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The present situation of the Samaritan woman finds her living with a man to whom
she is not married; therefore, she is living in sin. To be fair to the woman, she has no
choice but to live with a man -- some man, any man -- because none of the other women
would have had resources to extend to her.
So here we have this Samaritan woman, of sin, approaching the well alone,
encountering Jesus. It is improper for the two of them to be alone together. As a woman
she should not be in a public place unless she is accompanied by other women.
There was an unspoken, yet designated time in the morning when the women would
go to draw water. This was their social time. Yet the Samaritan woman did not join her
sisters. Either she had been ostracized, or she chose not to join them in their
conversations, or she felt too ashamed to face them when she was known to be a sinner.
Whatever the reason, this Samaritan woman should have turned right around when
she saw a strange man at the well. But she did not. She had come for water and water she
would get. After all, she had nothing to lose by approaching the well under scandalous
circumstances. There was no escaping the circumstances of her life; there was only reason
to carry on in spite of them.
So here she is, at the well. Just minding her own business, just trying to get her
water, just trying to balance her station in life as best as possible without adding to her
burdens.
If this Jewish man will be patient, she will leave as soon as possible. Really, she
does not want any trouble, she does not need more trouble in her life. But hers is not a
simple life.
Jesus speaks. He says to her, “Give me a drink.”
She should have known she would not have easily gotten away from the well – had
anything ever been easy in her life? But the Samaritan woman really did not think that a Jew
would speak to her. And she tells him so, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a
woman of Samaria?” In other words, “Don’t you realize with whom you are talking?”
Jesus answers her in a similar tone, “Hey, if you knew my identity, then you would be
asking me for water, living water.”
The Samaritan woman does not understand what Jesus is saying. She looks around
and sees that he has no jar, nothing with which to draw water. How is this Jew going to give
her water?
The Samaritan woman is baffled, so she quizzes Jesus, asking, “Are you greater than
our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well?” She knows that the people are fortunate to have
this well of water. Theirs is a dry land. Water is a precious resource. Who does Jesus
think he is saying he has some better water, especially when he has no container of water
with him!
Jesus tries to explain to the woman. He says, “Every one who drinks of this water
will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst; the water
that I shall give will become in the one who drinks it a spring of water welling up to eternal
life.”
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