The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
Jesus turned the talk to her own life by bidding her call her husband in order to awaken conviction, and she answered frankly and truly that she had no husband, which He affirmed as well and truly said while laying open her hidden past. Though a stranger, His spreading of her life history before her exposed its concealed facts and aroused her conscience and moral sense until she trembled, believed His words were truth, and recognized Him as a prophet and a superior being. His knowledge and solemn condemnation of her sinful life did not reject or leave her condemned, but showed Him as her pitying friend directing her to divine grace as its sure remedy if she forsook her sins. With a teachable spirit emptied of prejudice she listened and accepted Him without any miracle because she believed His word, becoming a new bottle able to hold the new wine of His kingdom. Her telling others what He had told her of all she had ever done brought a whole city to hear Him, so that she who found the Saviour at once proved a more effective missionary than the disciples and showed that he who drinks the living water becomes a fountain of life to others.
Setting and Exchange
Jesus rested at Jacob's well at Sychar at noontide, faint and weary and hungry and thirsty after a long morning journey from Judea. Cool refreshing water lay near yet inaccessible to Him, for the well was deep and He had no rope nor water-jar, so He waited for someone to come to draw. The woman came to draw water, and He asked her for a drink.
Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies who avoided all social intercourse, the Jews despising the Samaritans, so that a Jew would not borrow from a Samaritan nor receive even bread or water. She raised the controversy that a Jew would ask drink of a Samaritan. In asking rather than offering a favor, with tact born of divine love, He sought the key to her heart, since an offer of kindness might have been rejected but trust awakens trust.
He abruptly changed the subject by telling her to call her husband, turning the talk to her own life to awaken conviction. She answered frankly and truly that she has no husband. He affirmed that she had spoken well and truly. At the same time He laid open her hidden past and spread her life before her, that she had had five husbands and the man she was then with was not her husband.
The conversation offered her the living water and the water of life. It was a private individual interview, opening His richest instruction to a receptive heart. He used the talk, though weary at the well, to reach her with truths about His spiritual kingdom. That conversation marks the commencement of His mission work.
Conviction Grace and Faith
Though a stranger to her, He showed knowledge of her life history and manner of life beyond human sight, affirming that she had spoken well and truly in saying she had no husband while laying open the concealed facts and secrets of her sinful past that she had had five husbands and the man she was then with was not her husband. He thus spread her life before her, and the sight made her tremble with awakened conscience and conviction of sin, arousing her moral nature and sense of higher need as no teaching before had done. That awakening brought her to believe His words are truth and to recognize Him as a prophet and a superior being possessing knowledge no mere man could have. Stung by conviction, she then tried to turn the talk away to the religious difference about worship.
His knowledge of her sins and wrongdoing and His solemn words condemning her sinful life did not mean He rejected her or left her condemned, but showed pity and love as her friend. He directed her to divine grace as its sure and perfect remedy, that God would receive her as His child if she forsook her sins. His pitying love is not limited to any sect or party, nor by race or nation, as His preaching to the Samaritans at Sychar showed in contrast to Jewish intolerance.
She came with a teachable spirit and receptive heart emptied of prejudice, ready to learn, bringing her ideas to the Scriptures rather than bringing the Scriptures to her ideas, and so she knew the doctrine and understood it. Though a sinner she became a new bottle into which He could pour the new wine of His kingdom, unlike the scribes and Pharisees who were like old dried-up skin bottles that could not hold His precious lessons, showing that those who receive His truth are not limited to those who already hold religious authority or established opinions. She listened and accepted Him without miracles at all because she believed His word, showing that where God is working can be discerned without wonderful miracles. Those who have never heard the truth have hearts more susceptible to receive it than those who have been in the truth and had evidences of God's work yet remain in unbelief. Though hated of the Jews, the Samaritans were receiving the light, while the Jews would not recognize Christ when He came with all the power of His majesty and grace in mighty healings and in the mighty outpouring of His Spirit, because the same prejudices reigned in their hearts and even the mightiest miracles could have no effect on them.
Breaking Barriers Bringing Harvest
Though a Jew, He mingled freely with the Samaritans in disregard of Pharisaic customs and Jewish prejudice, treating a despised people with utmost kindness, courtesy and human sympathy. He accepted their hospitality, sleeping under their roofs, eating food prepared and served by their hands and eaten at their tables, and teaching in their streets. By such personal contact His words fell with blessed life-giving power upon thirsty souls, awakening new impulses and opening to outcasts of society the possibility of a new life, because He recognized the dignity of humanity. His work was not to create barriers or to continually condemn people for being wrong, but to draw them by human sympathy to the salvation many Jews rejected, and His visit to Samaria showed His love remained unchanged despite their earlier rejection of Him.
In preaching the gospel to Sychar He began to break down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile and to preach salvation to all mankind. That work revealed in part that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel, showing that among those regarded as unworthy of salvation there were souls hungering for the light of truth. In God's kingdom there are no territorial lines, no caste, no aristocracy, and the message of a Saviour's love must go to all nations. This offering of the water of life fulfilled God's promise that the woman's Seed would bruise the serpent's head, a work Christ continues until every soul has been tested and tried.
His laying open of her past helped her carry the message, for after finding the Saviour she told others that He had told her all she had ever done, and her testimony brought them to Him. She carried the news at once to her countrymen, and a whole city came to hear Him. Many Samaritans thus came to believe in Him as the Christ, the Saviour of the world, through truths about His spiritual kingdom given in a weary wayside conversation that let Him speak freely and give her the water of life.
He had come from Judea where His ministry had produced little fruit, where He had been rejected by priests and rabbis and where even professed disciples had failed to perceive His divine character, yet faint and weary He did not neglect to speak to one woman though she was a stranger, an alien from Israel, living in open sin, and a humble person rather than the learned Jews. He does not wait for congregations to assemble but reasons earnestly with one hearer, more earnestly and eloquently than with kings, councillors or high priests. Lessons given in such a talk reach with far-reaching influence to the earth's remotest bounds, so a worker for Christ should speak as earnestly to few as to many.
She at once found the Saviour and proved a more effective missionary than His own disciples, carrying the light at once to her countrymen while the disciples saw nothing encouraging in Samaria, despised her, looked to a future great work, missed the harvest right around them and failed to recognize Samaria as a field ready for harvest. She represents the working of a practical faith, that every true disciple is born into the kingdom as a missionary, that he who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life and the receiver becomes a giver. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert welling up to refresh all and making those ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life, and the harvest of people ready to receive the gospel is already ripe.
Jesus turned the talk to her own life by bidding her call her husband in order to awaken conviction, and she answered frankly and truly that she had no husband, which He affirmed as well and truly said while laying open her hidden past. Though a stranger, His spreading of her life history before her exposed its concealed facts and aroused her conscience and moral sense until she trembled, believed His words were truth, and recognized Him as a prophet and a superior being. His knowledge and solemn condemnation of her sinful life did not reject or leave her condemned, but showed Him as her pitying friend directing her to divine grace as its sure remedy if she forsook her sins. With a teachable spirit emptied of prejudice she listened and accepted Him without any miracle because she believed His word, becoming a new bottle able to hold the new wine of His kingdom. Her telling others what He had told her of all she had ever done brought a whole city to hear Him, so that she who found the Saviour at once proved a more effective missionary than the disciples and showed that he who drinks the living water becomes a fountain of life to others.
Setting and Exchange
Jesus rested at Jacob's well at Sychar at noontide, faint and weary and hungry and thirsty after a long morning journey from Judea. Cool refreshing water lay near yet inaccessible to Him, for the well was deep and He had no rope nor water-jar, so He waited for someone to come to draw. The woman came to draw water, and He asked her for a drink.
Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies who avoided all social intercourse, the Jews despising the Samaritans, so that a Jew would not borrow from a Samaritan nor receive even bread or water. She raised the controversy that a Jew would ask drink of a Samaritan. In asking rather than offering a favor, with tact born of divine love, He sought the key to her heart, since an offer of kindness might have been rejected but trust awakens trust.
He abruptly changed the subject by telling her to call her husband, turning the talk to her own life to awaken conviction. She answered frankly and truly that she has no husband. He affirmed that she had spoken well and truly. At the same time He laid open her hidden past and spread her life before her, that she had had five husbands and the man she was then with was not her husband.
The conversation offered her the living water and the water of life. It was a private individual interview, opening His richest instruction to a receptive heart. He used the talk, though weary at the well, to reach her with truths about His spiritual kingdom. That conversation marks the commencement of His mission work.
Conviction Grace and Faith
Though a stranger to her, He showed knowledge of her life history and manner of life beyond human sight, affirming that she had spoken well and truly in saying she had no husband while laying open the concealed facts and secrets of her sinful past that she had had five husbands and the man she was then with was not her husband. He thus spread her life before her, and the sight made her tremble with awakened conscience and conviction of sin, arousing her moral nature and sense of higher need as no teaching before had done. That awakening brought her to believe His words are truth and to recognize Him as a prophet and a superior being possessing knowledge no mere man could have. Stung by conviction, she then tried to turn the talk away to the religious difference about worship.
His knowledge of her sins and wrongdoing and His solemn words condemning her sinful life did not mean He rejected her or left her condemned, but showed pity and love as her friend. He directed her to divine grace as its sure and perfect remedy, that God would receive her as His child if she forsook her sins. His pitying love is not limited to any sect or party, nor by race or nation, as His preaching to the Samaritans at Sychar showed in contrast to Jewish intolerance.
She came with a teachable spirit and receptive heart emptied of prejudice, ready to learn, bringing her ideas to the Scriptures rather than bringing the Scriptures to her ideas, and so she knew the doctrine and understood it. Though a sinner she became a new bottle into which He could pour the new wine of His kingdom, unlike the scribes and Pharisees who were like old dried-up skin bottles that could not hold His precious lessons, showing that those who receive His truth are not limited to those who already hold religious authority or established opinions. She listened and accepted Him without miracles at all because she believed His word, showing that where God is working can be discerned without wonderful miracles. Those who have never heard the truth have hearts more susceptible to receive it than those who have been in the truth and had evidences of God's work yet remain in unbelief. Though hated of the Jews, the Samaritans were receiving the light, while the Jews would not recognize Christ when He came with all the power of His majesty and grace in mighty healings and in the mighty outpouring of His Spirit, because the same prejudices reigned in their hearts and even the mightiest miracles could have no effect on them.
Breaking Barriers Bringing Harvest
Though a Jew, He mingled freely with the Samaritans in disregard of Pharisaic customs and Jewish prejudice, treating a despised people with utmost kindness, courtesy and human sympathy. He accepted their hospitality, sleeping under their roofs, eating food prepared and served by their hands and eaten at their tables, and teaching in their streets. By such personal contact His words fell with blessed life-giving power upon thirsty souls, awakening new impulses and opening to outcasts of society the possibility of a new life, because He recognized the dignity of humanity. His work was not to create barriers or to continually condemn people for being wrong, but to draw them by human sympathy to the salvation many Jews rejected, and His visit to Samaria showed His love remained unchanged despite their earlier rejection of Him.
In preaching the gospel to Sychar He began to break down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile and to preach salvation to all mankind. That work revealed in part that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel, showing that among those regarded as unworthy of salvation there were souls hungering for the light of truth. In God's kingdom there are no territorial lines, no caste, no aristocracy, and the message of a Saviour's love must go to all nations. This offering of the water of life fulfilled God's promise that the woman's Seed would bruise the serpent's head, a work Christ continues until every soul has been tested and tried.
His laying open of her past helped her carry the message, for after finding the Saviour she told others that He had told her all she had ever done, and her testimony brought them to Him. She carried the news at once to her countrymen, and a whole city came to hear Him. Many Samaritans thus came to believe in Him as the Christ, the Saviour of the world, through truths about His spiritual kingdom given in a weary wayside conversation that let Him speak freely and give her the water of life.
He had come from Judea where His ministry had produced little fruit, where He had been rejected by priests and rabbis and where even professed disciples had failed to perceive His divine character, yet faint and weary He did not neglect to speak to one woman though she was a stranger, an alien from Israel, living in open sin, and a humble person rather than the learned Jews. He does not wait for congregations to assemble but reasons earnestly with one hearer, more earnestly and eloquently than with kings, councillors or high priests. Lessons given in such a talk reach with far-reaching influence to the earth's remotest bounds, so a worker for Christ should speak as earnestly to few as to many.
She at once found the Saviour and proved a more effective missionary than His own disciples, carrying the light at once to her countrymen while the disciples saw nothing encouraging in Samaria, despised her, looked to a future great work, missed the harvest right around them and failed to recognize Samaria as a field ready for harvest. She represents the working of a practical faith, that every true disciple is born into the kingdom as a missionary, that he who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life and the receiver becomes a giver. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert welling up to refresh all and making those ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life, and the harvest of people ready to receive the gospel is already ripe.