John 4:1- 26 has Jesus and John the Baptizer with the people baptizing them and bringing them into the Kingdom. The “Pharisees were keeping count” – they were keeping score to see who had the most followers and impact so they knew where to try and stop this grass roots faith from growing. Their intent was to make rivals of the two camps – not necessarily Jesus and John themselves – but “turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people”. The Pharisees were all about keeping their power base in place, and they were working to try and destroy what was happening outside their control.
Jesus left and heads back toward Galilee. His trip took him to a Samaritan village where he was “worn out by the trip” and stopped to ask for a drink of water. Seems pretty normal, doesn’t it? The reality though is that Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a drink of water, and Jews were not in the same social circle as the Samaritans. In fact, they avoided each other like the plague. So the lady asked “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink”? This is way out of the norm in her eyes.
Jesus request for a drink opened the door to a conversation about living water. The woman asked how Jesus could provide that given He didn’t even have a bucket to draw with. But Jesus tells her the facts about God’s living water: “Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst–not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life”. That is what He offers us today too. When we believe in Him, when we receive Him as our Savior and Lord, we get water that will never cause us to thirst and provides endless life!
The interaction goes on as she asks for the water and then Jesus tells her facts of her past that validate Him as God’s Son. Jesus gives clarity that it isn’t about our heritage or where we live. “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God”. God cares about our heart and how we engage with Him. God wants “those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship”. He cares about who we are on the inside, not how we appear on the outside. He cares about the way we respond to Jesus!
Arlin Sorensen's Thoughts on Scripture 