We don't know the whole truth, and what we know may be skewed by our outlook and assumptions. Certainly there are things about ourselves we would like to shout to the world - and others we keep strangely secret.
Jesus and his disciples come to Sychar in the middle of the day and Jesus "tired as he was from the journey" sits down by Jacob's well while the disciples go into town to buy some food.
This Samaritan woman comes out to draw some water, and Jesus makes the simple practical request, "Will you give me a drink?" She replies, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" The Jews, we are reminded, do not associate with Samaritans - or, as the footnote tells us, they do not use dishes Samaritans have used. So she is curious. Here is this Jewish man asking for a drink of water from her, a Samaritan woman. (We are not told, by the way, whether she ended up giving Jesus that drink of water!)
Jesus leads her on with another question, "If you knew 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." Jesus is thirsty, but this woman has a deep hunger of the soul. That is why she comes out to draw water in the heat of the day - when she can be alone at the well, away from the prying eyes and gossiping tongues of the other women of Sychar.
But how is Jesus, with no bucket, going to get this special life-giving water? "You don't claim to be greater than Jacob, do you?"
No, Jesus is saying, I don't mean water from a well like this one. It only satisfies your thirst for a while and then you need another drink. "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
That sounds just great - especially if it means that I won't have to come back here to draw water! "Sir, give me this water!"
Up to this point, she hasn't revealed her spiritual need - not a word about why she comes out alone to draw water in the heat of the day. She is thinking only about her physical need - her thirst for water and this constant, tiring chore.
So Jesus tells her, "Go, call your husband and come back." Still covering herself, she replies, "I have no husband." But Jesus knows! He knows the truth about her! Even though he has taken all our human limitations as a man, he knows the truth about her! Obviously there is here a combination of observation - this woman is unpopular, excluded by the other women of Sychar and that's why she comes in the heat of the day to draw water - and spiritual insight and conviction - for his answer is specific. "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." No woman would want to associate with this immoral woman who might be a danger to her own marriage!
Of course, the truth she had told wasn't the whole truth! But now that Jesus has exposed the truth about her, she tries to steer the conversation away from her life's story to the local issue between Jews and Samaritans. This man knows so much. He must be a prophet. Let's get his opinion on where we should worship God. "Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Not that I have gone to worship for a long time myself, of course, but it is a good question that needs to be answered. If anyone can answer it, this man can.
Lady, you don't understand. The real question is not where we worship but whether we are worshipping God as he really is. When we Jews worship God, we are worshipping the one who has revealed himself to us and who reaches out with salvation to all peoples. We're at that time of fulfilment right now. "God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth." God wants to clean up your life, make you a new person. Then, no matter where you are, you will truly be able to worship him, for you will know him as he really is.
"I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." "I am who speak to you am he."
Meantime the disciples have come back from their shopping for food in Sychar. They are surprised to see Jesus talking with a woman who, just now, is hurrying back into town to bring others to meet the one who must surely be the Christ.
"I have food to eat that you know nothing about" (v. 32). Jesus, of course, needs physical food and drink. He had arrived at the well, tired, hungry and thirsty. He will need, not just the elusive drink of water, but the food they have purchased. Yet the passion of his life is to reach out to meet the spiritual hunger and thirst around him. "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work" (v. 34).
The passion to do the Father's will was far more important to him than his own physical needs. Well may we sing about seeking first God's kingdom and righteousness and trusting him to add our other needs but is that how we order our living - and our giving?
Jesus tells them, "The fields are ripe for harvest… I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour" (vv. 35,38). One of the early surprises of the church was the large number who believed in Christ when Philip preached in Samaria (Acts 8.4-8).
Who would ever have believed it possible in Samaria? And who would believe it possible in the Burdekin - where the spiritual "cane grubs" gnaw away at the human spirit? It may be harvest-time at other times and places, but… Jesus says, "The fields are ripe for harvest…"
And many in Samaria came to believe for themselves that "this man really is the Saviour of the world" (v. 42).
Jesus comes to us, as he did to the Samaritan woman, with wholesome, healing truth.
Do we dodge around all the issues of our life, never facing our points of sin, failure or pain? He knows all about us. He loves us and wants to help us. Do we have a deep spiritual thirst, needing his living water? Are there things about our life that we have never admitted to him, never confessed to him, never brought out into the open with him? His truth alone will set us free!
The Messiah has come! Welcome him today and for always!
And all around us the fields are ripe for harvest. But in a community like this, we know people. It's no use here! Their minds are long made up!
But Jesus says the fields are ripe. He perceives the deep spiritual thirst. He alone has the living water - and he is offering it to the people of the Burdekin. Many are the seeds that have been sown. Much hard work has already been done. He sends us out to reap a harvest to his glory.
The Messiah has come! Now is the time!
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