knew me, you'd see how unworthy I am..."
ANYONE.
"But I'm a..."
ANYONE.
Wherever you are, whatever you've done - the invitation still stands.
If you are thirsty...you can come to Jesus.
And in Him, you will find what you have been searching for all along.
The kind of love and joy and peace and LIFE that made the Samaritan woman run to tell everyone what she had found.
The kind that beckoned them to believe.
The kind that saved not just a woman - but a village.
If you long for what she found in Jesus - message me: nicolemhoman@gmail.com. I'd love to pray with you and share with you some ways to begin getting to know this incredible Jesus.
And if you have already experienced what she did so many years ago at that well, TELL SOMEBODY. Today at church, we sang this beautiful lyric: "The enemy thought He had me, but Jesus said you are mine." And it reminded me of all the ways Jesus has pursued me over the years - how many times He has stopped, stayed, and spoke to ME ... even when I could have made lists of reasons why He shouldn't have. God is SO good! Like the Samaritan women, go to your "village" and tell somebody how He's changed your life.
For anyone who is thirsty...
THERE IS A WELL.
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