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Ask God: All we need to do is ask God for His help and He is ready to lead and guide us in all we do. He is always ready and waiting.

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Good Evening Reader,

I hope your Easter season is going great. Jesus gave much for us and it our pleasure to do much for Him. Let us praise God for each and every blessing.

May you be filled with Joy this day. This is the day the Lord has made!

All Glory to God.

Elvin

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Jesus meets the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well

Jesus Meets Us Where We Are

Why did Jesus and His disciples intentionally travel through Samaria on their way to Galilee? He did so to reveal Himself as the Messiah to the Samaritans and to demonstrate God’s salvation is for all people—not just the Jews. The story creates a beautiful picture of Jesus’ love for all people, even those considered sinful. It is evident that God wants to expose everyone to the Gospel Way and bring each person into the kingdom of God.

Jesus and His disciples travel through Samaria on their way to Galilee. He encounters a woman of questionable reputation from a town, Sychar, who do not like Jews. Jesus introduces the woman to the Holy Spirit, the Living Water. He tells her that He is the Messiah. She believes and rushes back into Sychar to tell the community about Jesus. The people of the village follow her to the well to meet Jesus. After listening to Jesus, people invite Jesus to stay for a few days, which He does.

Why Did Jesus Travel through Samaria?

All that Jesus did during His public ministry was done for a purpose. He spent many hours in prayer with the Father, discussing the Father’s will. Jesus tells us in the 5th chapter of John that Jesus said, “the Son can do nothing alone. The Son does only what He sees the Father doing, because the Son does whatever the Father does” (John 5:19).

There were at least three routes to travel from Judea to Galilee. The first, the eastern route, is to travel east from Jerusalem, cross the Jordan River, and follow the river north to Galilee. This route bypasses Samaria and takes about 5 days.

The second, the western route, is to travel west toward the Mediterranean Sea and turn north, bypassing Samaria. This route also takes about 5 days.

The shortest route through Samaria is to travel north through the hostile region of Samaria. Very few Jews took this route because the Jews and the Samaritans did not like each other. This route takes about three days.

So, why would Jesus take the route through Samaria and expose Himself and His disciples to the hostility of the Samaritan people? The Scripture says, “Now He had to go through Samaria” (John 4:4). John does not explain why Jesus “had to go through Samaria.” The New King James Version says, “But He needed to go through Samaria.”

This route was discussed with the Father in early morning prayer. Jesus was led by the Father to spread the Good News to the Samaritans. Yes, the Jews and the Samaritans despised each other, but that did not matter to Jesus. He wants to bring all the people into His kingdom, including the Samaritans.

Jesus traveling through Samaria demonstrates to you and me that God does not show favoritism. He desires that all who believe in Jesus and confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord shall be saved.

Jesus Encounters the Samaritan Woman

“So, He arrived at a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the tract of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired as He was from His journey, sat down by the well. It was then about the sixth hour (noon)” (Verses 5 and 6).

Jesus followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit to travel through Samaria. When Jesus started, He may not have known why He felt the need to take this route, but being obedient, He obeyed.

So often, this is the way God works in our lives. He reveals His plan to us one step at a time. We must act on faith. We may not know why we had an experience until we look back at the events unfolding and understand why they happened as they did. Remember, God’s purpose is to fill His kingdom with people who love and glorify Him.

At noon, Jesus and the disciples came to Jacob’s well, and the disciples went into the village to buy food. Jesus stayed at the well to rest. Soon, a Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink. The woman was shocked that a Jewish man would even speak to her, and she remarked about this to Jesus.

Jesus replied, “If you only knew what a wonderful gift God has for you, and who I am, you would ask me for some living water!” (verse 10).

Jesus explained to the woman all she was going to receive: God’s wonderful gift, to know who I am is, and to receive “living water.” Her life would never be the same.

Jesus Explains “Living Water” to the Woman

Jesus must have really confused the woman with His statement. All she could think about was a Jewish man with no bucket or rope is offering her “living water.” She expresses her skepticism.

“But you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this is a very deep well! Where would you get this living water? And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob? How can you offer better water than this which he and his sons and cattle enjoyed?”

Jesus replied that people soon became thirsty again after drinking this water. “But the water I give them,” he said, “becomes a perpetual spring within them, watering them forever with eternal life.”

“Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me some of that water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again and won’t have to make this long trip out here every day” (verses 11-15).

The woman wanted the “living water” but still thought of “living water” as the water in the well. To her, Jesus was talking about physical water, and in her mind, she would never have to go to the well to draw water. But she is thinking about personal benefits. Jesus has her attention.

Jesus Awaken Her Need for Salvation

Jesus has her attention, but she needs a little more convincing to understand who He is. Jesus connects with her by asking about her personal life and her husband. She told Jesus that she was not married. He then explains that she has had five husbands and lives with a man she is not married to. She replies, “Sir, you must be a prophet” (verse 19).

She changed the subject by asking why the Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place to worship? The Samaritans worshipped on Mount Gerizim, as did their ancestors.

Jesus had the perfect answer. He said, ““The time is coming, ma’am when we will no longer be concerned about whether to worship the Father here or in Jerusalem. For it’s not where we worship that counts, but how we worship—is our worship spiritual and real? Do we have the Holy Spirit’s help? For God is Spirit, and we must have his help to worship as we should. The Father wants this kind of worship from us” (verses 21-23).

Jesus Reveals Who He is

Jesus explains that true worship is worshiping in spirit and truth. She acknowledges that she may not know, but the Messiah is coming who will explain everything to them. The woman said, “Well, at least I know that the Messiah will come—the one they call Christ—and when he does, he will explain everything to us” (verse 24).

To this, Jesus reveals Himself to the woman. “Then Jesus told her, ‘I am the Messiah!’” Other translations read, “I who speaks to you am He.”

Was this man the Messiah they had been expecting for centuries? Jesus’ declaration must have blown her mind. She left her jar, ran into the village, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him” (verses 29-30).

Jesus Stays with the Samaritans for Two Days

The people from the village came to see Jesus and believed He was the Messiah. They begged Him to stay in their village, and He did for two days.

“Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe because we have heard Him ourselves, not just because of what you told us. He is indeed the Savior of the world.”

In Summary,

Jesus’ approach to the woman is a beautiful example of how He deals with us. He meets us where we are, in whatever condition we are in, not to condemn but to set us free. He offers “living water” to those who humbly admit their needs.

Even though He knows all about us, He still invites us to come to Him. This is God’s love, pure love and full of grace.

Elvin

Jacob's Well

Ask God For Help

Christian faith

Reader,

Hosea said his people were destroyed for lack of knowledge. Knowledge give believers and non-believers a choice. When a person does not know, they cannot choose.

Feel free to forward this lesson to your friends and family.

Grow in the knowledge of God.

Elvin

Send your comments to elvin.aycock@AskGodForHelp.net and let me know what you think of the lessons.

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