Life-Changing Encounters with Jesus

John 4: 1-16

Jesus Talks to the Samaritan Woman

Jesus and His disciples left Judea and went back towards Galilee. They had to go through Samaria, and they came to a town in Samaria called Sychar. Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.

It was about noon, and a Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus’ disciples had gone into the town to buy food, so Jesus had the opportunity to talk to the woman alone. Jesus said to her, “Will you give me some water to drink?”

The Samaritan woman was surprised, and she said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for water?”

Jesus answered 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.”

“Sir”, the woman said, “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 did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Jesus used “living water” as a symbol to represent the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit regenerates, giving us inner satisfaction. The woman wanted to draw water from the well, but Jesus wanted to work the Holy Spirit in her life.

Today, the people on this earth think that they can use external things to satisfy the emptiness and desires of their hearts. These external things could be love, career success, power, fame, status, wealth and so on. However, Jesus had proclaimed that only He could give us true satisfaction and happiness.

We often hear people say that they feel empty today, or that they are not living a fulfilling life. Or that they are confused, not knowing what their purpose in life is. They think that it is because they have not achieved the external things listed above.

They tell themselves that as long as they work hard, one day they will receive all these things and they will be happy and satisfied. In the pursuit of all these things, people are blinded to the fact that the dissatisfaction they feel is due to the hunger of their hearts which only God can satisfy.

Each and every one of us lives for a purpose. Jesus says that we would never be satisfied until and unless He is our purpose.

It is not wrong that people pursue love, career success, health, wealth and so on in order to have a better life. God also wants to bless us with all these things. However, if we think that after receiving these things, we will surely be happy and satisfied, then we are wrong.

When we face obstacles in our pursuit of these things, we will be frustrated or even angry. If we fail, we would be depressed, maybe even not able to forgive ourselves. If we succeed, we would find that the happiness and satisfaction that success bring are but temporary. We are not really happy and satisfied, and maybe we would feel even more empty.

Jesus says that we will only find true happiness and satisfaction that comes from our hearts when we worship Him and let Him be the lord of our lives.

The external things that we pursue are idols. Idols are not real and living gods. Idols do not die for sinners; idols do not redeem mankind. Jesus is the true and living God. He died for sinners and redeemed mankind. Idols disappoint; Jesus satisfies the hunger of our lives.

This Samaritan woman was on the brink of despair. It was easy for her to see the dawn of life in Jesus. She said immediately, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Unexpectedly, this “sir” exposed the sufferings of her private life. Jesus said, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus insisted that she faced the truth, so He said to her, “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.”

Why did Jesus suddenly bring up the woman’s husband? Was Jesus trying to shame her?

Of course not. Jesus wanted to lead her to first understand the problem that she had.

Jesus wanted her to know that, all this while, she had been looking for satisfaction and happiness from a man, and this was wrong. This had caused her to suffer abandonment from men and even lived in sin.

Only by obtaining the “living water” from Jesus could she be saved, giving her life happiness and satisfaction.

Although the woman was very astonished by Jesus’ knowledge of her dark secret, she did not leave that place. She chose to get closer to Jesus, even brought the conversation with Him into the topic of worshipping God.

“Sir”, the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem… The true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth…” (verse 23)

To “worship in the Spirit and in truth” is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, worshipping God with the truth that Jesus has revealed to us.

After listening to Jesus’ words, the woman knew more about Jesus, and she responded, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet (verse 10) …. I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

From seeking for water at the well to seeking for living water, then worshipping God; from calling Jesus a Jew, then “sir”, “prophet”, then Christ, we can see that the woman increased in her knowledge of Jesus and subsequently displayed a leap of faith!

Jesus told the woman confidently, “I, the one speaking to you, I am the Christ that you speak of.” (verse 26)

Jesus’ proclamation challenged the woman’s response. The woman immediately took a fresh step of faith, dropped her water jar and ran back into town (verse 28).

The woman came to the well from far away to draw water. However, her action of dropping the water jar signified that she had left her past, burdens and materialistic pursuits behind. This was because she had received the living water from Jesus.

The thirst of her spirit had been satisfied. Her life had been renewed and experienced a breakthrough.

Conclusion

The Bible tells us that sin is not only murder or some serious crimes. In the case of this Samaritan woman, the cause of sin was the search for happiness and satisfaction through things outside of God: idols.

The sin here was breaking the first of the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

These “idols” could be other humans, or it could be an ideology, or lots of material things such as love, career success, power, fame, status, wealth and so on.

Jesus wants us all to repent and to be aware of what we really thirst after: temporary satisfaction or long-lasting satisfaction through a relationship with God by believing in Jesus.

The Holy Spirit will then work in our lives, transforming and renewing us in order that we may obtain satisfaction and happiness in our lives. This is the everlasting life that Jesus promised us. It will be like a stream of living water flowing out from within, that the environment will also be affected by the power of God’s salvation.

“Idols” do not die for our sins. Only Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and only He is able to save. If we have Jesus, we will also have satisfaction and happiness. If we fail and sin against God some way or other, God will still forgive our sins.

The Samaritan woman’s life was turned around after her meeting with Jesus. She obtained the living water from Jesus, and she left her water jar, ran back to her people in the town and became the first missionary.

In the past, she hid from everyone else, but now she was the one who proclaimed to them, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (verse 29)

The woman became a witness for Christ, telling the people of God’s works in her life. She discarded her water jar, and instead became a vessel of living water, bringing people to Jesus!

Through her testimony, many Samaritans came to Jesus and urged Him to stay with them. They heard His words in person and believed in Him, building a relationship with him (4:32-42).

Only Worship the Lord Jesus and Thirst for Him

Initially, Jesus was the one who was thirsty and asked for a drink from the woman. In the end, He was the one who gave her living water. Jesus is the eternal and holy Son of God; all creation was created through Him. But He emptied Himself, gave up the glories of heaven and was incarnated as a human, being restricted by tiredness and thirst just to give the world living water.

While He was on the cross, just before He died, he cried out, “I am thirsty”! This was not an ordinary thirst. It was a thirst from deep within His soul because He carried the burden of sin of the whole world. The Heavenly Father, the source of the living water, turned His face away from Jesus and abandoned Him on the cross.

Jesus had to experience such a cosmic thirst in order for our thirst to be quenched. He died in order that we may live again. He did it gladly because He loves us. He sacrificed Himself unconditionally for us, freely giving us His grace and salvation.

Let us continuously fix our eyes on the cross and understand the sufferings Jesus had to endure to obtain salvation for us. In this way, may the Holy Spirit convict us to discard all “idols” and worship and love Jesus above all.