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Jesus and the Woman With Five Husbands
This chapter is based on John 4:1-42.
On the way to Galilee, Jesus traveled through Samaria. It was
noon when He reached Jacob’s well. Tired from His journey, He sat
down to rest while His disciples went to buy food.
Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies. The rabbis said it
was lawful to trade with Samaritans in case of necessity, but a Jew
would not borrow from a Samaritan nor accept a kindness, not even
a morsel of bread or a cup of water. In buying food, the disciples
were acting in harmony with the customs of their nation. But it did
not enter the thought even of Christ’s disciples to ask a favor of the
Samaritans.
As Jesus sat by the well, He was faint from hunger and thirst.
The journey had been long, and the noonday sun beat down on Him.
His thirst increased at the thought of the cool, refreshing water so
near, but He had no rope nor water jar, and the well was deep.
A woman of Samaria approached, and seeming not to notice His
presence, she filled her pitcher with water. As she turned to go, Jesus
asked for a drink. No Oriental would withhold such a favor. Offering
a drink to the thirsty traveler was a duty so sacred that Arabs would
go out of their way to perform it.
The Savior was looking to find the key to the woman’s heart, and
with the tact that springs from divine love, He asked a favor. Trust
awakens trust. The King of heaven came to this outcast woman,
asking a service from her. He who made the ocean, who controls
the waters of the deep, who opened the springs and channels of the
earth, was dependent on a stranger’s kindness for even a drink of
water.
The woman saw that Jesus was a Jew. In her surprise, she forgot
to grant His request, but tried to learn the reason for it. “How is it,”
she asked, “that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan
woman?”
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