Rev. Rob Jones
March 8, 2026
John 4:5-26, 39-42
5So 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. 7A 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.) 9The 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.) 10Jesus 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.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but 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.” 15The 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.” 16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’ 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” 39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
In our lesson today, we meet Jesus at a well— not in a synagogue, not at a feast, not even in the Temple, but at a dusty Samaritan well at high noon. A tired rabbi, a broken woman, and a conversation that will change a village. “This is no accident; it is an appointment of God’s providence.”
1. A Thirsty Savior and a Thirsty Soul
John tells us, “Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon” (John 4:6). High noon—the heat of the day. When a woman comes to the well…
She comes when she thinks no one else will be there. The details whisper a story of shame, exclusion, and avoidance. Yet someone is there. The Son of God is there, waiting.
2. “Give Me a Drink”: Grace Starts the Conversation
Jesus says to her, “Give me a drink” (v. 7). No small talk. No polite distance. He doesn’t even ask her name. He crosses boundaries with a simple request. At least three barriers in that one sentence I count:
1. Ethnic enmity: Jews and Samaritans “have no dealings,” John reminds us.
2. Gender expectations: A man, alone, speaking with a woman in public—that was suspect.
3. Moral reputation: As the story unfolds, we learn she has had five husbands and is now with a man who is not her husband.
Imagine a doctor who doesn’t wait in the clinic but goes into the hardest neighborhoods, to the places where the sick are hiding. That is what Jesus is doing. He doesn’t wait for respectable people to find him in respectable places. He goes to Samaria. He sits where the hurting are. That’s grace—not that we climbed our way to God, but that God in Christ came all the way to us, into our “Samarias,” the places we’d rather not name.
A wonderful definition of Grace is this: God taking the initiative. Jesus is not put off by any ethnic divides, gendered expectations, or moral failure. He doesn’t erase the woman’s personhood; he engages it. He honors her with conversation. The woman did not come seeking Christ; Christ came seeking her.
We have all heard the parable of the shepherd who notices one sheep has wandered too far from the flock. Think about this: the sheep isn’t trying to find its way back; it’s nibbling on whatever it can reach. The shepherd doesn’t stand at the gate and shout, “You know the way home!” He goes into the ravine, into the thorns, calls the sheep by name, and carries it back. That is what Jesus is doing at this well.
3. Living Water: More Than a Quick Fix
Jesus answers 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.” (v. 10).
At first, she hears only plumbing problems: “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.” (v. 11). But Jesus presses further:
“… The water that I will give will become… a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (v.13–14)
Jesus is not offering her a spiritual quick fix, a momentary emotional high. He is offering a new source of life within her.
I remember years ago, out west, there was a major drought. Communities in a drought, anxiously rationing every cup. Many people thought that if the rain didn’t come sooner rather than later, it would become a health crisis, and people would begin to suffer.
Now imagine discovering an underground source of water so deep it could never run dry. An aquifer so big that it wouldn’t matter if it rained or not, the water would always flow from the tap. Also imagine the government, for once, getting in gear and digging a new, deep well into that aquifer. Imagine how quickly the collective anxiety would vanish. But imagine the supply wasn’t just bigger; it was fed by something living and continual.
We often live like we are in a drought with limited water in the well:
• We drink from the well of career success… and we are thirsty again.
• We drink from the well of relationships… and we are thirsty again.
• We drink from the well of entertainment, even of religious activity… and we are thirsty again.
Jesus is saying: “I am not another shallow well. I am the spring that supports all true life.”
Like the woman, wouldn’t you say, “give me this water?” (v. 15)
4. Bringing Hidden Wounds Into the Light
Jesus then does something that, at first, feels uncharacteristic, almost harsh: “Go, call your husband, and come back.” (v. 4:16) He is putting his finger on her deepest wound: Five husbands, and a sixth man, not her husband.
How she arrived in this situation in life is not told. Whether she was sinned against, whether she made destructive choices—or both—her story, is marked by covenantal brokenness. We are seeing the painful reality of real life. This feels harsh because it gets close to our humanity today—relationships, identity, community— touched by sin, by those choices made and made for us.
Yet notice the tone of Jesus.
He does not say, “Shame on you.” He simply tells the truth: “What you have said is true” (v. 18).
His exposure is not for humiliation; it is for healing. His conviction is not condemnation but invitation. As Calvin often stressed, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self are intertwined (Institutes I.i.1). In seeing herself truthfully, she is coming closer to seeing God truthfully.
5. A Transformed Witness, a Thirsty Town
What happens when grace takes root? A few verses down, after Jesus conversation with the woman, we see what her testimony did. The woman who came to the well at noon to avoid people now runs toward people, leaving her water jar behind (v. 28). Her daily burden is forgotten; she has found a new purpose.
Her testimony is simple and honest:
“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” (v.29)
Notice: she does not present herself as an expert, but as one who has been known and not rejected.
6. A Call to Self-Reflection
So, what does this mean for us—here, now? Let me invite you into some honest, quiet self-reflection.
1. Where is your well? Where do you go at “noon,” hoping no one will see you? Maybe it’s a stressful habit, a pattern of anger or control, a private fear you never name. Can you imagine that Jesus is already seated there, waiting—not to shame you, but to speak with you?
2. What might it mean for you to tell the truth? The woman at the well does not hide when Jesus names her reality. She doesn’t run; she stays in the conversation. Is there a truth about your life that you’ve been hiding from God, from others, maybe even from yourself? Today might be the day to stop dodging and start dialoguing—with God and, perhaps, with a trusted brother or sister.
3. Where is God calling you to be a witness? The Samaritan woman is not sent to a seminary before she is sent to her city. She goes immediately, as she is, with the story she has. Where might the Lord be calling you to go back—to your family, your workplace, your neighborhood—and say, ‘Come and see’?
As one of our confessions reminds us, our only comfort in life and in death is that we belong—body and soul—to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 1). God is drawing us toward deeper trust, deeper freedom, and deeper participation in His redemptive work.
So today, seek His voice at your well. Listen as He names the truth without flinching. Receive His offer of living water. Then go back into your town, your family, your work—with the simple, humble testimony:
“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sources cited:
• Scripture quotations: The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. (NRSVue).
• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Westminster John Knox Press, 1960), I.i.1.
• “Canons of Dort,” in The Three Forms of Unity (Reformation Heritage Books, 2011), III/IV.16.
• Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Q&A 1, in The Three Forms of Unity (Reformation Heritage Books, 2011).
