Perhaps because of the danger that those baptized by Jesus himself might take pride in or be esteemed for it (cf. 1 Cor. 1:14–15), John adds that “Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples” (John 4:2). Significant for the ensuing narrative are the following details: (1) Jesus goes into Samaria and interacts with Samaritans; (2) Jesus encounters a non-Jewish woman at Jacob’s well; and (3) John notes that Jesus was “wearied . . . from his journey” (v. 6).
The hostility between Jews and Samaritans is famous and is reflected in verse 9: “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” Acts 8 records the progress of the gospel to the Samaritans, and that narrative emphasizes that the Samaritan believers received the baptism of the Spirit only after the Jerusalem apostles arrived and prayed for them (Acts 8:14–17). Luke’s narrative emphasizes that there was to be no Samaritan Christianity, unlike how there had been a Samaritan Judaism. John’s Gospel lays the foundation for unity between Jews and Samaritans in the church by narrating Jesus’ transcending the ancient divide. Jesus was a Jew, but he surprised the Samaritan woman by treating her with dignity (John 4:7–9); he then stayed in Samaria and ministered, and many believed in him (vv. 39–42).
Jesus did not keep himself aloof from the scorned Samaritans. He went to where they were, interacting with them and surprising a despised woman by respecting her and asking her for water to quench his thirst. This presents the reader with a stunning picture of the humility of Jesus: it is humbling to show your need to others, and even more humbling to ask a lowly person to meet that need. The holy Christ begged for water from an adulteress. The creating Word (1:3) communicated his need to a defiled creature.
Jesus’ willingness to reveal his need opened a door of ministry. The need Jesus revealed was real. Jesus did not fake thirst to set this woman up for a conversation he wanted to pursue with her. John records the surprising fact in 4:6 that Jesus was “wearied.” To this point in his Gospel John has presented Jesus in exalted terms:
- “the Word was God” (1:1)
- “the Word became flesh . . . and we have seen his glory” (1:14)
- “the only begotten God . . . has made [the Father] known” (1:18 AT)
- “at Cana . . . [he] manifested his glory” by turning water to wine (2:11)
- he declared he would raise the torn down temple in three days (2:18–21)
- he claimed to be the Son of Man who has ascended and descended (3:13)
- the Baptist announced him as the one “above all. . . . who comes from heaven” (3:31)
Thus this episode in chapter 4 raises profound theological questions. How can Jesus be weary? How can he be weakened by a journey? The only explanation is that the fully-God Jesus is also fully man. John does not explore this theological profundity in theoretical discussion. Instead he depicts the raw humanity of the incarnate Jesus.
John notes in 4:5 that Sychar was “near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph,” and then says in verse 6, “Jacob’s well was there.” Jacob will be mentioned again in verse 12, when the Samaritan woman asks, “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” The scene at the well of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, allows the Samaritan woman to raise the question of whether Jesus is greater than the patriarch who gave his name to God’s people.
This location and question invite comparison between Jesus and Jacob. In Genesis, Jacob journeys to the east (Gen. 29:1) and arrives at a well (vv. 2–5). When Rachel arrives, Jacob is so moved by her that he rolls away the stone and waters her sheep before going to the home of Laban (vv. 6–14) and eventually marrying Rachel (vv. 15–30).
Like Jacob, Jesus has journeyed and arrived at a well, and there he will meet a non-Jewish woman with whom he will discuss marital realities. Unlike Jacob, Jesus has not hoodwinked his father and stolen from his brother. Yet John highlights the location and mentions Jacob and Joseph to show how the past is being reworked in the ministry of Jesus, who is fulfilling patterns and types, reversing Jacob’s failures in the fulfillment of Jacob’s story.
4:7–15 The Living Water. That Jesus and the woman are alone at the well may indicate that this woman who has had five husbands and is now with a sixth man (John 4:18) has come for water at a time when she knows she will not encounter other people. She had no idea she would meet Jesus at the well and is clearly surprised when this Jewish man speaks to her. She was a woman, a Samaritan, and her history with men granted her no esteem in that culture.
Not only does Jesus ask her for a drink (v. 7), he does so in spite of the fact that no one else is present (v. 8; cf. v. 27). Jesus would do what was right, no matter the circumstances, even if the circumstances lent themselves to misinterpretations, suggesting he might be in the wrong (cf. v. 27). So often people see the right they should do, recognize it could be misinterpreted, and allow fear to prevail over courage. One aspect of Jesus’ greatness of character is that fear of man never prevailed over what virtue prompted him to do.
The Samaritan woman communicates her surprise (v. 9), and Jesus’ reply invites her to consider his unmatched stature and significance (v. 10). The words of Jesus declare that he is no ordinary Jewish man who happened to be sitting at a well: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The references to “the gift of God” and “who it is” are no doubt mysterious to the Samaritan woman. She obviously has no idea she is talking to the Son of God whom the Father has given as his love-gift to the world (cf. 3:16; 4:19, 29). John’s audience, however, should connect “the gift of God” to the way God loved the world by giving his only Son (3:16). Moreover, John’s audience knows “who it is” that speaks with this woman: Jesus, the Word made flesh (1:14).
This Jesus offers the woman “living water.” Sometimes the phrase “living water” (often translated as “fresh water” or “spring water” in the OT) refers to potable water necessary to sustain life: “Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water” (Gen. 26:19). At several points in the OT, living water is associated with cleansing from sin:
- Leviticus 14:5: “The priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water.”
- Leviticus 14:50: “. . . shall kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water . . .”
- Numbers 19:17: “For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh water shall be added in a vessel.”
Jeremiah twice refers to Yahweh as “the fountain of living water”:
- Jeremiah 2:13: “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
- Jeremiah 17:13: “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.”
Zechariah 14:8 depicts living water flowing from Jerusalem in the eschatological restoration: “On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem.” And in Song of Solomon 4:15 the king compares the bride to “a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon.”
At a well whose waters are necessary for life, Jesus offers living water, associated with cleansing from sin, to a woman. Moreover, Jesus is God incarnate and is himself the fountain of living water. However, as in both his conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:3–5) and his declaration that he would raise the temple in three days (2:19–21), Jesus has made a figurative and spiritual statement that is taken literally and materially. The Samaritan woman clearly thinks Jesus is talking about literal water from Jacob’s well (4:11).
She then asks whether Jesus is greater than Jacob (v. 12). This question seems to arise from the Samaritan woman’s thinking at the physical level. Jacob gave the well, and Jesus has just offered living water that she appears to interpret as a spring-fed stream, prompting her to question whether he claims to be greater than the great patriarch. Both John’s narrative and Jesus’ answer affirm that he is greater than Jacob. Jesus answers, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (vv. 13–14). If the Samaritan woman drinks the water Jesus gives, she will become like the bride in the Song of Solomon, “a well of living water” (Song 4:15), because the “fountain of living water” (Jer. 2:13; 17:13) flows in her. This is in keeping with Isaiah 58:11, which promises, “The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”
Whoever drinks the water of Jesus will never thirst again, for his water will well up to eternal life. Thus Jesus’ reference to drinking the water he provides is a figurative way of speaking of repentance from sin and trust in Jesus, thereby benefiting from his death and resurrection. The promise of living water means life. Humans cannot live without water. Living water is clean, fresh, flowing; it is not stagnant, stale, or squalid. Living water tastes good and brings refreshing relief that enables renewal of effort with joy and gratitude. This is what Jesus offers. Jesus offers a life-giving cleansing that tastes good, satisfies thirst, and makes those who drink life-givers themselves.
In her reply to Jesus, the Samaritan woman demonstrates that she still thinks Jesus is referring to literal water: “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water” (John 4:15). Jesus did say that those who drank his water would never thirst again, but he was not talking about physical thirst. The woman thinks Jesus can give her some special type of water to make her trips to the well unnecessary.
As good as literal living water is, Jesus offers something better. Jesus offers living water that enables a better life in a body that will not die, a cleansing that no defilement can stain, an ability to give life that no killer can take away.