Face to Face with Jesus

Face to Face with Jesus
John 4:16-26

In Olivia Lane’s song, Woman at the Well, she sings, “I heard a story from the Bible, When I was just a little girl, About a broken-hearted woman, Who met the Savior of the World.” 

In this poignant story, the Apostle John tells us about an unnamed Samaritan woman coming to collect water at Jacob’s well in Sychar. John is the only gospel writer to tell this story. In our story, John does not tell us why Jesus “has” to go through Samaria (John 4:4), but Jesus knew. He was looking to save a soul, to transform a life forever. The Samaritan woman was not a socialite or an influencer. She was not a prominent woman in Sychar. Due to poor life choices, her reputation truly proceeded her. She came alone to Jacob’s well as an ostracized woman, marked as immoral. Her past was scarred with broken relationships. 

As Jesus waited by the well, during what was most likely the hottest part of the day (the sixth hour, likely around noon), the woman comes to draw water. This interaction all starts in verse six, when Jesus takes the initiative and asks the woman for a drink. The Samaritan woman immediately asks Jesus, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me?” She likely knew all too well no devout Jew would have any interaction with her. But Jesus didn’t follow societal norms. He did not practice political correctness, as we see later in our conversation. But we cannot miss the elephant in the room. Jesus is now offering God’s gift of eternal life to a Gentile woman by offering her living water, and he promised her that if she drank from the fountain/well he was offering her, she would never thirst again (4:14). 

And then Jesus lowers the boom. With the gloves off, he tells her, “Go, call your husband, and come here” (4:16). She answers, “I have no husband.” Jesus assures her in verse 18 that He is well aware of her past. Her failures. Her moral shortcomings. He says, “for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.”

John Piper said this about Jesus’ startling statement to the woman: “If people are spiritually asleep, you have to shock them, startle them, scandalize them, if you want them to hear what you say. Jesus was especially good at this. When he wants to teach us something about worship, he uses a whore. “Go call your husband!” “I don’t have a husband.” “That’s right. But you’ve had five, and the man you sleep with now is not your husband.” She was shocked. We’re shocked. But Jesus simply sits there on the edge of the well with his hands folded, looking at the woman with razors in his eyes ready to teach us about worship.” Pastor John adds, “Worship has to do with real life. It’s not just a mythical interlude in a week of reality.”

At this point in the story, the Samaritan woman knows she is dealing with something supernatural, as she addresses Jesus as a “prophet” (4:19). While Jesus is a Prophet, He is not the kind of prophet this woman is looking for. Jesus makes another prediction in verse 21: “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” Jesus adds that the woman worships what she doesn’t know, but Jesus reminds her that He and the Jews (we) worship what we know: salvation! (4:22). 

Jesus adds that the time is coming, and is now here, when “true worshipers” will worship God the Father in spirit and truth, and that God is seeking these type of people to worship Him. There it is: Jesus’ invitation to this woman, a chance for her to worship God, with all her heart, soul, mind and strength. True worship. Spiritually pure worship. 

Suddenly, the woman’s position changes. She doesn’t address Jesus as prophet again, but says, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things. Jesus’ illustrations about living water and devoted worshipers have sunk deep into her heart. Then, in the key verse of this text, Jesus tells her about His true identity. “Then Jesus told her, I am the Messiah” (4:26, The Living Bible). This Messiah you are looking for, it’s me. You’re looking at Him. In the flesh. I am the Savior of the World, for Jews and Gentiles, sinful Samaritan women, and all who believe. 

God’s grace, in the form of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, found the woman at the well. The woman came to the well with empty water jars and an empty soul. The empty water jars had short-term consequences. Her thirst for well water that day was temporary, but the thirst of her empty soul would have eternal consequences, and she needed more than well water to quench her thirst. She needed living water. Jesus, the Fountain of Living Water, was more than willing to quench her thirst, eternally. God is the supremely good Creator who is able to give us everything we need and everything we want in abundance. He is our one and only source of true satisfaction (Jeremiah 2:11-13).  

And the last thing we absolutely cannot miss. The Samaritan woman does not stay quiet. She becomes a pivotal witness for the Messiah in Sychar. She told the townspeople, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.” And the people came to Jesus. The result: “Many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony.” The people of Sychar didn’t shun Jesus or run Him off. They were spiritually thirsty and hungry and begged Him to stay with them longer, and “He stayed there two days.” The result: “many more believed because of His word.” After they heard Jesus’ preaching and teaching, the people of Sychar proclaimed one of the key truths in all of Scripture: “We know that this (Jesus) is indeed the Savior of the World.”   

Just like the Samaritan woman, when we come to Jesus with temporary thirst and empty water jars, it is with the dirtiness and stain of sin. We have nothing good to offer Him. Even our most righteous acts are like filthy, polluted rags to a holy God (Isaiah 64:6). He didn’t tell the woman, and he doesn’t tell us, to go work on ourselves and when we get ourselves right, to come back to Him for redemption and salvation. No, He meets us right where we are. At the well on a hot afternoon, wearied from our journey. He meets us face to face, and loves us in that spot, but refuses to leave us where we stand. Despite our sins, failures, and shortcomings, and complete spiritual bankruptcy, God wants to love us just like He loved the woman at the well. He also wants our worship to be a true, authentic, spiritual offering. He wants us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

Thankfully for the woman at the well and for us, Jesus is a friend of sinners (Matthew 11:19, Luke 7:34). The Great Physician doesn’t come for the spiritually healthy, but for the sick. Those with poor reputations and shattered dreams. The Messiah did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:31-32). Are your water jars empty? Are you weary from life’s journey? Are you looking for fulfillment of your eternal thirst? Seek the Messiah, the Fountain of Living Waters, the Savior of the world, and the living water only He offers will allow us to never thirst again.