Today is a very influential story to me, its one of my favorites. I have fell that I'm the women at the well in the past. Always looking to fill up my bucket with the water of life, never being able to get my fill. Until I found Christianity.
If your not familiar of the story it comes from the book of John Chapter 4 verses 4 thru 26.
4 He had to go through Samaria on the way. 5 Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.[a] She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”
10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
11 “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”
13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
15 “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”
16 “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.
17 “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.
Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband— 18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim,[b] where our ancestors worshiped?”
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”
What is so different about the Samaritan women from other women is because she had five husbands and one man on the side that she was living with, which made her a sinner. Most women got up early to go to the well in the morning to get water, also went in the evening to get some. But the women waited till middle of the day so she wouldn't have to face the other women cause of her reputation. The reason why she asked Jesus why he was talking to her because he was a Jew and she was a Samaritan because (*)after the northern kingdom, with its capital at Samaria, fell to the Assyrians ,many Jews were deported to Assyria and foreigners were brought to settle the land help keep the peace [2 Kings 17:24]. The intermarriage between those foreigners and the remaining Jews resulted in a mixed race, impure in the opinion of Jews who lived in the southern kingdom. Thus, the pure Jews hated this mixed race, called Samaritans, because they felt that their fellow Jews who had intermarried had betrayed their people and nation.
Back than the worship place for the Samaritans was Mount Gerizim where they built a temple on top to worship God, but the Jews saw Jerusalem as the holy place to worship God at. Jew's also believed Samaritans were sinners because they didn't believe like they did. Every Jew didn't want to cross through Samaria because they thought they were better and didn't want to touch the same land as them. Another reason she asked because him was because she was in a public during the day, no respectable Jewish man would talk to a women there.
This shows that the good news that Jesus brings is for every person and show's no discrimination towards anyone. When Jesus told her about the living water, she thought he was talking about actually water she could drink. But the living water he was talking about is Gods foundation for life. In life we crave food and water but sometimes we forget to feed our souls. The bible is the living water that we need to satisfy our soul so that we don't need to keep going to the fountain to fill our buckets. When he told her she would not thirst to again, she thought it would make life for her easier, but this isn't that case Christ came to change us on the inside and empower us so that we can take on life's problems from God's perspective. When she asked about where the proper place is to worship God, he makes a point that the place of worship doesn't matter, but the worshippers attitude. Jesus meant when he said Salvation comes through the Jews, was that only through the Jewish Messiah would the whole world find Salvation. God is spirit was meant as he is every where and can worshipped any place. God is not a physical being limited in a place.
We sometimes block out God till he comes to talk to us in different ways, we make excuses for why we are not worthy enough to be his sheep but he shows us in his book they we can find the living water. After we have ran out of excuses and let Jesus into our hearts, and we learn to repent our sin's we live a happier life. We no longer have to keep going back to the well to make ourselves happy. Back to our drugs, our alcohol or our immoral sexual needs. God can keep us full with his words. I pray that you can find your way away from the well and to the living water.
Revelation 22:17
And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!' And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
Do you feel like your the women at the well? If you worship God already do you feel as though your worship is true? Are you blocking Jesus from your heart?
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