John 4:6, commentary and pictures

About noon under the hot sun, worn, hungry and thirsty from a morning journey on foot from Judea toward Galilee through Samaria, Jesus sat to rest alone on Jacob's well near Sychar while His disciples had gone away to buy food. The well was deep and its cool water lay near yet beyond His reach, for He had nothing with which to draw and would not work a miracle to supply His own need. In that weariness He truly shared human weakness and limits, veiling His divinity with humanity to meet the poor, the oppressed and the suffering in their own experience. Yet weary as He was He remained heaven's Commander, the divine Son and Creator who had emptied Himself of glory and throne to become poor that the fallen might be made rich. Faint and thirsty, He did not pass by the work at hand but broke through Jewish prejudice to ask a sinful Samaritan stranger for a drink, and by that meeting opened His richest teaching to one despised soul so that she and many of her town believed.

Setting at Jacob's Well

The well is Jacob's well near Sychar at Shechem, dug by Jacob himself and standing as a landmark at the place chosen for Israel's covenant ceremony. It lies in rural, rocky hill country with sparse vegetation, rough stone walls, terraces, steps and a descending path where robed women come with large upright water jars.

Jesus had come from Judea, where His ministry had met little response, and was journeying toward Galilee through Samaria. That journey had been begun that morning on foot, bringing Him to the well after a long morning's travel. He was weary with labor and travel on the way from Judea to Galilee.

It was about the sixth hour, about noon under the hot sun. His sitting by the well at about the sixth hour comes just before He speaks with the Samaritan woman. His resting there around the sixth hour shows His experience of human weariness after His journey.

Wearied, faint, hungry and thirsty from labor and travel, He sat thus on the well to rest. He rested there alone while His disciples went away to buy food and to find food. It was there, sitting after becoming tired from His journey, that He spoke with the Samaritan woman. Sitting there weary and hungry, His work with her led to a blessing that spread to many in her town.

The well was deep and the cool water was near yet inaccessible to Him and increased His thirst. He had no rope or water jar, no rope or bucket, with which to draw. He therefore depended on a stranger coming to draw for a drink, waiting for someone to come to draw, in the account where a Samaritan woman came to draw water and He asked her for a drink. He refused to work a miracle to satisfy His thirst and would not set aside the ordinary conditions of human life.

Humanity Veiling Divinity

Wearied by His journey He sat at the well in real human weakness, having freely taken humanity upon Himself and accepted its ordinary limits and conditions without setting them aside. He veiled His divinity with humanity and subjected Himself to human frailties, entering fully into the lot of humanity He had voluntarily assumed in order to share the experiences of the poor, the oppressed and the suffering. Worn with labor and travel, hungry and thirsty, He would not work a miracle to satisfy His thirst, though the cool water lay near yet inaccessible to Him without rope or jar. His tasting of human weakness, sorrows and temptations fitted Him to plead for humanity as its representative and Intercessor.

Even in that weariness He was heaven's Commander, the divine Son, the Majesty of Heaven and Creator of every good and perfect gift. His divinity remained joined to God's throne on behalf of those He came to save. In redeeming the world He gave Himself as a living sacrifice, emptied Himself of high prerogatives, left glory and throne and command, and became poor that through His poverty the fallen might be made rich.

Physical weariness itself is not harmful, and His weariness proves He knows the necessities of every oppressed and languid soul. He supplies spiritual refreshment, for He is the daily bread of life to be eaten daily and the water of life to the parched soul, the inexhaustible wellspring of truth and fountain of living water since the fall of Adam. His weariness also bore a deeper sorrow as He sought to dispel the world's moral darkness and ignorance, grieved that men did not know or value Him and the light He brought. It revealed His hunger and thirst for recognition, sympathy and love in return for His great love, which many withhold as the woman at first withheld water, at the peril of their souls.

Unlike the well's water, which leaves the drinker thirsty again, the water He gives satisfies the cravings of mind and heart and brings the joy and hope of the gospel and everlasting life. At the well He carried forward the Eden promise that the Seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head, a work He continues until every soul has been tested and tried. The fountain of living water was within Him, refreshing those who came under His influence, and its supply is never exhausted no matter how much is drawn and given to others. His example teaches that His followers may become weary but should not give up, faint or be discouraged, because rest and peace are found in Him.

Ministry to the Samaritans

Though a Jew, He deliberately crossed Jewish social and religious barriers in Samaria, mingling freely with the Samaritans and setting at naught the Pharisaic customs of His nation and its prejudice. His work was not to create separating barriers or to constantly thrust upon people that they were wrong, but He accepted the hospitality of this despised people, slept with them under their roofs, ate with them at their tables partaking of food prepared and served by their hands, and taught in their streets. He treated them with the utmost kindness and courtesy, with sympathy and social kindliness that recognized the dignity of humanity. While He drew their hearts to Him by the tie of human sympathy, His divine grace brought to them the salvation which the Jews rejected, and His words fell with blessed, life-giving power on thirsty souls, awakening new impulses and opening to outcasts of society the possibility of a new life.

His willingness to preach at Sychar showed He did not share Jewish intolerance, and that His grace and salvation are not limited by race or nation or by the division between Jews and Samaritans. It showed that people regarded as unworthy could hunger for truth. Though rejected by Samaritans, His love for them remained unchanged, and this prepared His disciples to carry the gospel to them.

Faint and weary from a ministry in Judea that had met little response, He did not pass up the chance to work when the Samaritan woman, a stranger to Israel living in open sin, came to draw water and He asked her for a drink. Even in His weariness He used the meeting to teach spiritual truths about His spiritual kingdom, for the fountain of living water was within Him refreshing those who came under His influence. He opened His richest teaching personally to one despised person because He discerned her receptive heart. Through that conversation the woman found the Saviour, and by her report brought her countrymen to hear Him, so that the blessing spread to her town and many Samaritans came, heard and believed. Hungry as well as weary as He sat there, His work with her led to that wider blessing.

The incident reveals how Christ works, for though the learned Jews did not receive Him, He revealed Himself more plainly to the humble Samaritan woman. It shows how His followers are to sow and reap by bringing the gospel to people waiting for light, and by traveling from place to place to help suffering and needy people even when weary.