The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
At Jacob's well Jesus lays open the Samaritan woman's past that she has had five husbands and the man she then has is not her husband, reading the secrets of her life that no human eye could see, and she answers with deep reverence that she perceives He is a prophet. The spreading out of her life awakens conviction of sin and stirs her conscience with thoughts of eternity and the judgment when all hidden things shall be revealed, so that she can deny nothing and trembles before Him. Feeling both that He is a superior being and that He is her friend who pities and loves her, she turns from personal matters to religious questions and raises the long-disputed controversy over worship in the mountain versus at Jerusalem, partly to evade the unwelcome subject and silence conviction. Christ thus reveals Himself more distinctly to this humble stranger living in sin than to the learned Jews, showing that His pitying love and grace are not limited by sect or nation but extend beyond Jewish boundaries to Samaritans and outsiders who hunger for truth. She listens and believes His word without seeing miracles, becoming receptive to truth and like a new bottle for the new wine of His kingdom, and she goes to tell her neighbors that He revealed her life, so that many Samaritans come, hear Him, and believe in Him.
Context and Recognition
The words are spoken at Jacob's well at Sychar, where Jesus, tired and thirsty from His journey, asks a Samaritan woman who has come to draw water for a drink, despite the hostility and contempt between Jews and Samaritans. The meeting takes place in rocky hill country where veiled women in robes go up and down stone paths and terraces carrying large upright water jars. It is the commencement of His mission work, and the history is to be read and shared.
Just before, He tells her to call her husband and lays open her past, that she has had five husbands and the man she then has is not her husband. In this He reads the secrets of her life history that human eyes could not see. The spreading out of her life before her awakens conviction of sin, makes her tremble, stirs conscience, and brings thoughts of eternity and the future judgment when all hidden things shall be revealed, so that she can deny nothing.
She perceives with deep reverence that He can read her life and that He is a prophet. His knowledge of her life, His look, and His solemn words convince her that He is a superior being, while she also feels that He is her friend who pities and loves her. She is a stranger living in sin, yet Christ reveals Himself to this humble Samaritan more distinctly than to the learned Jews. Her recognition turns her attention from personal matters to religious questions.
She then partly tries to evade the unwelcome subject and silence conviction by changing the conversation to another subject. She leads Him into the long-disputed controversy over worship in the mountain versus at Jerusalem. She expects that if He is a prophet He can give instruction on it.
Christ's Love and Mission
At the well Jesus sets aside Jewish prejudice and custom to mingle freely with Samaritans, crossing the barrier between the two peoples to accept the hospitality of a despised people. He sleeps under their roofs, eats at their tables food prepared and served by their hands, and teaches in their streets with utmost kindness and courtesy. He draws them by human sympathy, treating them with kindness and courtesy in disregard of Pharisaic custom.
Through such sympathy and social kindliness He recognizes the dignity of humanity, and His words fall with blessed, life-giving power on thirsty souls. They awaken new impulses and open to outcasts of society the possibility of a new life, so that they long to become worthy of His confidence. By divine grace He brings them salvation. His pitying love is not limited by sect or party, nor by race or nation, but extends beyond Jewish boundaries to Sychar and to Gentiles and outsiders who hunger for truth. That extension shows Gentiles were to share with Jews in God's promise through the gospel. His visit to Samaria also prepares His disciples to later carry the gospel to Samaritans, showing them He regards Samaritans with love despite their earlier rejection of Him, so that they will later welcome His messengers.
At the well He offers the living water as the gift of God, speaking positive, authoritative words in perfect harmony with His subject. His words are invitations of mercy and goodness meant to cut away doubt whether God will hear prayer and give mercy, grace, favor, and salvation. He uses the interview to teach freely and offer the water of life. As the world's Redeemer He knows the necessities of every soul and supplies spiritual refreshment when oppressed and languid, received by asking and watching unto prayer. He is the daily bread of life to be eaten every day and the water of life to the parched and fainting soul, the inexhaustible well-spring of truth and fountain of living water since the fall of Adam. He is a living spring in contrast to earth's cisterns that empty and pools that dry, never exhausted however much is drawn and given to others, becoming in the one who drinks a well of water springing up into everlasting life, and as the source of living water He refreshes those brought under His influence.
His work in offering the water of life fulfills the promise in Eden that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, a work He continues until every soul has been tested and tried. He withholds His grace and love from none and has an inexhaustible supply for each, yet in apparently withholding from Him the water He asked, the woman shows how many withhold from Him the recognition, sympathy, and love He hungers and thirsts for in return for His great love. He hungers for the sympathy and love of those He purchased with His own blood, which cannot be safely withheld from Him. He condemns her sinful life and exposes the sin of her way of life to bring her to recognize her sin and her Saviour, while directing her to divine grace as its sure remedy. He does not pass up the opportunity to teach her though she is one person, but uses the opportunity to teach her about His spiritual kingdom. In private conversation at Sychar's well He gives her His richest instruction because He discerns in her an open, receptive mind and a heart ready for truth.
Response and Ministry Pattern
The woman listens to Christ at the well and believes His word without seeing miracles, welcoming the light He offers. She acknowledges Him and comes to trust Him, becoming receptive to the truth and providing a place in her heart for His lessons despite her sinful past. She becomes a new bottle into which He can pour the new wine of His kingdom, as Matthew the publican and the fishermen became new bottles when He called them, while the scribes and Pharisees are like old dried-up skin bottles that cannot hold it.
His earnest words stir her heart, and she goes to tell her neighbors and countrymen about Him and that He revealed her life, carrying the truth she learned to them. Her testimony and report lead many Samaritans to investigate, to come hear Him, and to believe in Him, helping bring them to the Saviour. She responds with admiration after He uses the opportunity to teach her about His spiritual kingdom, and He can teach her freely in that interview and offer her the water of life.
The account shows that fruitful ministry does not depend on the size of a congregation, for Christ taught important truths even to one person and spoke personally to one listener rather than waiting for a crowd. Christ, the source of living water, refreshes those brought under His influence, and His followers must carry that living practical spiritual life within them. Her hearing, and the Samaritans coming out and hearing, show Christ working among the unbelieving who never heard the truth, with hearts without prior light more susceptible to truth and ready to receive light than hearts that have been in the truth and had evidences of God's work yet excuse unbelief. This talk with the Samaritan woman takes place before He tells His disciples to lift up their eyes because the fields are white already for harvest.
At Jacob's well Jesus lays open the Samaritan woman's past that she has had five husbands and the man she then has is not her husband, reading the secrets of her life that no human eye could see, and she answers with deep reverence that she perceives He is a prophet. The spreading out of her life awakens conviction of sin and stirs her conscience with thoughts of eternity and the judgment when all hidden things shall be revealed, so that she can deny nothing and trembles before Him. Feeling both that He is a superior being and that He is her friend who pities and loves her, she turns from personal matters to religious questions and raises the long-disputed controversy over worship in the mountain versus at Jerusalem, partly to evade the unwelcome subject and silence conviction. Christ thus reveals Himself more distinctly to this humble stranger living in sin than to the learned Jews, showing that His pitying love and grace are not limited by sect or nation but extend beyond Jewish boundaries to Samaritans and outsiders who hunger for truth. She listens and believes His word without seeing miracles, becoming receptive to truth and like a new bottle for the new wine of His kingdom, and she goes to tell her neighbors that He revealed her life, so that many Samaritans come, hear Him, and believe in Him.
Context and Recognition
The words are spoken at Jacob's well at Sychar, where Jesus, tired and thirsty from His journey, asks a Samaritan woman who has come to draw water for a drink, despite the hostility and contempt between Jews and Samaritans. The meeting takes place in rocky hill country where veiled women in robes go up and down stone paths and terraces carrying large upright water jars. It is the commencement of His mission work, and the history is to be read and shared.
Just before, He tells her to call her husband and lays open her past, that she has had five husbands and the man she then has is not her husband. In this He reads the secrets of her life history that human eyes could not see. The spreading out of her life before her awakens conviction of sin, makes her tremble, stirs conscience, and brings thoughts of eternity and the future judgment when all hidden things shall be revealed, so that she can deny nothing.
She perceives with deep reverence that He can read her life and that He is a prophet. His knowledge of her life, His look, and His solemn words convince her that He is a superior being, while she also feels that He is her friend who pities and loves her. She is a stranger living in sin, yet Christ reveals Himself to this humble Samaritan more distinctly than to the learned Jews. Her recognition turns her attention from personal matters to religious questions.
She then partly tries to evade the unwelcome subject and silence conviction by changing the conversation to another subject. She leads Him into the long-disputed controversy over worship in the mountain versus at Jerusalem. She expects that if He is a prophet He can give instruction on it.
Christ's Love and Mission
At the well Jesus sets aside Jewish prejudice and custom to mingle freely with Samaritans, crossing the barrier between the two peoples to accept the hospitality of a despised people. He sleeps under their roofs, eats at their tables food prepared and served by their hands, and teaches in their streets with utmost kindness and courtesy. He draws them by human sympathy, treating them with kindness and courtesy in disregard of Pharisaic custom.
Through such sympathy and social kindliness He recognizes the dignity of humanity, and His words fall with blessed, life-giving power on thirsty souls. They awaken new impulses and open to outcasts of society the possibility of a new life, so that they long to become worthy of His confidence. By divine grace He brings them salvation. His pitying love is not limited by sect or party, nor by race or nation, but extends beyond Jewish boundaries to Sychar and to Gentiles and outsiders who hunger for truth. That extension shows Gentiles were to share with Jews in God's promise through the gospel. His visit to Samaria also prepares His disciples to later carry the gospel to Samaritans, showing them He regards Samaritans with love despite their earlier rejection of Him, so that they will later welcome His messengers.
At the well He offers the living water as the gift of God, speaking positive, authoritative words in perfect harmony with His subject. His words are invitations of mercy and goodness meant to cut away doubt whether God will hear prayer and give mercy, grace, favor, and salvation. He uses the interview to teach freely and offer the water of life. As the world's Redeemer He knows the necessities of every soul and supplies spiritual refreshment when oppressed and languid, received by asking and watching unto prayer. He is the daily bread of life to be eaten every day and the water of life to the parched and fainting soul, the inexhaustible well-spring of truth and fountain of living water since the fall of Adam. He is a living spring in contrast to earth's cisterns that empty and pools that dry, never exhausted however much is drawn and given to others, becoming in the one who drinks a well of water springing up into everlasting life, and as the source of living water He refreshes those brought under His influence.
His work in offering the water of life fulfills the promise in Eden that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, a work He continues until every soul has been tested and tried. He withholds His grace and love from none and has an inexhaustible supply for each, yet in apparently withholding from Him the water He asked, the woman shows how many withhold from Him the recognition, sympathy, and love He hungers and thirsts for in return for His great love. He hungers for the sympathy and love of those He purchased with His own blood, which cannot be safely withheld from Him. He condemns her sinful life and exposes the sin of her way of life to bring her to recognize her sin and her Saviour, while directing her to divine grace as its sure remedy. He does not pass up the opportunity to teach her though she is one person, but uses the opportunity to teach her about His spiritual kingdom. In private conversation at Sychar's well He gives her His richest instruction because He discerns in her an open, receptive mind and a heart ready for truth.
Response and Ministry Pattern
The woman listens to Christ at the well and believes His word without seeing miracles, welcoming the light He offers. She acknowledges Him and comes to trust Him, becoming receptive to the truth and providing a place in her heart for His lessons despite her sinful past. She becomes a new bottle into which He can pour the new wine of His kingdom, as Matthew the publican and the fishermen became new bottles when He called them, while the scribes and Pharisees are like old dried-up skin bottles that cannot hold it.
His earnest words stir her heart, and she goes to tell her neighbors and countrymen about Him and that He revealed her life, carrying the truth she learned to them. Her testimony and report lead many Samaritans to investigate, to come hear Him, and to believe in Him, helping bring them to the Saviour. She responds with admiration after He uses the opportunity to teach her about His spiritual kingdom, and He can teach her freely in that interview and offer her the water of life.
The account shows that fruitful ministry does not depend on the size of a congregation, for Christ taught important truths even to one person and spoke personally to one listener rather than waiting for a crowd. Christ, the source of living water, refreshes those brought under His influence, and His followers must carry that living practical spiritual life within them. Her hearing, and the Samaritans coming out and hearing, show Christ working among the unbelieving who never heard the truth, with hearts without prior light more susceptible to truth and ready to receive light than hearts that have been in the truth and had evidences of God's work yet excuse unbelief. This talk with the Samaritan woman takes place before He tells His disciples to lift up their eyes because the fields are white already for harvest.