This passage shows us the humanity of Jesus Christ. He was traveling and became weary, as any human would experience, and soon we will see He is thirsty. It’s is the “sixth hour,” six being the number of humanity (mankind was created on the sixth day). Jesus Christ is entirely God, but He is also fully Man.
John 4:7-9 ESV A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (8) (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) (9) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
What Jesus did shocked the Samaritan woman. Jews avoided contact with Samaritans, and further, in that culture, men were considered superior to women so they would avoid interactions with women outside their family if possible. And this particular woman was an outcast due to her sin.
But in our story in John 4, Jesus not only sits with the woman, but He also enters into a dialogue with her. This is kindness shown and grace given. It shocked her.
You know that Jesus is just like this, right? He comes to those who are the outcasts, the forgotten, those who are “lesser,” those who are despised, forsaken, foolish and weak (see 1 Corinthians 1:27-28). Like this Samaritan woman. Like you and me.
John 4:10 ESV Jesus answered her, “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.”
Question 3. In John 4:10, how does Jesus reveal Himself to this Samaritan woman?
Jesus reveals Himself to the Samaritan woman as the one who could meet her needs and quench her thirst. He is showing her His divinity, as He can not only give her physical water but also “living water.” Jesus here is beginning to speak in spiritual terms, but she is still thinking only in physical terms, so she responded:
John 4:11-12 ESV “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? (12) Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
At this point, this woman is still thinking in physical terms.
John 4:13-14 ESV Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, (14) 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.”
Question 4. What comparison is Jesus making in John 4:13-14?