(REFLECTIONS ON John 4:1-30)

As Jesus was passing through Samaria, Scripture tell us that “being wearied from His journey,” Jesus was sitting by Jacob’s well. That Jesus and His disciples passed through Samaria is odd because a typical Jew would have gone around Samaria to go from Judea to Galilee instead of passing through.

This is because the relationship between Jews and Samaritans is one of long-standing ethnic, religious, and social hostility, where Jews generally avoided and rejected Samaritans as impure and heretical. However, this is where Jesus was, and for His part, being weary from the journey, that is where He rested.

And that is where the Samaritan woman came, to draw water from Jacob’s well, which was culturally significant because both Jews and Samaritans traced their ancestry to Jacob (Israel), making it a shared patriarchal heritage site despite their deep division.

However, rather than division, here at Jacob’s well, there would be a connection, a spiritual connection, where the Lord, the Christ, the Messiah, would meet with the Samaritan woman and show that through Him, all division would be broken down and even cultural enemies could be united, and finally worship together in spirit and truth.

Jesus represents the bridge, the One to connect, unite, break down barriers, so that the world through Him can worship together in spirit and truth. It is as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman when she said that the Samaritans, not only the Jews, were also waiting for the Messiah,

26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

He will meet you by the well shows us that the Lord will meet us in a place of division, of conflict, of rivalry, but in that meeting, bring unity, repair broken relationships, and bring peace even between the worst of enemies.

He will meet you by the well reminds us that in Christ, there should be no more me and you, mine and yours, us and them, but only worship together in spirit and truth. There Jesus is waiting, and there we are, going about our daily business, and it is there that heaven and earth will meet, and where the Lord’s living water will be for us to drink in unity.

13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: John 4