I Who Speak to you am He!

John 4:1-26

A Samaritan Woman Meets Her Messiah

1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. 4 But He needed to go through Samaria.

5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman of 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 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

11 The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?"

13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."

16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband."
Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly."

19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."

21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things."

26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."

Jesus left Judea for Galilee when the opposition grew from the Pharisees against Him due to Jesus becoming more popular and gaining more followers than John the Baptist.  On the way there the Lord had to travel through Samaria, the former capital of the northern kingdom of Israel which was considered tainted by intermarriage with non-Jews and who had their own temple like in Jerusalem and who had the Law of the scriptures as well.  The Samaritans were not considered to be part of God’s people by Israel which evolved from the southern kingdom and Judah, so when Jesus stopped at Jacob’s well to rest and a local woman came to draw water where He sat and Jesus dared to speak with this woman of a despised land, it demonstrated the compassion of the supreme peacemaker to do so.  It was peace on earth with goodwill to people (Luke 2:14) spoken of at His birth which He came to accomplish.  Since the disciples all had gone into town to do grocery shopping, Jesus asked the woman for a drink because He was thirsty after a long trip in the middle of a hot day.  This began the evangelical dialog.  First of all the Samaritan woman asked how he could even talk with her, let alone ask for a drink because of the animosity of the Jews against Samaritans.  They just did not speak or have any dealings with one another.  Jesus did.  Jesus used that moment to tell her that if she knew whom he was that she would be scrambling to beg a drink from Him instead.  But the Lord was offering “living” water and not just a splash from the well there between them.  The woman was confused how He could offer her any water since He did not have any way to get it out of the well (we assume she had a rope and bucket she had brought with her to forget the water).  She further argued that Jesus was not greater than her ancestor Jacob (Israel) who gave them that well.  Jesus proved He was indeed greater by pointing out that drinking from the ancestral well was dead people’s water while He alone could provide living water as a metaphor for the Spirit of God (Isaiah 12:3, 44:3, Jeremiah 2:13) given in salvation and regeneration with a new heart and the same Law of Samaria and Israel then written on the heart by that life-giving gift and never thirst again (John 6:35).  Indeed, the living water offered by Jesus was a spring of eternal life to quench a thirst for God which He alone offered and was able to draw out and provide to satisfy forever.  Then the woman was more than interested in getting this gift of living water and asked for it from the Lord before her as He offered it to her so she would never have to work to get it herself any longer.  Jesus then asked her to bring her husband with her and He would give it to her as a way to prompt her to confess her sin before receiving His gift of everlasting life.  As Jesus exposed her sin she tried to redirect the conversation to the method of worship instead of confession and repentance being asked for.  Jesus responded how God was looking for true worshipers who would worship the Father in spirit and truth as a necessary condition for humble confession to repentance through faith in His working of grace being offered.  Then the woman remembered the scriptures and confessed that that the long-awaited Messiah would tell His people all things, including what Jesus had been saying to her.  Then the Lord revealed Himself to her by saying plainly, “I who speak to you am He,” as confessing His divine identity as the Christ-Messiah of whom she spoke!  What a conversational explanation of the gospel message given with authority and compassion!  May we point others in this way so they may understand who Jesus is when He says, “I am He” as the word made flesh, God among us bringing hope of salvation and living water to forever satisfy the longing for reconciliation and redemption from sin to spend eternity with Him!