An analysis of the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well reveals Jesus’s Messiahship, it unveils His primary mission and purpose, and it also provides fundamental truths about worship, salvation, and the gift of eternal life, all of which are found only in and through Jesus Christ. Even more profound is how and why these truths were passed on to a woman, considered an outcast among her own people. It was through this divine encounter, Jesus overcame immense racial and cultural barriers, demonstrating a clear personification of the love He had for all people. It also opened the door to share the gospel with the Samaritans, leading to the salvation of many, and revealing the Messianic status of Jesus to a multitude of people.

GOSPEL OF JOHN OVERVIEW

Andreas Köstenberger demonstrates, “At the very outset, John’s Gospel claims to represent apostolic eyewitness testimony regarding Jesus’s earthly ministry,”[1] yet only eight percent of John’s Gospel is found in the Synoptic counterparts. The differences between the Synoptic Gospels and John’s Gospel are overwhelming, but perhaps the biggest difference is John’s interest in drawing out the theological implications of Jesus’s ministry and proving He was the Messiah. T. C. Smith demonstrates, “The author of the Fourth Gospel used the term Christ as a title for Jesus with two exceptions,[2] both referring to the name of Jesus similar to the way Paul used the expression Christ… and perhaps this is why he gives such a noticeable place for questions concerning Messiahship.”[3] John the Baptist’s denial that he was the Messiah further evidences this.[4] However, in contrast, Andrew ran to tell his brother Simon Peter/Cephas that he had discovered the Messiah.[5] Again, this revelation is seen after the encounter with the woman of Samaria, as she went to the people in her village, saying, “Is not this the Christ.”[6] Given proper context, it is important to understand that claiming to be the Messiah was punishable by excommunication or worse by the Jewish rulers, so this declaration was not taken lightly, however the people of the time anxiously awaited the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy[7] and Jewish officials would regularly ask Jesus if He was the promised Messiah.[8]

Two further points are important to note: first, the Samaritans did in fact believe in the future coming of the Messiah prophesied about and secondly, the poor relations between Jews and Samarians cannot be understated. The animosity dates back to the fall of the northern kingdom to the Assyrians. As a result, many Jews were taken off in bondage to Assyria, and outsiders were then brought in to tend the land and help keep the peace.[9] As a result, the intermarriage between the outsiders and the remaining Jews create a mixed race, an abomination in the eyes of Jews who still lived in the southern kingdom. The pure-blooded Jews hated this mixed race and considered them less than dogs, because they believed those who had intermarried betrayed God, their people, and the nation of Israel.[10]

Purpose of Signs

John’s use of signs highlighted the divinity and high Christology of Jesus and John 20:30-31 reveals the purpose of his Gospel: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” Unfortunately, the unbelief of the people was tragic as John writes, “Though He had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in Him.”[11] Despite seeing miracle after miracle, the people were still spiritually blind, causing God to harden the hearts of the people who chose not to believe Jesus had come to save the world and restore Israel. Despite changing water into wine,[12] clearing the temple,[13] healing the nobleman’s son,[14] healing the lame man,[15] feeding the multitude,[16] healing the blind man,[17] and raising Lazarus from the dead,[18] the Jewish people and leadership rejected Israel’s Messiah and perpetrated His death. However, John’s recording of two drastically different encounters provides a clear lens to illuminate the Messianic status and mission of Jesus.

Purpose of Encounters

Chapters three and four in the Gospel of John record two very different encounters with Jesus. In chapter three, Jesus meets with Nicodemus, and in chapter four He speaks with a Samaritan Woman. Köstenberger explains and contrasts these encounters by pointing out that, “He was a Jew, she a Samaritan; he a respected member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, she ostracized from society to the extent that she must draw water at the communal well in the heat of the noon hour when no one else would be there; he a rabbi, a Jewish religious teacher, she steeped in folklore and ignorant about religion; he a man, she a woman.”[19] Despite the vast differences, it is Nicodemus, the respected Jewish leader who fails to grasp Jesus’s words. Jesus was emphasizing the need for spiritual rebirth and regeneration, which only came through being born again/from above. Following the light and darkness theme John uses throughout his Gospel, he places this first encounter late at night, and then reveals how it ends only in doubt and misunderstanding. It is evident this encounter had no immediate impact on Nicodemus or any of his friends. During dealings with the Pharisees and Jews, Jesus would often speak in veiled terms, but during the second encounter, Jesus chooses to provide one of the clearest statements of His true identity to the Samaritan woman.[20]

The second encounter took place during the middle of the day and as Thomas Lea illustrates, “shows Jesus exhausted after His long journey,”[21] which highlights the humanity of Jesus. Then, immediately after Jesus reveals His true identity and purpose, the Samaritan woman goes back to her village to share her testimony, which led to the Samaritans receiving the Messiah as the Savior of the world.[22] Despite her past and present sin, it was she who saw Jesus with unveiled eyes as the Messiah. It is interesting to note, since both the Jews and the Samaritans awaited the coming Messiah, what stands these two encounters apart was the Samaritans were not looking for the coming Messiah to be a politician or military leader. This allowed Jesus to reveal His true identity as the “I Am” to the Samaritans.

The Interview with the Samaritan Woman

The most direct route from Judea to Galilee went through Samaria, but strict Jews, like the Pharisees, avoided Samaritan territory as often as possible. However, even though most Jews and Samaritans did not get along, Galilean Jews still would travel through Samaria rather than taking the longer route through Perea. In this account, John writes that Jesus “must” or “had to” travel through Samaria, which as Leon Morris illustrates shows, “The necessity lay in the nature of the mission of Jesus. John often uses the word ‘must’ of this mission.[23] The expression points to a compelling divine necessity. Jesus had come as ‘the light of the world.’[24] It was imperative that this light shine to others than Jews.”[25] Although Jesus initially focused His ministry on the nation of Israel, He did not exclude Gentiles. In fact, Jesus revealed Himself as the Messiah to this Samaritan woman very early in His ministry. Thomas Smythe demonstrates, “For a Jew to speak socially with a Samaritan would have been considered scandalous during Jesus’s day. The fact that this Samaritan was ‘immoral’ and a woman further strained the boundaries of acceptable mores.”[26] Frank E. Gaebelein further explains some other key details in this account, “the well of Jacob was located at the foot of Mount Gerizim, which was the center of Samaritan worship and the ‘sixth hour’ would probably have been about noon, which was an unusual time for women to come to a village well for water, so in consideration of her general character, the other women may have shunned her.”[27] Theologically, it is also important to note the Samaritans only regarded the Pentateuch as being divinely inspired and authoritative. Despite this fact, it was still a Samaritan who recognized Jesus as the prophesied Messiah.

All people are valuable to God

Ben Witherington III explains the customs of this time period insisted that, “Jewish men should speak little or not at all with women, especially strange women, in public places. This was all the more so in regard to women of ‘ill repute,’ [especially] Samaritan women who were regarded by rabbis as ‘menstruants from the womb’, i.e., unclean, untouchable, outcasts.”[28] Despite any customs, Jesus had left Judea out of a necessity to share His mission with Samaria and to declare Himself as the Messiah. It mattered little to Jesus what sins the Samaritan woman had committed, or the cultural divide that existed between Jews and Samaritans, so when Jesus spoke to her at the well asking for a drink, she was stunned and asked in return, “How is it that you, a Jew a for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” The implications are profound, but Jesus uses this opportunity to discuss one of the greatest truths of spiritual life: that of living water.[29] When the disciples return Witherington explains how in the disciples’ eyes, “Jesus had no business talking with this woman at the well. Jesus, however, not only speaks to her but also refuses to treat her as unclean, engaging her in one of the most significant theological discussions in the whole of the Fourth Gospel.”[30] This lesson further demonstrates while Jesus’s male disciples were busy scurrying for food that only temporarily satisfies, this woman would receive and proclaim the message from Jesus of a food and water that offers eternal life.[31] Witherington believes, “The Fourth Evangelist then sees the Samaritan woman as one who properly models the role of disciple — to the shame of the Twelve, [so] this implies that even such a woman, as she was a proper recipient of theological information and indeed a proper candidate for discipleship.”[32]

Jesus as living water and eternal life

When Jesus claimed He would provide living water, which would forever quench a person’s thirst, He was proclaiming Himself to be the Messiah. Initially, the Samaritan woman did not understand, which makes sense given most Old Testament references of thirsting for God as one thirsts for water occurred outside of the Pentateuch.[33] However, Jesus’s interaction with the Jews at the Feast of Tabernacles also came from the image of living water found in Numbers 28:7, Isaiah 58:11, and Isaiah 12:3. Wandering in the desert for forty years made water a necessity for survival, so when Jesus says, “Anyone who believes in Him will have rivers of living water,” it had deep implications of not mere survival, but overflowing abundance. Köstenberger shows these passages point to Jesus being the dispenser of the Holy Spirit, through whom those who come to Him for salvation will become abundant blessings to others.[34]

The Samaritan woman asked two important questions about this gift of living water: first she wanted to know where He would get this water and second, she wanted to know if Jesus considered Himself greater than Jacob, the very person who dug the well. To the first question, Köstenberger explains, “It is not so much that Jesus gives certain gifts – He Himself is the gift, [and] only He can satisfy people’s hunger, and only He can quench their thirst, not merely for material food and drink, but for spiritual sustenance.”[35] Jesus being “greater than” is a common theme in John’s Gospel,[36] but in this occurrence, Jesus was not only claiming to be greater than Jacob; He was also claiming to be the only way to quench thirst forever. This brings to light humanity’s physical needs being different from spiritual needs and how living water gives life. John Polhill demonstrates how, “Many interpreters would see this as a discourse on baptism, as an example of Johannine sacramentalism, but verse 14 rules out any reference to a mere external rite of water baptism. The ‘living water’ Jesus brings is a spring within one’s inner being, a life-renewing stream. The water is not literal but a metaphor for the new life that Christ brings.”[37] Matthew Henry then illustrates how, “Christ shows that the water of Jacob’s well yielded a very short satisfaction. Of whatever waters of comfort we drink, we shall thirst again. But whoever partakes of the Spirit of grace, and the comforts of the gospel, shall never want that which will abundantly satisfy his soul. Carnal hearts look no higher than carnal ends.”[38] The Samaritan woman was very interested in obtaining living water, if it meant she did not have to travel to the well everyday, but Jesus was speaking of so much more.

Need for true worship

After bringing the woman’s sins into the open, Craig Blomberg demonstrates how the woman, “On her own manages to call Jesus a ‘prophet’ and given the overlap in Samaritan theology between the prophet of Deuteronomy 18:18 and the Messiah, she may have begun to suspect something even more exalted about Jesus. This would certainly explain the transition to her next topic of interest in, which explicitly deals with the role of the coming Messiah.”[39]  Blomberg advances this belief explaining, “Still, it remains reasonable to infer that John sees the Samaritan woman as inside the kingdom, despite some ambivalence concerning her faith, whereas Nicodemus remains outside, however close to the truth he may have come.”[40]

After this declaration, the issue of where to worship is brought up as Jesus says, “You worship what you do not know.” Morris explains, “Though they worshipped the true God, the Samaritans did so very imperfectly. When we consider that they rejected the writings of the Prophets, the Psalms, the historical books of the Old Testament, and much more, we realize that their knowledge of God was, of necessity, very limited.”[41] Here, Jesus’s concern is with the nature of worship, meaning it is more important what is worshipped than where the worshipping occurs. This truth becomes even more evident upon the glorification of Christ, as He becomes the temple. Smith explains, in the controversy between Jesus and the Samaritan woman concerning the true place to worship, “Jesus responded with an affirmation that He was the Messiah. [This] aligned with the Samaritan concept of Taheb, which sets forth a future prophet like Moses who would speak about the commands of God. The Taheb[42] would be the prophet predicted by Moses and would be like Moses, whose function was to restore God’s pleasure to the Samaritans.[43]

 Now, Jesus is foreshadowing how worship will look after His atoning death. It must be done in spirit and truth as Morris explains, “True worshipers worship ‘in spirit and truth.’ Here, it is the human spirit that is in mind. One must worship, not simply outwardly by being in the right place and taking up the right attitude, but in one’s spirit. The combination ‘spirit and truth’ points to the need for complete sincerity and complete reality in our approach to God.”[44] Thus, worship centers both on doctrinal truth and complete devotion, which are guided by the Holy Spirit. Right on the heels of worship comes the topic of Messiahship, as the woman says she knows the Messiah, who is called Christ, is coming and when He comes, He will reveal all things. It is here Jesus makes several bold claims: (1) He claimed to be the Messiah; (2) He claimed to the great “I Am,” which was the name reserved only for God; and He claimed to be the One who would reveal all things. As proof, Jesus exposes the sin in her life and explains the only way to take care of the sin is to worship God in spirit and in truth. This meant dealing with God honestly and with an open heart.

Jesus’s explanation of evangelistic ministry 4:27-38

This seems to be the climax of the encounter as Jesus has just boldly proclaimed Himself as the Messiah saying, “I who speak to you am He.” Morris demonstrates, “There remains to be recounted only the effect of all this on others. John shows us both the surprise of the disciples and the evangelistic zeal of the woman. She bore such an effective testimony that people went out of the village to meet Jesus.”[45] Two things stand out here: first, the woman was an outcast to her own people, but the encounter with Jesus changed her to the point where the people of her village looked, listened, and believed what she said. Second, she was successful in her witness to the people and as a result many set out to see the Messiah. This is evangelism in its purest sense.

Disciples’ response to interaction

Upon returning, the disciples were marveled to see Jesus engaged in conversation with a woman, as this went against all customs and teaching, but as Morris explains, “Though the disciples were astonished, they did not question the action of the woman (the first hypothetical question) or that of their Master (the second). They had learned enough to know that, while Jesus did not always respect the conventions of the rabbis, He always had good reasons for what He did.”[46]

Work of Jesus and will of God

A common occurrence in John’s Gospel is the use of misunderstandings to teach profound lessons. In this scenario, the disciples have just returned from town where they most likely went to buy food. Upon arriving back at the well, Jesus says, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” This must have been difficult to comprehend, just as the principle of living water was initially beyond comprehension for the Samaritan woman. Jesus then says to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.” In this example, D.A. Carson illustrates, “Jesus is almost certainly echoing Deuteronomy 8:3, where Moses addresses Israel and seeks to explain God’s way to them: ‘He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.’”[47]

The important concept Jesus is teaching here is every believer’s life should be centered upon the will and work of God. In day-to-day life, losing focus of the spiritual and being consumed by the physical causes a divide between earthly things and heavenly things. Jesus had just told the Samaritan woman about spiritual living water, and He also told the disciples He had food from another source, but they are still only concerned with the physical needs of Jesus. This demonstrates their lack of spiritual depth at this point in the metanarrative and clearly shows a lack of focus on Christ’s mission of salvation. Christ wanted His disciples to seek spiritual nourishment before tending to His physical needs, and this could only happen by seeking and doing the will and work of God. On the cross, Christ finished the work He was sent to accomplish and now He calls all believers to live in obedience and perseverance until the work and will of God is fully realized.

Köstenberger further demonstrates, “When the Samaritan woman leaves to tell the townspeople about Jesus, this creates a window of opportunity for Jesus, which He promptly uses to instruct His disciples about their role in the Messianic mission.”[48] In this discourse, Jesus is demonstrating the important principles of sowing and reaping. When doing the work of the ministry, Jesus demonstrates the importance of meeting the most basic needs first. In the disciples’ case, this was purchasing food and in the Samaritan woman’s case it was retrieving water. Upon meeting the physical needs, the door to meeting the spiritual needs opens. During the interaction, as Köstenberger illustrates, “Jesus develops water symbolism in the direction of His ability to give eternal life (evangelism); in talking with His disciples, He talks about His mission and how they have entered it (discipleship).”[49] One sows and another reaps, so here Jesus is explaining the spiritual harvest season has arrived and every believer has been sent to play a part in sowing seeds, producing fruit, and reaping the harvest.

The response to Jesus in Samaria 4:39-42

John writes many Samaritans from the town believed Jesus to be the Messiah and this was largely because of the woman’s testimony. The Samaritans believed the coming Messiah would reveal all things[50] and since Jesus had told the Samaritan woman all she had ever done, many believed. Gaebelein indicates two necessary and interrelated bases for belief:

(1) The testimony of others, and (2) personal contact with Jesus. This woman’s witness opened the way to Him for the villagers. If He could penetrate the shell of her materialism and present a message that would transform her, the Samaritans also could believe that He might be the Messiah. That stage of belief was only introductory, however. The second stage was hearing Him for themselves, and it brought them to the settled conviction expressed in “we know.”[51]

This progression clearly shows the development of the Samaritans’ faith. Initially the Samaritans’ belief was rooted in the testimony of the Samaritan woman, but it soon advanced based upon their own personal encounter with the Messiah.

Messianic status of Jesus shown

The proclamation of Jesus’s Messianic status was a lengthy process, one in which Jesus frequently kept out of the public, especially in the Synoptic Gospel accounts. Despite this, Everett Harrison illustrates how, “Andrew’s use of Messiah in reference to Jesus stems from his association with the Baptist and Jesus’s use of Messiah in the presence of the Samaritan woman creates no real difficulty, since the barrier between Samaritans and Jews would prevent the saying from being heralded abroad.”[52] John the Baptist openly denied he was the Messiah when questioned by Pharisees, but it is clear from John 3:26-28 that John knew Jesus to be the Messiah and John the Baptist clearly understood his role as being the forerunner for Christ.

Merrill Tenney shows, “Jesus affirmed His Messiahship when He told the Samaritan woman, “I who speak to you am He.” When she announced to the town her belief, they listened to Him, and then believed, saying, ‘Now we know; this is the Savior of the world.’ Their equation of Messiah and Savior indicates their estimate of Him was theological, not political.”[53]

Smith then shows, “It was the intent of the Evangelist to prove to his readers that Jesus was Messiah [because] among the Jews ‘The Messiah’ had a definite meaning. They looked for a descendant of David who was a powerful person, a warrior and a hero who would deliver them from their oppressors, the Romans, and usher in an era of prosperity and peace.”[54] This was in sharp contrast to what the Samaritans were looking for, since their core doctrine came only from the Pentateuch. The Jews of the time could not understand the concept of a suffering Messiah, which caused many to be spiritually blind.

Mission and purpose of Jesus

Matthew Poole emphasizes, “What our Savior spoke metaphorically, comparing His grace, or His Spirit, or the doctrine of His gospel, to living water, this poor woman [initially] understood as being literal. So ignorant are persons of spiritual things, till the Holy Spirit of God enlightens them.”[55] The Samaritan woman moved from thinking of things strictly on the physical level to being able to comprehend them on a spiritual level. This allowed her to see the spiritual counterpart of eternal life and she then leaves her water jar at the well. Robert Hughes shows how, “The gift of living water relates to the gift of life-giving bread from heaven and the ongoing theme of Israel in the wilderness. Spiritual thirst and hunger are only satisfied by the living water and bread from heaven.”[56] D.A. Carson further demonstrates how this gift was to be spread:

Those who read John in light of antecedent Scripture cannot help but think of the prophecies that anticipate the extension of the saving reign of God to the farthest corner of the earth. It was appropriate that the title ‘Savior of the world’ should be applied to Jesus in the context of ministry to Samaritans, representing the first cross-cultural evangelism, undertaken by Jesus Himself and issuing in a pattern to be followed by the church: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”[57]

There was a sense of urgency as Jesus revealed His mission, which would soon be passed on to His disciples. Morris explains, “The disciples must not lazily relax, comfortable in the thought that there is no need to bestir themselves. The fields are ready for harvest. There may even be the thought the kind of harvest in which they were engaged there is no necessary interval between sowing and reaping. The disciples must then acquire a sense of urgency in their task.”[58]

Power of testimony

Regardless of the Samaritan woman’s past, she immediately shares her testimony with others. This transformation and action is the model Jesus is passing on and Scripture indicates, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony[59] believers’ willingness to proclaim the message overcame even the natural fear of death.”[60] It is evident that at some point in the Samaritan woman’s past a seed was sown for her to have knowledge of the Messiah, and during her encounter, Jesus reaped her soul, which led to the further reaping of many others.

Samaritan’s Response and Salvation of a City

Köstenberger recognizes but rejects the possibility that the Samaritan story can function as a romantic picture of Yahweh’s wooing back to Himself wayward Samaritans, but some of the similar characteristics are undeniable. He cites several elements reminiscent of a wayward Israel:

(1) Jesus is called a bridegroom in the pericope immediately preceding this incident;[61] (2) the well (v. 6), Jesus’s request for a drink (v. 7), and the reference to food afterward (v. 32) frames the story as a betrothal type-scene;[62] (3) the Samaritan woman is depicted as sexually wayward, with five husbands, much like the Samaritans who prostituted themselves with the gods of five nations;[63] and (4) the story ends with a reunion—the Samaritans embrace the bridegroom (vv. 39–42).[64]

Samaritans “believed”

To “believe” here means the Samaritans put their faith in and entrusted their spiritual well being to Christ.[65] Initially, the people believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, but after the Samaritans went out to meet Jesus and invited Him to stay with them, many more believed because of His word. When the Samaritans heard for themselves what Jesus had to say, they proclaimed Him to be the Christ and the Savior of the World. Further evidence of real and lasting transformation is revealed when Philip’s ministry takes him to Samaria[66] and as F.F. Bruce shows, “Philip would be able to build on this hope when he began to preach Christ to them. Jesus, it appears, was already identified by His followers in Jerusalem, both ‘Hebrews’ and ‘Hellenists,’ as the promised prophet like Moses.”[67]

Savior of the world is revealed

 It is interesting to note the words “Christ” and “Messiah” are the same word. Messiah is the Hebrew word and Christ is the Greek word, but both words refer to the same person and mean the same thing: the anointed one.[68] The Samaritans recognized the Messiah as the anointed one of God and as the Savior of the world. Savior here means deliverer and as Morris explains, “They had been impressed by what she had said, though their faith was not fully formed. The woman might introduce them to Jesus, but faith is not faith as long as it rests on the testimony of another. There must be personal knowledge of Christ if there is to be an authentic Christian experience. Their belief about Jesus is crystallized in the expression ‘the Savior of the world.’”[69]

CONCLUSION

The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman is a profound encounter as Jesus breaks down cultural and racial barriers to proclaim Himself as the Messiah to an outcast among her own people. Francis Hayes reveals, “The evangelism of the future will depend less on sermons than on the prayers and testimonies of the many and its burden is like that of Andrew’s to Peter, and that of the Samaritan woman to her fellow-villagers, “I have found Him.” The new evangelism is the old in this particular, that it is preeminently the testimony of experience.”[70] Upon revealing Himself as the Messiah, Jesus then unveils His primary mission and purpose, and passes on to His followers the mission to engage in evangelism and discipleship. Lastly, Jesus shows how to remain “in Christ” through worship rooted in spirit and truth. This encounter is relevant to the church today, in that it shows how to break down racial and cultural divides to communicate the fundamental truths about salvation, and the gift of eternal life, all of which are found only in and through Christ Jesus.

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