By a chance encounter with Jesus, the Samaritan woman at the well was changed forever.
No one knows the true name of the Woman at the Well. The scriptures tell us that she was a Samaritan. The Jews of that time treated the Samaritan’s like outcasts. They even called them dogs. For Jesus to talk to a woman alone was considered improper. Since she was a Samaritan, it compounded the offense. However, that didn’t keep Jesus from this divine appointment.
The story is told in the book of John, chapter 4. Jesus and the disciples were going from Judea back to Galilee and had to pass through Samaria. When they came to Jacob’s well, Jesus was tired and sat down. The disciples went into the city to get food leaving Jesus alone. While he was there a woman of Samaria came to draw water. When he asked her for a drink, she argued at first that he was a Jew and shouldn’t have anything to do with her.
“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘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 have given you living water.’”
John 4: 10 (NKJV)
The Samaritan woman is confused and asks how living water can be drawn without a cup or jar. Jesus tells her “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4: 13-14 (NKJV)
During their conversation, Jesus tells the woman about the life she has led. The men she has lived with and the current man she is not married to. This woman of Samaria tells Jesus that she knows that the Messiah is coming and He will know all things. Jesus tells her “I who speak to you am He.” John 4:26
When the disciples returned from the city with food, they were confused that the Lord would be talking to this Samaritan woman. The woman leaves and goes back to her home telling everyone that she has met a man that knew everything about her and He must be the Christ.
The important lesson to be learned from the Woman at the Well is that Christ Jesus knows everything about each of us, but loves us enough to give us eternal life. He came to give all people eternal life, including the outcasts and those looked down upon.
