Power of Encounter
“A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
‘Give me a drink.’”John 4:7
When Jesus was heading back to Galilee He decided to pass through Samaria. To the Jews this would have flashed red flags because the Jewish People had a disdain for the Samaritans and would avoid them at all costs. So for Jesus to choose to pass through Samaria and not take one of the routes that bypassed it, He must have had His reason. There in Sychar, Samaria at Jacob’s well, Jesus sat down to rest and the Samaritan woman went to draw water. It was at the well that the encounter between God and man, Jews and Gentiles took place. It was there that all barriers started to break.
The woman who went to draw water to satisfy her thirst and daily chores unknowingly went to the well and met the Source of the living water. While Jesus asked the woman for a drink, He was also offering her a drink, a drink that will forever quench her deepest thirst — her thirst for love, true love, freedom, and new life. Jesus thirsts so that we might thirst for Him. He thirsts for love of us.
Jesus broke all sorts of barriers that day. For a man to talk with and interact with a woman one on one in public was unheard of as well as already mentioned the animosity between Jews and Samaritans. Moreover, for a woman to go to the well at noon and to do so alone tells us that she must have been shunned or not accepted by the other women. She must have been living a life that was inappropriate or sinful. And yet, Jesus looked at her, spoke to her, and offered her the gift of eternal life.
Jesus seeks to encounter us today and wishes to offer this gift to us today too. Do we want the living water that wells up to eternal life or are we content with the water that only satisfies our physical thirst for a while?
