Jacob's Well

Jesus and His disciples were midway through a long journey from Judea to Galilee. The Savior was very tired and very thirsty. The disciples went into town to buy food while Jesus sat at Jacob’s Well, waiting for someone to come along with a bucket and draw Him some water. Then she came along. The nameless woman at the well. She came during the ‘off peak’ hours, possibly to avoid the shame and ridicule of other women. She was the lowest of the low in the Israelite society. First off she was a Samaritan, which the Jews despised. Secondly, she was a woman, which the culture considered second class. Thirdly, she was a tramp, which the world rejected. She had already married five other men and was currently in an adulterous relationship.

After denying The Christ a cup of water, Jesus says to this women at the well, “If you know the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water (Jn 4:10).” In this one swift statement Jesus identifies her ignorance in who He is, the gift He offers and her need of it. Throughout the next several verses, Jesus reveals who He is (the Messiah), the gift He offers (eternal life) and her need of it (her sin). Then something wonderful and miraculous happens, something only God could do. The tramp believes! Into this glorious celebration, the disciples return from the town. Sadly they missed the divineness of the moment and awkwardly looked at the Jesus and the woman and thought to themselves, “Why (is Jesus) talking with her?” With their condescending stares, the woman gets up and returns to the town.



With the trampy Samaritan woman out of the way, the disciples offer Jesus some of the food that He sent them into town to buy. Jesus rejects their food saying, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” Jesus goes on to rebuke the disciples, telling them that the will of the father is to “harvest the crop for eternal life.” You may wonder as I have, “Why does Jesus speak so harshly to his disciples? They were just offering him the food that He told them to go buy!” Here is why I think Jesus was so righteously angry. The disciples had come and gone from the city with no harvesting, yet the women returned to the city, forgetting her shame and told everyone she could find about Jesus. Then she invited them to come back with her to Jacob’s Well and meet Jesus so that they too might believe. Because of her boldness, many there trusted in Jesus as their Savior. You see, the disciples were not doing the will of the Father, but the tramp was. I confess there are many days I live more like the devout disciples than the transformed tramp.

What about you? Which are you? Are you like the religious person who moves throughout the city, telling no one about Jesus and reaping no harvest at all? Or are you like the tramp? Have you encountered Jesus today? Have you realized the desperation of your need as sinner, the majesty of Jesus identity as Messiah and the grace of Jesus gift as eternal life? Jesus says to us, “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for the harvest.” Go, reap the harvest, live not like the disciples, but like the tramp. Go, reap the harvest, because you are no longer a tramp, but the bride of Christ, precious, perfect and spotless in His blood.