7. The Sojourn of Jesus Christ in Samaria. His Conversation With the Samaritan Woman

Having forcibly brought an end to the public ministry of John the Baptist, the Pharisees were not content with this success; and hearing that the new Teacher was attracting even more followers than John, they would not have hesitated to use violence against Him as well. But since His hour had not yet come, He left Judea once more in order to continue His ministry among the more receptive Galileans.

The most direct and shortest road from Judea to Galilee passed through Samaria. The Jews, however, seldom used this route and preferred the roundabout way through Peraea, for between themselves and the inhabitants of Samaria there existed an implacable enmity that had already lasted several centuries. After the deportation of the ten Israelite tribes into Assyrian captivity, Samaria had been settled by pagan colonists from various regions of the Assyrian monarchy, fugitives from the Kingdom of Judah, and also escapees from the Israelite captivity who had found a way to flee from Assyrian bondage. The first settlers—pagans—were terrified by the extraordinary increase in wild beasts in the land of their new dwelling, especially lions, and attributing this to vengeance upon them by the God of that land, obtained one of the Jewish priests who had been taken captive and with his help introduced among themselves the worship of Yahweh, whom, however, they could scarcely distinguish from their other purely pagan gods. At the same time they adopted the Law of Moses for themselves, which they subsequently observed even more strictly than the Jews themselves. Upon the return of the Jews from captivity, the Samaritans sought to join them so as to form one people together, but the Jewish leaders rejected this union, which might threaten to obscure the true religion even among the Jews themselves; and from that time bitter disputes arose between Jews and Samaritans over religious precedence, frequently breaking out into open enmity and even bloodshed. In defiance of the Jews, the Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, but it was destroyed by John Hyrcanus, who also destroyed the city of Samaria itself. They claimed more rights of religious preeminence for their mountain than for Mount Moriah, since, according to their tradition, it was on this very mountain that the earthly Paradise had been located, from it that all earthly rivers had their source, that Adam had been formed from its dust, that Noah’s ark had rested, that Abraham had intended to sacrifice his son Isaac, that Jacob had prayed on the night when he saw the wondrous ladder, that Joshua had built the first altar to God upon entering the promised land, and that he had buried the twelve stone tablets inscribed with the whole Law of Moses. Every Samaritan turned his face toward Mount Gerizim in prayer, and all of them believed that it was upon its very summit that the Messiah Christ would first appear. Strictly adhering to the Law of Moses, they reproached the Jews for accepting other holy books besides the Pentateuch; they were loyal to Herod, whom the Jews hated, and maintained fidelity to the Romans. They caused the Jews every possible annoyance—attacking their pilgrims, lighting false signal fires to create confusion in their reckoning of the new moons, and on one occasion defiling their temple by scattering dead bones within it. For their part, the Jews regarded the Samaritans with boundless hatred, considering them an unclean and accursed people. Their very name was considered an epithet of shame, and every Samaritan was looked upon as one possessed by a demon (John 8:48). No true Jew considered it lawful to eat food that a Samaritan had touched, as this would be equivalent to eating pork. No Samaritan could become a proselyte, and they were not acknowledged to have any share in the resurrection of the dead. A Jew might sometimes be on friendly terms with a pagan but never with a Samaritan, and all dealings with the latter were considered invalid. In Jewish courts the testimony of Samaritans was not accepted, and to receive any of them into one’s home was tantamount to bringing a direct curse of God upon oneself. But if such enmity existed in the heart of every Jew, the Savior’s view of the Samaritans was very different. He saw in them the same children of one Heavenly Father as the Jews, and traveling through Samaria, He found occasion to make one of the greatest revelations of His Divinity.

Having set out early in the morning, the Savior arrived at midday at Sychar, a small settlement situated not far from the city of Shechem. There, on the eastern slope of Mount Gerizim, about two versts from the city, lay the famous well of Jacob, on the plot of land that Jacob had once given as a gift to his son Joseph. Over the well was a shelter with seats for travelers, and since the Savior was extremely wearied by the long journey under the blazing sun, He sent His disciples into the city to make the necessary purchases of provisions and Himself remained alone at the well. As He was resting there, a Samaritan woman came to draw water, bringing with her a jar and a long rope for drawing water from the sacred well, which was no less than fifteen fathoms deep. Her appearance was quite unexpected, since women ordinarily went to draw water in the evening and in groups. But she preferred to supply herself with water at this unusual hour, as if to avoid meeting the other women, among whom she enjoyed no good reputation. Suffering from thirst, Jesus Christ could not but welcome her arrival, and as soon as she had drawn water with her jar, He addressed her with the request: “Give Me a drink” (John 4:7). From His clothing and speech the woman immediately saw that He was a Jew, and in astonishment remarked to Him: “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9). The Savior perceived her simplicity and wished not only to enlighten her with great truths—truths that the greatest sages of the ancient world were not given to grasp—but also to impart to her a startling revelation about Himself. Lifting her thoughts from simple material water, which temporarily quenches bodily thirst, He reminded her of the existence of another water—a gift of God—that quenches spiritual thirst. “If you knew the gift of God, He said to the astonished woman, 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” (John 4:10). The thought was clear, but not to the simple mind of the Samaritan woman, and she could only wonder in amazement how and where He could get this living water—surely not from this well, since He had nothing with which to draw from it. But if He had another, better water, was He then greater than their father Jacob, who himself and his household had drunk from this very well, finding it good enough even for them? Her curiosity was evidently keenly aroused by such a statement, and she was ready to continue the conversation further. This water is undoubtedly good, the Savior replied; but “everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13–14). Growing more and more interested and sensing that she stood before an extraordinary Man, the woman at last asked Him for this living water; but her thoughts had not yet fully grasped the nature of this water, and she asked for it merely in order that, having drunk of it, she might no longer thirst and would not need to come here again to draw water.

But the explanations given were sufficient to awaken the Samaritan woman’s thoughts toward loftier subjects, and the Savior, abruptly breaking off this conversation, addressed her with words that were meant to show her that she stood before One Who knows the heart. “Go, He said to her, call your husband, and come here” (John 4:16). These words pricked the woman’s conscience painfully, and she hastened to answer in confusion that she had no husband. But this was met with a reply that at once laid bare all the secrets of her sinful life. “You have rightly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly” (John 4:17–18). These words of the Knower of hearts struck her like a thunderbolt, and she cried out in reverence: “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet” (John 4:19), and in that moment the thought flashed through her mind—could the Jewish faith not be right, since from it such prophets arise? And so from her own life, on which she certainly had no desire to dwell any longer, her lively thought quickly turned to another question—the question over which a bitter dispute had constantly raged between her people and the countrymen of the One with whom she was speaking, the question that was the cause of their mutual enmity. Chance had brought her face to face with a great Teacher: could she not use this opportunity to resolve the endless dispute between the Jews and Samaritans over which place was properly to be considered the sacred place of Palestine—Jerusalem or Gerizim: Jerusalem, where Solomon had built the temple, or Gerizim, that most ancient sanctuary, where Joshua had pronounced his blessings and where Abraham had prepared to sacrifice his son? Pointing to the summit of the mountain that rose eight hundred feet above them and was crowned with the ruins of the ancient temple of Manasseh, destroyed by Hyrcanus, she posed to the Savior the question that occupied her: “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” (John 4:20); which is right? Briefly and only in passing did the Savior resolve her difficulty. In the dispute with the Samaritans, the truth undoubtedly lay more on the side of the Jews. Jerusalem was the place chosen by God Himself; compared with the mixed and crude cult of Samaria, Judaism was far purer and more correct. But having touched on this earthly dispute, the Savior uttered to her a great and memorable prophecy: that the hour is coming, indeed has already come, when “neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21) will true worshippers worship the Father, but in every place they will worship Him in spirit and in truth. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). The Samaritan woman was deeply moved and struck; but how could one, on the strength of a simple chance remark from an unknown stranger, abandon the faith in which she and her fathers had been born and raised? Better to defer any final resolution of this and similar questions and to wait until the Messiah comes, Who will definitively resolve all perplexities and reveal all truth. And it was then that Jesus Christ uttered simple but momentous words: there is no need to wait; the Messiah has come, and “I who speak to you am He” (John 4:26).

His birth had been first revealed at night to a few obscure and unlettered shepherds; the first full declaration by Him of His own Messiahship was made at a well in the drowsy heat of midday to a solitary, obscure Samaritan woman. And to this poor, sinful, unlettered Samaritan woman were spoken the immortal words in which Jesus Christ Himself solemnly revealed Himself as the Messiah and Savior of the world.

Meanwhile, the disciples had returned from the city and were greatly surprised that their Teacher was conversing alone with a woman. In the East, given the generally low estimation of women, open association with a woman was considered improper—and all the more so with a woman whose face was uncovered. The rule was applied with even greater strictness to teachers and rabbis, for whom it was considered the height of disgrace to speak with a woman on the street, even with one’s own wife. It was still more unseemly to speak with her on matters of religion and the law. “It is better to burn the words of the law,” says one strict rabbi, “than to entrust them to a woman.” Yet the disciples saw that Jesus Christ had been carrying on a long and serious conversation with a woman—and apparently a woman who was a sinner! — evidently about matters of religion and the law. However, they did not dare remark on this to Him and instead spoke of the purchases they had made.

Meanwhile, the woman—so struck with amazement that she even forgot her water jar—ran into the city to tell of her wondrous encounter. A Man had appeared who had revealed to her the most intimate secrets of her life. Was He not the Christ, the Messiah? The Samaritans, who in all the Gospel allusions to them appear simpler and more open to persuasion than the Jews, soon came running out of the city at her direction, and when their approach was already visible, the disciples urged the Savior to eat, for it was past midday and He was so exhausted from the journey. But every hunger in Him was satisfied by the fulfillment of the purpose of His ministry. “I have food to eat, He said, that you do not know about” (John 4:32). Did they not know that from His very childhood He had lived not by bread alone? But the disciples, with their customary simplicity, did not understand this remark and supposed that someone had probably brought Him something to eat. One can imagine how burdensome it must have been for Him to encounter at every step, even among His own chosen ones, such a strange inability to comprehend deeper spiritual thoughts. But there was no impatience in Him Who was gentle and lowly in heart. “My food, He said, is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34). Then, pointing toward the inhabitants of Sychar who were streaming toward Him across the plain, He continued: you say that there are yet four months until harvest. Look at these fields—how ripe they are for the spiritual harvest. You will joyfully reap a harvest that I have sown with labor and suffering; while I, the sower, rejoice at the thought of that joy to come (John 4:35–37).

Personal conversation with Christ convinced many of the Samaritans—far more deeply than the woman’s account through whom He had first revealed Himself—that He was indeed the long-awaited Savior of the world, the Christ. Graciously yielding to their request to remain with them, Jesus Christ stayed there two days with His disciples, and this two-day teaching was undoubtedly the chief cause of the numerous conversions to Christ among them in the later period (Acts 8:5). And for His part, Christ more than once rewarded the faith of the Samaritans by holding them up as more virtuous than the Jews who were hardened in their narrow legalism. Thus in the immortal parable of love for one’s neighbor, He chose a Samaritan as its example. Among the ten lepers who were healed, it was once again a Samaritan alone who proved thankful. The simpler and more wholesome souls of the Samaritans proved more inclined and more capable of entering the Kingdom of God than the proud souls who fancied themselves the exclusive sons of Abraham and heirs of the promises given to him.