Wonder Well (1)
Jonathan Fleming
March 21, 2025
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John 4: 5-19 (NRSVA)
5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ 11 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ 13 Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ 15 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’
16 Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ 17 The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ 19 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
In John 4, we join Jesus as He encounters a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and engages in a conversation that transcends cultural and societal barriers.
Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for a drink, not because He lacks water, but because He desires to reveal something deeper — her own thirst. In this encounter, thirst is more than a physical need; it is a space for relationship, for revelation, and for transformation.
Jesus doesn’t immediately offer her the “living water” but first invites her into dialogue.
He listens, responds, and patiently leads her toward understanding.
This is the nature of divine encounters — God meets us in our daily routines, in the ordinary, and draws us into something extraordinary.
Thirst is not just about being filled; it is about desire itself.
This woman’s thirst is not a deficiency… it’s a doorway that leads her into a conversation where she is seen, known, and ultimately invited into something greater than she imagined.
Her thirst does not disqualify her — it is what allows her to recognise Jesus in a way others may not.
So rather than focusing on quenching our thirst as a problem to be solved, what if we saw it as an invitation? What if our longing, our searching, and even our unanswered questions were not obstacles but gifts that lead us to Christ?
Let us pray…
Lord Jesus,
You met the Samaritan woman at the well,
not with condemnation, but with an invitation.
You saw her.
You spoke with her.
You led her towards a deeper understanding of who You are.
Help us to see our thirst not as a weakness
but as a sacred space where You meet us.
In our searching, help us not to rush to easy answers
but rather to remain open to the conversation You wish to have with us.
Teach us to welcome our longing as a pathway to encounter You more fully.
Lord, when we stand at the well of our own lives,
may we be willing to linger, to listen, and to ask: What is my thirst leading me toward?
Lord, what will your answer be?
Amen.
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