The Woman at the Well

"Oh Lord, I thank you that I am neither a Gentile, a dog, or a woman." That was a popular Jewish prayer in Jesus' day.

Now, most of us have not heard that kind of a prayer from the pulpit, and I bet we are all very glad about that. But you know, that does not stop the great deceiver and the father of all lies from playing havoc with our gender, does it? Well, our being a woman is as much a part of God's sovereign plan for our life as the color of our hair and the color of our eyes.


We are no biological blunder. We are no boo-boo. We are a woman by God's divine design, and may we always say "thank you" for that. God doesn't make mistakes, even when it comes to our gender.

Now, I want to take just a moment and I was so touched by Susan's prayer this morning. Because you understand that in the end, dear ones, this is a spiritual battle. This whole idea of our being a woman needs to be recognized as God's authority, His sovereignty, and His purpose in our life.

So let's just take a couple of moments and talk about being a woman. We as women, as all human beings, but women it seems to me somewhat more in particular, are searching for significance. We long to be valued. We long to be loved. We long to be affirmed. We want to know that somebody loves us deeply, madly, passionately, that's just the way we are made.

And we thank God for that because that's exactly how God made us. In the end, it would be because He wants us to desire Him more than anyone else, more than anything else.

Oh, how often we have taken the wrong path in that search for significance. Sometimes we find ourselves making statements just like this, "I'm just a woman, so can God use me?" or "I'm just a mom, so can God use me?" or "I'm just a single person, so can God use me?" or "I'm just a widow, so can God use me?"

When you think about it, are those justifications for our feelings and our inadequacies? Or perhaps we don't know who God is and what He truly desires of us.

The reality is that God loves us as women, as women. He designed us. I have to tell you something, God in His sovereignty has called me many a time to debate the leading feminists of our age, and that's about as much fun as having a root canal, I have to tell you that.

But Jesus said it's the sick that needed Him. Very often these feminists have heard of a Christian, but haven't spent five seconds in the presence of someone who is a new creature in Christ Jesus. So, in the end as Oswald Chambers said, I realize my goal is not to make someone a convert of my opinion, but to make them a convert of Christ Jesus.

And so, unpleasant as it might be, I went as an ambassador for Christ, that is part of our job description as daughters of the Most High King. Amen.

So we need to look at what Jesus did because here is what I want to tell my feminist friends who don't yet know Jesus: Jesus is the great liberator of women. Look at what Jesus did.

If you look at Mark 14, the woman at Simon's house, she broke open this very expensive jar of perfume, she poured it over Jesus' head, and she got yelled at, she got scolded. And you know what Jesus said? Jesus said that her story was going to be told wherever the gospel was preached in memory of her.

And if you go to Luke 7, the widow of Nain, here is her son being carried out of the city gates in a coffin. And what happens? Jesus has profound compassion, understanding the sting of death. And what does He do? He touches the coffin and her son comes back to life.

In John 8 we read about the woman caught in the act of adultery. Do you remember that scene in the movie The Passion of the Christ? Remember how the actress puts her face down on the ground and she just reaches her hand out to barely touch His feet. She's humiliated in her sin.

And Jesus bends down, the Bible says, to write something in the ground. God in His sovereignty did not see fit to tell us what that was. The Parshall interpretation? He was writing down names and addresses, but that's just my interpretation.

So He bends down and writes, but He stands up to the Pharisees. He makes His declaration that he who was without sin should cast the first stone. After He has rebuked this empty religiosity, He turns to this woman and said, "Go and don't live your life of sin anymore." He gave her truth all wrapped up in love.

Jesus always meets us right where we're at. He meets us intimately. He meets us personally. And He meets us as women.

Jesus' attitude and actions toward women reveal He is beyond a shadow of a doubt, someone who liberates us and sets the captive free. He values the unvalued in society. He saw true wealth in people where others saw only poverty. He saw power in humility while others fawned over resplendent leaders.

He gave a fullness to the soul when the world left people hungry and empty. He showed mercy when the crowds called for judgment. He celebrated life when other people planned a funeral. And He celebrated death and first stood as the conqueror of death before a woman. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord, for making me a woman, say that with me. "Thank you, Lord, for making me a woman."

Now, let's be really honest and transparent with each other. Women don't do that so much. We are all about the outward appearances. I mean, we read magazines called Self and Us. We dress for other women. We really don't dress for men, we all know that, right? So we are not so good when it comes to transparency.

But I think because the Lord is in this place and we're sensing His wooing, calling us deeper and more closely to Him, the time has come to take off the phoniness, the costumes of inauthentic Christianity, and to be wholly transparent before a holy God.

So when you think about it, very often we think to ourselves, "Lord, I can't. I have so messed up You couldn't possibly use me." And so we pull back. And the father of lies rattles his tail, and says to us, "How could He possibly use you? Look in the mirror, look at your life, look how you have messed up. You are so covered in sin. How could that great God possibly use you?"

Well, when all else fails, read His instructions. So take a look at some of the women that God has used: Tamar. She was a childless widow who was in a holding pattern waiting to marry a brother of her dead husband. She ends up dressing as a prostitute to entice her father-in-law to create some children to protect herself and obtain a child from her dead husband's lineage. And we think soap operas are interesting?

By the way, is it just me, have you ever been to the book section in Walmart? You look at the secular side and then you look at the religious side. On the secular side, what do you see? Men with long hair and no shirts. Men with long hair no shirts; men with long hair no shirts; men with long hair, no shirts. Then you go to the religious side? Amish, Amish, Amish, Amish, Amish, Amish, Amish, Amish. I digress.

Rahab—here's a woman who lived in the red light district with a mailing address of Jericho. She not only conceals two spies knowing that it could cost her her life, she hangs out a scarlet cord of redemption. And then there's Ruth, a woman with bad blood if you look at it from the perspective of the people of Israel. Moabites need not apply. But God has other plans. She would become grandmother to a king,

And then there is Bathsheba. She commits adultery with Ruth's grandson, King David. But God still uses her. She bears David a son who will build a temple for the one, true living God. Can God use women who make mistakes? You bet He can. Amen.

So think about it. God taught some of His most important lessons for us through women. Consider: When Mary and Martha's brother died, we see Jesus' humanity so beautifully described when we read that Jesus wept. He's moved by their pain, knowing the sorrow that sickness and death brings.

He tells women that He is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Him will not die. He is, He reminds them, the very conqueror of death. Bob started out this morning with a marvelous verse, "Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? He trampled it underfoot and crushed the head of the serpent." As a result of that, you and I have been given the opportunity of eternal life in the presence of the God who loves us unconditionally. Ladies, it doesn't get any better than that.

Consider the Phoenician woman who wanted her daughter healed. The disciples tell Jesus, "Send her away. She just keeps crying out." And this woman falls on her knees before Jesus and she tells the Savior she would even take the crumbs of His blessing. Jesus is so moved by her faith that He heals her daughter.



Consider the woman who spent lots of money and many years trying to heal her bleeding problem. All she does is have to touch His robe and Jesus senses that; Jesus knows that, and she is healed. Why? Why? Because ladies, Jesus is always enough. And it healed her completely.

Well, let's look at one more woman. A woman who made some mistakes by just about anybody's standards, a woman who lived on the fringe of society. A woman who is very, very thirsty, so it really comes as no surprise that we meet her at the well.

I'm going to ask you to do two things. First and foremost, I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles and hold them up in the air. Now, I want you to look around at all those Bibles being held. I want us to take one moment and say, "Thank you, Lord, for letting us live in a nation where we have the liberty to read this Word and to read it out loud."

Then I want us to pray for those who are watching around the globe who don't have that liberty. And yet, we will be spending eternity with them as they, too, accepted what Jesus had to offer. So thank you, Lord, for the liberty to read your Word.

Would you stand with me and open to John chapter 4, please? I'm going to read the first few verses as we read God's Word together.

The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although, in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back one more time to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Would you sit down, please? I want to go to prayer on this. Because for many of us, this is a very familiar passage and you think, "Oh, yawn, I've heard it all." But let me tell you something about this Book. It is vibrant; it is living; it is inerrant; it is transcendent; it is inspired; it is absolute. And every time we dig in this Word, there are more riches to be found.

So let's ask for a fresh anointing as we read this passage. Oh, God, we are on our knees before You this morning, desperately seeking Your face, a fresh touch from You. Lord, we're going to read about a woman whose life got dramatically changed because she had an encounter with Jesus.

Father, truth be told, that's what we all want, a changed life through that same kind of an encounter.

So Lord, as we read Your Word, help us step into the passage, Father. And take Your pen and write truth in the tablets of our heart, and may we be changed forever because we have spent time at Your feet. Talk to us now in the voice that is only Yours. Teach us Your way, Father, and may we never depart from it, in Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.

So here we are in John chapter 4, and there's so, so much. I'm telling you, the Word of God is amazing. It is filled with so much information. If we would just take the time to turn off our Blackberries and get into it, as Nancy was talking about. The Bible takes the time to explain what route Jesus is taking. So there has to be some reason why we are supposed to be told that He had to take a different route.

You realize, unlike Charles Dickens, the writer of Scripture was not paid by the word. Every word in here is for our benefit. It's beneficial.

So if the Holy Spirit wanted us to know specifically that Jesus had to take another route, there's a reason we are supposed to know why Jesus had to take another route. So first, Jesus was headed to Galilee by way of Samaria.

A little history here: Samaria was outside of Herod's jurisdiction. Herod had just arrested John the Baptist. So the Bible said Jesus had to go to Samaria. What? Time. Had to? This is Jesus. Does Jesus have to do anything?

Now, what's interesting is it's not the kind of have to when you say you have to make your bed or you are going to be grounded. It's not that kind of have to. The Greek verb here means "to be necessary." So it was necessary for Jesus to take this other route.

We are going to find out in a moment why that was. Why was it necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria? Well, the Pharisees had been investigating the credentials of John the Baptist, and they were starting to press in. Now they were going to start examining the credentials of Jesus.

So did Jesus have to go to Galilee by way of Samaria to avoid a confrontation? Perhaps.
But if you read His Word, you realize the time was going to come when Jesus would certainly be confronting the Pharisees. So I don't think that was the reason.

To understand why this particular route we need to understand the lay of the land first. I must tell you as an older woman, I love all of these graphics. But I still do it the old fashioned way, with my hand.

So here is the map of Israel. Here is Jerusalem. Here is Judea, here is Samaria, and up there is Galilee. Okay, now you've got your map of Israel, right? This all will be on the test; I do not grade on a curve. Just thought I'd tell you.

Now, the Jews, particularly the Pharisees, the ultra-orthodox, ultra-legalist, shallow religionists of the day, would never ever step foot in Samaria. They would instead go from Jerusalem down a footpath, along the Jordan plane, which today would be modern Jordan, to the east of the Jordan River, come up along the Jordan, cut a path over underneath the Sea of Galilee, and then go up to Galilee this way. So it's anything but a direct route. They did not want to go into Samaria at all.

The direct route was Jesus going from Jerusalem right up to Galilee. And down here is Sychar, this town we are going to land at in a moment. This takes Him past Mount Gerizim, which is not too far from Sychar, and it takes Him right smack dab into Samaritan territory.

What's the problem? In a word—racism. Stinking, rotten, pernicious sin of racism. And it stinks in the nostrils of our God. To say that Jews despised the Samaritans would be a gross understatement. It was an ancient animosity. To the Jews, the Samaritans were half-breeds. It goes back to the result of intermarriage between the Jews and the Samaritans hundreds of years before.

The Samaritans had in fact built their own temple and they didn't worship the temple at Jerusalem. They worshiped it on Mount Garizim. So the Jews considered them to be religious reprobates. Some Jews traced the Samaritans back to Shekem. They think the Samaritan line started out of Shekem. Shekem was the one who raped Dinah, who was the daughter of Jacob and Leah. Are you beginning to see where this hatred is coming from?

Bitter hostility existed between these groups. Rising to the occasion where even Herod decided to do the politically expedient thing. He needed to have cohesion in his kingdom. So what does he do? He marries a Samaritan woman by the name of Malthace to try and create political cohesion, appeasement—to no avail. It didn't do any good at all. So to call a Jew a Samaritan was deemed to be a gross insult. It was a racial slur.

To avoid contamination, Jews wouldn't even go into Samaria. They would avoid it altogether. But not this traveler, not this man, not this Jew. He wasn't fleeing the Pharisees. He wasn't bowing to convention. He wasn't going to give in to phony religiosity, He was on His way to a divine appointment.

Nancy said something so important last night. We are here seeking the face of God, but don't miss what she said when she began her conversation. He sought us first. Does that take your breath away?

It takes my breath away that the God of all creation, the God who hung every one of those stars in the sky last night, who put the earth in just the right spot, who made the sun rise yet again in the east, and it will set in the west, who knows the numbers of hairs on our head, who knew us before we breathed our first outside of our mama, sought us. That takes my breath away; that takes my breath away.

Sychar-interesting town. Significant place geographically because this was land purchased by Jacob, later given to his sons. It's also the place where Joseph's bones would eventually be laid to rest. If you were to come with me to Israel, we could go visit Jacob's well. It's still a tourist spot today. It's about 100 feet deep down; it's about nine feet in diameter. There's a curbed ledge sitting around the top opening of the well where people could sit and rest. It's also where they could put their jars as they were filling them up for water.

See how rich the Scripture is? There's history, there's geography, there's biographies. It's just amazing. There are no rivers in Samaria. Now, you live in an arid desert climate, you're going to need water. No rivers in Samaria. What they had instead was something called wadis. A wadi is like a natural drainage channel.

In the Shenandoah Valley where I'm from, they are dry creeks. When it doesn't rain, they're dust. When it rains, they're filled to overflowing. It's an extremely inconsistent way to get water. So a well, you can see, becomes extremely important to thirsty people.

So the distance for Jesus to travel from that Judean countryside to Sychar would have been a walk of about two days. Think about that. By foot, traveling with His disciples, two days through the desert in sandals, in the heat, in the dust, nonstop, but Jesus was a Messiah on a mission. And He wanted to get to Sychar. He had an appointment to keep. And so Jesus was tired after this walk.

And I want you to know in that passage of Scripture, I take great comfort with that.
 Again, understanding every single word is there for our benefit to teach us something about our King.

God revealed through His Word, and it says, "Jesus, tired as he was from the journey" (v. 6). Ladies, I don't think I'm the only one, but I've got to tell you something. I take great comfort in knowing that Jesus got tired, because I get tired. I get emotionally tired; I get spiritually tired; I get physically tired.

But it is almost, almost close to incomprehension to think of Jesus getting tired. Here's what the Scripture calls the mysterium—this unbelievable, never to be repeated in the annals of human history, connection between one who is holy God and holy human. And He understands the human condition. Think about it.

Jesus leaves the splendor of the throne room of heaven where He was King and Lord and heard hosanna all day long, and praises, and He comes down and puts on sandals and walks in the muck and mire and dust and dirt of the earthly experience and gets thirsty and gets tired. Why? Because the Bible says He's acquainted with all of our sorrows.

He comforts us because He knows the human condition. He weeps at our losses; He grieves at our sorrows. But thank You, Jesus, You didn't leave the story there. Knowing is one thing, doing is an entirely other thing. So Jesus got tired.

Now, what I find interesting is He could have been supernaturally transported, right? He could have gone from Jerusalem up to Sychar. The word is harpazo, just like what happened to Philip when he met the Ethiopian eunuch—he was harpazoed out of there. Jesus could have been harpazoed. But He didn't do it. He walked two days, tired, thirsty. Dear ones, Jesus knows when you get tired, and He certainly does know when you're thirsty.

"And so it was the sixth hour." You take out your Hebrew timepiece and you look at your clock, that puts it around noon. Noon. Now, the weather would have been hot, the sun high, the air dry. And here was Jesus—and I'm not making it up, the Scripture says it—He's thirsty; He's tired; He's been walking for two days.

And He could have said, "I've got some personal needs I need to take care of." But He didn't. Here was Jesus. We see His humanity. He's fully human, fully God, has those human needs to quench a thirst, to rest His weary bones, to catch His breath. And He's about to meet a woman who is much, much more thirsty than He is.

So we read in verses 7 and 8: "When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?'" And then John—John didn't put the parenthesis there, the transcribers of the Scripture put the parenthesis there. But John wanted you to know that He was alone with this woman, so he said, "His disciples had gone into the town to buy food" (v. 8).

He wants you to get the picture. Woman at the well alone. Jesus at the well alone.

His traveling companions are out of that area right now. He's alone at the well. And there's so many things we can unpack in just two short verses of Scripture.

First, don't miss this. Jesus says to the woman, "Will you give me drink of water?" Ladies, Jesus started the conversation. Jesus started the conversation. He knew the rabbinical teachings of the day—"talk not much to womankind," one of the teachings of the day. Here's another one the rabbi said in his day, "He who pays a woman by counting out coins from his hand to hers in order to gaze at her, even if the level of his Torah knowledge and good deeds has reached that of Moses our teacher, he will not escape the punishment of Gehanna."

Hmm, a little serious about this. Jesus knew this.

Okay, she's a woman. But she's not just any woman. She's a Samaritan woman. Let me tell you how serious this is.

During their monthly cycles, the orthodox in Israel still believe this to today, the Jewish women are considered niddah. It's a Hebrew word meaning removed or separated. They were to be avoided by Jewish men, lest the men become contaminated, a niddah. The Jews considered a Samaritan woman a niddah from the moment she was born.

Are you getting how serious this is? From the moment she was born. As a result, the Pharisees instructed that Samaritan women should be strictly avoided and their teaching was this: the daughters of the Samaritans are menstruates from their cradles. Wow.

So Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman knowing the teachings of His day. He starts the conversation; Jesus knows the Law. He knows the Law inside out and upside down. But Jesus doesn't care about conventional wisdom. He doesn't care about cultural stereotypes or phony religiosity. Jesus cares about us. And so He starts the conversation with this woman.

Now, notice the time of day. The Samaritan woman comes to the well at absolutely the hottest point in the day, and she comes alone. She comes alone. She was physically thirsty. She needed to fill her water jar. She needed water like everyone else in the town.

When the women gathered water in those days, they usually came together as a group. This was literally their meeting at the water cooler. It's where they chatted about their lives, where they exchanged the gossip of the town, where they caught up with each other. "Did you know Miriam has a new baby?" They would tell these things at the well.

But not this woman. They were socializing. They were interacting. They were integrated as a community. Not this woman. She was alone.

Now, I want to point out exactly what this would have looked like. I picked this up on one of my trips to Israel. It's a wooden carving made out of olive wood. And this is a typical carving of a woman gathering water. Earthen jars filled with water—very, very, very heavy. In fact, they each held about five gallons of water, and they would have weighed about forty pounds apiece. She would have been carrying forty pounds of water on her head. That's hard work.

Why in the world would you do it in the middle of the day? Why would you do it at the hottest part of the day? Why wouldn't you do it at dusk or dawn? When it's cool and comfortable. When you can meet with the other women, where you could socialize, get caught up on the latest news. Why would you do that? Well, there was that woman, that Samaritan woman, alone. Isolated. On the fringes. But she's about to have a conversation that would change her forever, forever.

And His disciples? They're off buying food, but in a very short period of time, they are about to get a lesson on how to be an evangelist.

Verse 9, "The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?'" Again, John doesn't want you to miss this, so he adds, "(For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)"

You understand the stage that John is setting here? He wants you to know beyond a shadow of a doubt, Jesus starts this conversation. Jesus is alone with the woman at the well; He violates Jewish law; He starts the conversation; and, just in case you forgot the deep racism, Jews don't associate with Samaritans. Distinctive in the Savior. He starts the conversation. He starts the conversation with the woman. He knows she's a Samaritan.

I love the way we're always telling Jesus, like we don't get that He doesn't already know.

So here is my translation. "What? You are asking me for a drink of water? I'm a woman. I'm a non-Jew. I'm a Samaritan, and well, you don't need to know about that part of my life. Look, in your eyes, even my water jar is unclean."

Yep. That would have been her response. Here is what Jesus didn't say. "Oh, you are right, I forgot." Aren't you glad He doesn't say that to us? Oh, how many times have I mere mortal, speck of dust on planet earth have had the gall, the arrogance, the nerve, the chutzpah—we're talking Jews, I'll use it here—the chutzpah to say to Jesus, "You listen . . ." and I fill in the blanks. And I'm so thankful He is slow to anger. Because there are times that if I were the parent, I would have said, "You get a timeout for eternity, go to your room." Jesus doesn't do that. We can't outsmart Jesus, thank You, Lord. We sometimes think we can, but we forget who we are talking about, just like this woman at the well.

Look, she has a bit of an attitude, there's no question. She doesn't really know yet who she is talking to. But Jesus' response is amazing. It's compassionate. It's gracious. And it's profound.

He doesn't respond to her "tude." Rather, He responds to her heart. And that's what He does for every single one of us. He knows; He's listening; and He cares. And He is seeking us.

So verse 10, Jesus answers her. "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

Now, Jesus is offering her, don't miss this, Jesus is offering her the gift of salvation right then and right there without asking her first to get her life in order.

That was a Freudian slip. To get her life in order. But when you think about, it, He didn't ask us, when we came to the cross, to get our life in order first. He said, "Come, come, all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." He didn't say, "Rearrange your burdens and then I'll meet you at the cross." He said, "Come."

So He's offering her that gift. He knows and will soon find out her life is a mess, but He's inviting her to have the thirst in her heart and in her life quenched once and for all. Right then, right now.

Her behavior would only change after her heart would change. There's an important lesson there for us on grace. How quick are we, particularly as women, to judge somebody because they think, "Well, she's a Christian. Why does she act thus and so?"

Well, where is she in her life? Did she just come to faith in Jesus Christ? Does she have some growing up to do? Can we give her some grace while she grows? Thank you, Lord, You are giving me grace while I grow. You might be chewing on meat; she's still having milk.

Give her the grace to grow, and take that part of the women's manifesto, and let's be Titus women. There is already somebody in your life that you can teach. Help her to grow in grace, in the nurture, in the admonition of the Lord by being immersed in His Word and give her grace while she grows.

So often in the Christian life, it's one step forward, two steps back. One step forward, two steps back. And boy we jump on somebody in the two steps back, don't we? I think what we should be doing is cheering when they take one step forward instead.

Here is the point: Jesus loves us with all the mess of our lives.

In a room this size and in people watching this, here is what we know. It's not rocket science; it isn't the gift of prophecy; it's just common sense. There are women in our midst today who have the secret sin of being addicted to pornography.

You came here with a friend; she doesn't know. Maybe your husband doesn't even know. But it's this repulsive, dark sin, and it's an addiction, and it's got a hold on your life, and you can't let go of it. And you are convinced as a result that God can't get rid of it.

Someone in this room is sexually promiscuous. Oh, you've got that Sunday school smile on, but your life doesn't reflect that. Or you've been unfaithful to your mate, maybe not physically yet, but you're there emotionally. And that sin is beginning to drag you down. Or you're a closet alcoholic. You're a functioning alcoholic, but you're an alcoholic nonetheless. Or you've had multiple abortions, and you don't ever want to tell someone. Statistics tell us that most women don't. A lot of post-abortive women don't tell somebody for fifteen to twenty years after the fact. So there's the possibility of all of that and a whole lot more is right here in our midst today.

But you know what Jesus is saying? He's saying, "Give me your heart first. And then I'll give you the power to change your life. Just come to Me first. I am seeking you. You now seek me. And I've got these refreshing, living waters, freely, readily available. Just come and meet Me at the well. Don't let your secret sins keep you from the well."

He knows you; He knows me inside and out. And you know what's amazing? He loves us anyway. With all the mess, all the muck, all the mistakes, all the mire, all the bitterness, the sharp tongue, the attitudinal sins, the behavioral sins, all of the sins, all of which stink in the nostrils of our Most High King, stunk to the point where a price had to be paid.

That's what Jesus did. Paid the price. I'm guilty as charged. And Jesus said, "No, Janet, let Me pay that price for you." It's pretty overwhelming. Pretty overwhelming. I'm guilty as charged, and He said, "No. I'll pay the price." So He takes us where we're at and will gently lead us where we need to go.

Well, this woman, she's got a sharp wit. She also has a sharp tongue. She's been beaten down all of her life; she's been used and abused by men, and she's trying to play games with men all the time. And she's playing a game with this man, too.

So she says in verses 11 and 12, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as also did his sons and his flocks and his herds?"

Now, knowing the well is 100 feet deep, her perception is pretty good. She notes that Jesus doesn't have on His person the typical skin bucket that you would have carried traveling through the desert. Odds are His disciples had it; they went to the town to get food and drink. So they probably had it, so He didn't have an instrument to be able to draw the water. So she thinks she's pretty sharp, pretty discerning. She's thinking, "He can't drink any water; He doesn't have anything to drink it with."

So she also gets a little sarcastic, and she starts challenging Jesus and she says, "Who do You think You are? Are You greater than Jacob, the patriarch?"

And by the way, footnote, nothing in Scripture says that Jacob or his sons actually used this well. That's merely a statement of tradition. But the point here isn't the history;, the point here is Jesus.

He's defying convention. He's moving deeper into the life of a woman who had some pretty dark secrets. She's more thirsty than she can even imagine or knows herself.

So Jesus responds. And He says, "Everyone who drinks this water [referring to the well] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (vv. 13–14).

What a message. What a teacher. How brilliant to be right there at the side of the well and to have all of these marvelous references. But Jesus knew Scripture.

Nancy read a verse last night from the Old Testament referring to being thirsty and the wells and the springs. In all of that, Jesus drew every word of Scripture connected. People say, "Oh, the Scripture contradicts itself." Hardly. It is so contextually bound, you can't see daylight through it. It weaves back and forth and refers again and again, and so He brings this wonderful point to her.

This woman avoids this profound statement that Jesus just made, and she keeps His amazing declaration and His promise of eternal life at arm's length, maybe because that's how she's always learned to survive.

Maybe that's how you have always learned to survive. You came here with your neighbor, because she's your neighbor. You know, you do aerobics together. "I need to come with her to True Woman, so I'm going to go." Or my mother-in-law. "I've got to go, my mother-in-law asked me to go. My husband's going to be ticked off if I don't go with my mother-in-law. So I'm going to go."

It's not about who you came with, it's about who you leave with. And I want you to go home with Jesus.

So she changes the subject. You know, we don't talk around the dinner table about religion and politics. Maybe I'll give you politics, but religion, not so much. I think we should be talking about Jesus whenever we can. Under the leading of the Holy Spirit, Lord give us more opportunities not less to proclaim your truth in the marketplace of ideas.

So she doesn't want anyone to know her true self. Keep it light; don't get into any spiritual discussions here. Besides, a woman likes the idea of not being so thirsty and not having to come back to the well every day to carry all those large pots.

So she says, "Give me this water." She's a pragmatist. Are you kidding? I don't like taking these big ole jugs." Every single day. There's no indoor plumbing, no running water here, picture this. "I have to go to that well every day, I've got to haul those buckets, and I've got to do it in the middle of the day for reasons I'll tell you about in a moment." So she says, yeah, you bet, I'll take this living water. Give it to me now. I'd love to have it." She doesn't even know what she's asking for, but she is about to find out.

Her life is a mess. She is drying up emotionally as well as spiritually. She lives on the edge of society. And the scars in her life have cut to the marrow of her bone. She is not really living at all; she's just existing.

There are women here today who fall into that category. You're not living; you're just existing. You're going through the motions one step after another. One foot in front of the other. But that abundant life that we've been promised, you don't have a point of reference.

That joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart, oh, that song is not on your song list. And yet, just think of what Jesus is telling her. The satisfaction, the wellspring, the promise of eternity. How amazing this message is.

But Jesus, the unconditional lover of our soul, has the most awe-inspiring way of exposing our sin. He does it, dear ones, because He loves us. He's not a cosmic bully.

Oh, the atheists I've heard who've said that. Thank You, God, like David said, for Your precepts, Your statutes, Your laws. They're a protective corral around my heart, and You do that because You love me. And the Law reminds me how much You love me, and when I jump the fence and decide to do things my way and raise my fist toward God, I walk right out into the wolves. And God's heart breaks when the wolves go after us.

We need to see through the eyes of heaven the compassion our Father has for us.

So He's not put off by her effort. He's not put off by her demeanor. He's not put off by her avoidance. He knows her situation; He knows her lifestyle; He knows her deepest longing.

And so, the Great Surgeon takes out His scalpel, and He cuts right to the heart of the matter. Jesus wanted to show her her sin and why she so desperately needs those living waters.

So Jesus says in verse 16, "Go, call your husband, and come back."

"Call, call, call my husband? Wait a minute, wait a minute. We're talking wells; we're talking patriarchs; we're talking utensils. How did my husband get into this situation?"

Now, you can imagine what was going on inside of her own head. It's one of those moments where we can step into the spaces between the words, where at the well we feel the dry air on our face, in the middle of the hottest part of the day. We sense her discomfort as she talks to a total stranger. She hadn't read John 4 yet, okay? It's a total stranger.

They are at the well. This man, this Jew has utterly invaded her world. He's broken a whole bunch of tradition and now, now He's pushed the nuclear button in her life.

"My husband?" Can you hear the screaming going on in her head? "Really? I just wanted to get some water far from the wagging tongues of the town. I wanted to slip in and out with as few people as possible noticing me. And this man, this Jew, asks me about my husband. Of all the things to say, my husband?"

She gets herself under control; she turns and answers Jesus with a half-truth. "I have no husband."

Now, I love what Jesus does and what He doesn't do. He doesn't shame her. He doesn't load her with guilt. He doesn't condemn her. He simply states the truth. Verse 18—and can't you just hear the sound of our Savior's voice?

"You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

He juxtaposed her half-truth with the absolute truth of her situation. Now rabbinical law allowed up to three divorces, believe it or not. She was well beyond that. She was a serial fornicator. Men came and went in and out of her life. She was emotionally thirsty. She drank in every relationship time after time after time, and was left parched and dry after every single relationship.

So what does she do? She changes the subject. She attempts to engage Jesus in an utterly useless spiritual debate. Notice also that she's not so horrified by the question that she grabs her water jars and runs in the opposite direction. After all, this man had just told this woman her life story, and they had just met. So there had to be a little something special about this traveler. Jesus also spoke to her compassionately and with respect, and He had spoken the truth about her situation.

So she was curious but evasive. Verse 19, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

Okay, the Samaritans did build a temple on Mount Gerizim. And sitting on the ledge of Jacob's well, looking at the geography of the place, they probably could have looked up and seen Mount Gerizim right there from the well, perhaps could have even seen the temple ruins when they were sitting. And those who built that temple stood in stark opposition to the work that was done Nehemiah and Ezra. And there was no question that they were idolatrous.

But Jesus addresses her by gently challenging her thinking. Verse 21, "A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem." Why? Because worship isn't a place; worship is a person.

Verse 22, "You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews."

She gets both a history lesson and a theological one. And if I may quickly footnote, don't forget that passage. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in our world today. As followers of Jesus Christ, may we never forget salvation came by way of the Jews.

Verse 23 and 24, "A time is coming . . . when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

True worship is the true measure of true devotion to God. It's the hallmark of a true woman, and God wants us to worship Him in an authentic, genuine, honestly transparent manner. God is seeking worshipers. Will we be one of those worshipers today?

So we knew the woman at the well was physically thirsty. She had come to the well for water. We learned that she was emotionally thirsty. She kept thinking one more man might satisfy, and she left parched.

And now she's shown she is spiritually thirsty as well. She says in verse 25, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

The Samaritans believed the Messiah would be more like Moses, kind of a good teacher. So she thinks, "He's not here. We have to leave the question open-ended. You don't know; I don't know. the Messiah is not here yet."

Wow. And then He utters the most profound words any human being could ever, ever hear. "I who speak to you am he" (v. 26). "I am the great I AM. I am the Messiah. I am the conqueror of death. I am the unconditional lover of your soul. I am the one who's prepared a place for you. I am the one offering you living waters. I am the great, I am."

What a message for this woman to hear! There she was, burdened with sin, hiding in shame, thirsty, unsatisfied. She goes back after her daily chores, dreams on hold, dreading the night to come. She has an encounter with the One who knows exactly who she is, and He loves her nonetheless.

She finds real intimacy in Jesus, for the first time in her life with this man, this Jew, the Messiah. He loves her like no one ever has. She was thirsty, and He offered her living water. And for the first time in her life, her thirst was quenched.

The conversation stops, the disciples show up. You can imagine they were rather dumbfounded. Whoa! He's alone at the well. It's a woman. It's a Samaritan. They're talking. You can imagine, but they knew they better be quiet and pay attention.

His students were watching an evangelist at work and His students were getting the message that the gospel is for all people in all times and in all places. And that was a profound message, the whole truth of the whole gospel to the whole world should be our clarion call in the time God has left for us.

The students were amazed, and the Bible says no one asked a question. That's because they were watching grace at work.


Then something wonderful happens. The woman runs back into town, leaving her water jars, makes a statement that resonates throughout the centuries. "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did" (v. 29).

Here she is, a woman getting water in the middle of the day, living in the shadows, and now she's running back to the very people she's been trying to avoid. She says, "I want to tell you about the one who has told me everything I've ever done."

Open, transparent, free, backpack of sin off, quenched thirst from living waters. And as a result of that, revival breaks out. Her repentance led to revival and later on in this passage, we read where Jesus says, "Look, the fields are white with harvest." Some Bible teachers think the Samaritans were known for wearing white robes. So the white with harvest meant there was a whole boatload of Samaritans coming out to see what she had said. The fields are white with harvest. Revival started with repentance, because she took the living waters from the One who sought her out. It doesn't get any better than that.

So they believed. You know what's amazing, as I wrap this up? This woman is never named. I love it when God does that. You know why? Because I think He's saying to us, "Will you step into that passage?"

Maybe you're that woman at the well. Oh, when I get to heaven, I've got a million questions for a million people, and after I spend a million years on my face before the Lord and I finally raise my head to see Him face-to-face, I'm going to say, "Could you point out the Samaritan woman to me?"

I would like to meet her. We don't know her name, and I think part of that is because God invites us in. Knowing our secret sins, knowing everything we have ever done, and He loves us just the same.

We think we are clever or effective in hiding guilt and shame, but in truth we are all very, very thirsty. We're barely existing, certainly not thriving, but we don't want someone to know. So we go about our daily tasks hoping no one will notice.

We are thirsty physically, so we use food, alcohol to try to comfort us, only to leave us hungry for more. We're thirsty emotionally. We try relationship after relationship after relationship, only to be left parched. And we hunger spiritually, and so we use everything from Oprah to Buddhism to ritualism to try to fill a gap that only He can fill.

So ladies, this morning I want us to step into this story. I want us to let our parched lips be quenched by the living waters that He affords us.

You know what's interesting? Where in this passage do we ever read that Jesus took a drink? He came there thirsty. Do you know what that says about our Savior? He put His needs aside for somebody else. For you and for me. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

I think Satan's most effective tool is constantly whispering in our ears, "You think He loves you?" And you know what? This very day I stand in this circle and I say to Satan, "Go back to hell where you came from. He loves me! Nothing and no one can separate me from the love of Christ."

Ladies, I want us to stand. I want us to stand at the well. I want to remind you that there are circles all through this place, and if you feel the wooing of the Holy Spirit for you to step into that circle. A place where revival can start in our own lives and in our own hearts. I invite you to step into that circle today.

I want you to remember the words of an old hymn that said:

One day I came to Him when I was so thirsty.
I asked for water, my throat was so dry.
He gave me water that I never dreamed of,
But for this water my Lord would die.

He said I thirst, and yet He made the rivers.
He said I thirst, and yet He made the sea.
He said I thirst, said the king of the ages,
In His great thirst He brought water to me.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, You are a glorious King. You are the profound King of all creation. Father, we are so humbled by Your Word. We are so humbled by Your teachings. We are so humbled by Your compassion and Your kindness and Your grace.

Father, we came here today, we put on our makeup, combed our hair, and put a good face on. We came here this morning and were reminded that man looks on the outward appearance, but You look on the heart.

Oh, God, search our hearts. You know the secret sins, we didn't have to pack them in our suitcase; they came along with us. So we ask You today as we sit on the edge of that well that You would touch our hearts and You would touch our life.

We thank You that You sought us. We thank You that You were so interested in satisfying the thirst of this woman that You didn't even stop to drink.

Father, You gave Your life for us, so this morning we want to pour out all of our sins before You. You know what they are. Clean us with that living water, put in our own lives that wellspring. And Father, refresh us, renew us, take away the parched lips of our lives.

Help us to find peace and satisfaction in You. And Father, I fervently pray that if there is a woman in this room today, a woman watching us today, who doesn't yet know You, You the unconditional lover of her soul, Lord I pray that she would really, freely receive just like that woman at the well; that she would know that you know everything she's ever done, and You love her nonetheless.

Father, today may she receive those living waters and be a woman transformed. And may she possibly, just possibly, be used to bring revival.

We pray this in the name of the One who did conquer death and who continues to satisfy our thirst. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.