The Woman at the Well: The Encounter (1)

    

     People cross our paths every day.  Do we take advantage of those moments to get to know them and share the gospel?  Or, are we too busy considering our own needs to consider others? In John 4, Jesus is sitting at Jacob's well to rest while the disciples go to get food.  While Jesus sat there, a woman came to get water and Jesus took advantage of this encounter.

     It was close to noon when the disciples and Jesus arrived in Sychar.  It had been a weary walk, so Jesus sat by the well.  Usually, there isn't anyone at the well at noon.  It was the custom to come to the well in the mornings and again in the late afternoon to draw water.  However, a woman did come to the well and Jesus asked her for a drink of water. 

     The woman replied, "Why do you ask me for a drink?  You are a Jew and I'm a woman of Samaria.  Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."

     Jesus answered, "If you knew the gift of God, and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water."

    She replied, "Sir, you don't have anything to draw water, and the well is deep.  Where is this living water?"  Are you greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well?"

    Jesus answered her, "Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

    Immediately, the woman asked Jesus, "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw."

     Jesus said, "Go call your husband."

     This is where the woman tells Jesus that she has no husband, and Jesus replies that of course she had no husband but had five and the man she is now with is not her husband.  Maybe, shame flowed through the mind of the woman, because she changes the subject to worship.  This is something where the Samaritans differ from their relatives, the Jews.  Before the disciples returned with Jesus' lunch, Jesus explained to her how to worship and told her that he was the Messiah.  Then when the disciples approached the well, the lady walked away.

     The Samaritan woman rushed to tell the men of Sychar that she had met the Messiah who knew everything about her without her sharing.  Spreading the gospel truth, Jesus used this encounter to plant some seeds of truth.  The truth of faith, everlasting life, and true worship.  This encounter was not wasted, because 'many of the Samaritans believed' because the woman said to them, 'He told me all that I ever did.'  The men came to Jesus and he stayed in Sychar for two days.  Then, in verse 41, 'Many more believed because of his own word.'  Faith came to many because of one encounter with a woman who no one would have approached.

     Think about those who cross our paths each day.  How do we use those moments?  Do we use those brief encounters to share God's love?  Are we making a difference each moment of each day?  

 Note: Scripture from John 4:1-42