There's an account in the Gospel of John which has been told and retold millions of times in church history down to right now today. It's the account an an encounter Jesus had with a woman at a well, a woman as immoral as they come a serial half-breed adulteress. The woman of no name whom we know as "The Woman at the Well," as recorded for all time in John 4. And it's in that chapter that a huge, big-time truth hides in plain sight.
You know the story. John tells us that Jesus "had to pass through Samaria." This is the land of the much despised by the Jews, low-class Samaritans. Now, Jesus' disciples wouldn't even give her the time of day, so, Christ has to send them away to get some food while, He, tired from the trip, sits down by the famous well Jacob dug long, long ago.
It's the hot time of the day and here comes the woman to draw water. The best time for this chore is later when it's not so scorching hot. But she comes at noon because no other women will be there and she won't have to endure their censorious looks, crude comments, and their ostracism.
She sees that there's a Jewish Man there (she recognizes His Jewishness by the way He's dressed.) Lo and behold, He says to her,"“Give Me a drink." This surprises her, so, she asks, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” John makes an editorial comment for his Gentile readers who aren't familiar with the long-established hostility existing in that day when he explains, "For Jews do not associate with Samaritans."
The conversation continues as Jesus replies, "“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
She's been doing this burdensome chore of hauling water for so long that she wants to know about such water. Jesus explains, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”
To her, this must have sounded like what will later be known as The Fountain of Youth that Ponce de Leon would seek in Florida in the 14th century. She want's a drink.
The Stranger switches the subject and His command shock her:“Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true." How in the world could a complete Stranger know intimate and sinful details which she tried to cover up?
She now perceives that something is going on, so, she thinks He must be a prophet. She has a burning question for Him--she wants to know the answer to a long-standing argument between the Jews and Samaritans. The $64 question is, "Who's right? Are we Samaritans to worhip here or in Jerusalem like the Jews say?"
The conversation continues by her saying that when the Messiah comes, He'll give us the answer. Then comes the bombshell: She's talking to Him!
She believes Him. She drops her water pot and takes off for town to say to the men, "So the woman left her water pot and went into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is He?” They rush out of the city: "They left the city and were coming to Him." Many of the men believe Him saying that they too are convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, "the Savior of the World."
Now did you see it? Did you see what's been hiding in John 4 for 2,000 years/ It's right there, right before our eyes and has been there for a long, long time.
She's now a believer. But did you notice what Jesus did NOT say to her. He didn't say, You have to feel sorry for all those adulteries you've committed. You have to leave the husband you're with now. Or to phrase the way one pastor did erroneously thinking that James 4:7-10 is the way to gain eternal life: [Woman,], "Submit therefore to God. But [h]resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Woman], Cleanse your hands, you sinner; and purify your heart, you [i]double-minded. Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom, [Then and only then, believe in Me.]
What's been hiding in plain sight is that she came to Jacob's Well an adulterous woman and left an adulterous woman, forgiven and saved by drinking the living water. As the book of Revelation concludes, "The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires, take the water of life without cost.
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