Even in the super-connected society that we live in, there are some people that we just pass by and never meet. Sometimes, we miss an encounter that could challenge, teach, or change us.
Jesus, however, was always intentional with the people that he met. One example is in John 4 when he stops and talks with the woman known as “the Woman at the Well.”
In this passage, Jesus is on his way to a place called Galilee. Instead of just continuing on, he chose to go through the town of Samaria, where he stopped beside a well. While he was there, a woman from the town of Samaria came to draw water. Their conversation went like this:
“…Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” …The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”…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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” - John 4:7-15, ESV
4 Ways to Encounter Grace and Truth through John, Chapter 4
1. God understands what we are going through.
He stopped in Samaria at the well because he was “wearied” and thirsty. God in the flesh was exhausted, needed to rest, and needed some water to drink. Not only that, but he had sent his disciples to get food because they were all hungry. This reminds us of Jesus's mortality and humanity (which is incredibly important).
Throughout his whole life and into his crucifixion, we clearly see that Jesus knew pain, loss, weariness, loneliness, grief, and all the other struggles in life. God understands what we are going through more than we can imagine. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that:
"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” - Hebrews 4:15-16, ESV
2. God always initiates the conversation with us.
When he went to Samaria, he went to the well and started talking with the Samaritan woman first. Or to zoom out and see the big picture, God has been relentless to take the first step to call us to himself from the very beginning. Without nothing (including us) would exist. When Adam and Eve sinned and hid from God, he went looking for them. God called to Moses, who had run away from his people many years before. Then, of course, God sent his Son out of the throne room 2,000 years ago to put on human flesh in order to initiate the conversation with lost humanity that we might be saved. I love how Jesus said that he came to “seek and save those who are lost.” (Luke 19:10).
Why does God come to us? Because he loves us, and he knows we cannot get to him because of our sin. In fact, whenever any of us respond to God’s grace by faith and get saved, we can be certain that God has always been there, leading us to Himself.
3. God looks past our situation and sees our need.
This Samaritan woman was somewhat of an outcast. The Jews had no respect for the Samaritans, she was a woman in an often male-dominated culture, she was not wealthy enough to have anyone else go get the water for her, she had a rough past and bad reputation because of failed marriages.
But Jesus looked beyond her broken past and her current state and saw what she really needed: living water. The all-seeing eye of God always looks past what we look like on the outside and sees our hearts. This is great news because only God is able to not only see what we really need, but he is able to provide it! Human nature is to drink the dirty, un-satisfying water from the well of their world instead of the pure, living, satisfying water that God provides.
4. When we encounter God, we receive eternal life.
God stopped by the well that day to have a face-to-face encounter with this woman because he showed up where he would be welcomed. He understood what she had been through. He initiated the conversation. He looked past her situation and saw her need. And then she received what Paul in Romans 6:23 calls the “free gift of God”: eternal life.
How could he offer that to humanity? Because after Jesus died on the cross and was laid in a tomb, he (the Living Water) burst forth from the ground! And this same constant stream of living water will still be flowing throughout eternity. John tells us in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible of the “river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22 [1-2]).
Because Jesus lived and lives again, we can live again - forever.
Just like this Woman at the Well, wherever you are on your journey, God is waiting patiently, looking past your situation, offering you eternal life. All you have to do is receive it. Here is God’s promise to us through the prophet Isaiah:
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!” - Isaiah 55:1
If you want to have an encounter with God, too, pray this prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you for speaking to me today. I believe in Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection. Forgive me for my sin and wash me clean. I receive your living water and eternal life for my soul.
In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Photo Credit: Dalle AI
