At the Well

 At the Well

By Richard P. Joseph

5/8/2025

The fourth chapter in the gospel of John records Jesus’ providential meeting with a Samaritan woman at the ancient well that Jacob had dug.  This story is in line with the common theme of the entire New Testament in which there is, at that time, an active transfer of covenant relationship between God and the Jews to God and all redeemed people.  But to set the stage for this encounter, we need to know something about Samaria.

The land of Samaria was previously a part of Israel and more precisely where the half tribe of Manasseh was located.  Israel’s autonomy was quite short-lived because of their constant disobedience to YHWH.  The nation of Israel was split in two by the time their second king had taken his throne.  Like I mentioned in a previous article,  their evil kings outnumbered their good kings by, at least, a factor of 3 to 1.    The two nations, Judah and Israel, even fought wars against each other.  Their evil was so bad that God began allowing other pagan rulers to conquer their land.  The first major occupation was by the Assyrians.  Once conquered, the new rulers began displacing the influential citizens into other countries and replaced them with foreigners that have been captured in other conquests.  Most of those replaced were in the land of Samaria.  Thus, the Samaritans became a mixed breed of people and a mixed bag of religions.  This is why, at the time of Jesus, the “pure” Jews hated the Samaritans.  They viewed them as a contaminated people and would have nothing to do with them.  That is why the Jews who hated Jesus slandered Jesus by calling him a Samaritan.

John 8:48  Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

So, back to the well!

So Jesus is now travelling from Jerusalem into the land of Galilee and he stops at Jacobs well outside a city of Samaria called Sychar.   While his disciples entered the city to purchase food, a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well.  When Jesus asks her for some water she replied;

“How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Again we see the mistrust between the Jews and the Samaritans.  Well, we all know the story of how Jesus brought out her shaky past and then presented himself to her as the long awaited messiah.  She then expressed the common confusion of that day and in that place; “where are we supposed to worship anyhow”.  She, being a Samaritan, was used to their form of worship but she knew that the Jews only allowed worship in the temple which was in Jerusalem.  Then Jesus responds with an unexpected answer behind door 3, you will no longer worship in either of those places exclusively in the future.  

4:21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”   

Jesus explains to her that there is suddenly a new order of things.  Physical Jerusalem will no longer be the center of worship.  Jesus was, at that very time, becoming the fulfilment of all scripture and the physical nation of Jerusalem was entering their final judgement.  They were previously overrun by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and now the Romans.  A New Spiritual Jerusalem would rise out of the ashes, no longer to ever return to the physical.  This is the ubiquitous message that all Zionist churches just can’t seem to understand.  When the Jewish leadership put Jesus before Pilate they made a prophetic statement that condemned them forever;

Matthew 27:25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

Unfortunately for them, his blood became a judgment on the physical nation of Israel and they were crushed to powder.  The redemption of true worshipers began and will last for ever and ever.  There is no returning to that fully corrupt system.  The Law brought condemnation but Grace brought life.  All people from all nations now have access to God through the blood of Jesus Christ.  Let us now worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth.