Living in hiding is a form of pride
A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.) The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)
Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”
The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”
Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”
The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!” John 4:8-15 MSG
Notice the following:
* Jesus was behaving extremely inappropriately. He was initiating engagement with and asking for help from a foreigner he was supposed to despise.
* Jesus chooses to reveal himself to her, not as just some guy who has a hankering for cool drink of water, but he indicates who he is - the guy who gives “gushing fountains of endless life” - the Samaritan woman is the first person Jesus outs himself to.
* Jesus expresses a need. Outrageous!
* Women don’t go to the well in the middle of the day to draw water. We will discover more about why she was choosing to isolate herself from the community in future verses. Going to the well felt difficult for her; it was a potential point of exposure. She could only think in terms of survival and did not initially understand the possibility of a gushing fountain. She just wanted to avoid the well.
Notice that Jesus is willing to do uncomfortable things and behave in strange ways to reach out to the ONE. He was not efficient and uninterested in following the societal norms when they did not serve his purpose (That’s a big deal; he’s not being a rebel just to stick it to the man.). Tomorrow, we will find out another amazing thing about Jesus.
