The Samaritan woman at the well

Short answer

In John 4 Jesus, tired from a journey, asks a Samaritan woman for water at Jacob's well. He offers her living water, shows that He knows her life, teaches that true worship is in spirit and truth, and tells her plainly that He is the Messiah. She tells her town, and many Samaritans believe that He is the Savior of the world.

The story of the Samaritan woman is found only in the Gospel of John (John 4:1–42). John MacArthur notes that its main point is who Jesus is: here He openly says that He is the Messiah. But it also shows His love for a woman whom others despised.

Why Jesus went through Samaria

Jesus was leaving Judea for Galilee.

And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
John 4:4–6 · King James Version (1769)

Jews and Samaritans had been enemies for centuries. MacArthur explains the background: after Assyria conquered the northern kingdom in 722 BC, foreign settlers were brought into the land and mixed with the Israelites who remained. The Samaritans accepted only the five books of Moses and worshipped on Mount Gerizim instead of in Jerusalem. The New Geneva Study Bible adds that many Jews traveling between Galilee and Judea crossed the Jordan twice just to avoid Samaria.

Samaria lay on the direct road, but William MacDonald and MacArthur both see more than geography in the fact that Jesus had to go that way: a woman lived there whom the Father meant Him to meet. Matthew Henry points to the weary traveler sitting by the well as a sign that Jesus was truly a man. The sixth hour was about noon by Jewish reckoning, the hottest part of the day.

Living water

A woman came to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink.

Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
John 4:9–10 · King James Version (1769)

The New Geneva Study Bible explains why she was surprised: Jews would not use a vessel a Samaritan had used, yet Jesus was ready to drink from hers. He answered by turning the conversation to a gift only He could give. Albert Barnes says the gift of God may mean Jesus Himself, given to the world. MacArthur notes that living water is an Old Testament picture: God calls Himself the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13), and the prophets promised cleansing and new life through His Spirit. Henry also understands the living water as the Spirit and His grace.

She took His words literally, as Nicodemus had done in the chapter before. So Jesus explained.

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
John 4:13–14 · King James Version (1769)

Barnes compares the human soul to a traveler in a desert, thirsty for happiness and finding it nowhere. MacDonald makes the same point: every well in this world leaves people thirsty again, but what Christ gives fills the heart and lasts into eternal life.

Jesus shows that He knows her

When she asked for this water, Jesus suddenly changed the subject.

Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
John 4:16–18 · King James Version (1769)

MacDonald explains that before she could receive the gift, she had to face her sin, and Jesus led her to it step by step. He never exposed anyone just to shame them, only to set them free. Commentators do not say exactly why she had five husbands. Barnes lists the possibilities: death, divorce, or leaving without a lawful divorce. The New Geneva Study Bible notes that the text does not say whether she was now living with a man outside marriage or whether her current marriage was not valid.

She recognized that He was a prophet and at once raised the old dispute about where to worship: on Gerizim or in Jerusalem. William MacDonald thinks she was trying to change the subject.

Worship in spirit and truth

Jesus did not ignore her question. He answered it in a way that went deeper than she expected.

Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:21–24 · King James Version (1769)

Barnes explains that the Samaritans had no clear knowledge of the God they worshipped because they rejected the prophets. Henry notes that salvation came from the Jews because the word of salvation reached the nations through them, yet the time was coming when God would be known as Father to believers in every nation. Because God is spirit, says Barnes, He is not tied to any temple: He looks for the worship of the heart, not only of the lips. The New Geneva Study Bible adds that the question of place now falls away.

The woman said that when the Messiah came, He would explain everything. Then Jesus said something He had not yet said so openly to anyone.

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
John 4:25–26 · King James Version (1769)

MacArthur notes that Jesus usually avoided this claim among the Jews, who expected a political Messiah. Henry remarks: “Yet to this woman did our Lord reveal himself more fully than as yet he had done to any of his disciples.”

A whole town comes to Jesus

The disciples returned and were amazed that He was talking with a woman, and a Samaritan at that.

The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
John 4:28–30 · King James Version (1769)

Barnes notes that she left her water jar in her hurry, and draws the lesson that our first business after finding the Savior is to make Him known. MacArthur adds that she went to the very people she had avoided because of her reputation. Meanwhile Jesus told His disciples that doing the Father’s will was His food and that the fields were already ready for harvest (John 4:34–35).

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
John 4:39–42 · King James Version (1769)

Henry sums it up: “Our Saviour, by teaching one poor woman, spread knowledge to a whole town.” Their faith grew from hearing her to hearing Jesus Himself. MacArthur calls the confession that Jesus is the Savior of the world the high point of the story.

What the story means for us

The story shows that Jesus crosses every barrier people build: between nations, between men and women, between the respectable and the rejected. Henry writes that no past sins can keep us from being accepted by Christ if we humble ourselves and believe in Him.

It also shows that only He satisfies the soul’s thirst, and that God looks for worship that is real, not tied to a place or a ritual. And it shows how simple a witness can be. The woman did not know much theology. She only told people what Jesus had done for her and invited them to come and see.