Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, "He told me everything I ever did.” So, when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. (NIV)

The son of God, sweating. His dry mouth searching for a cool drink of clean water from a well that was dug by his worshippers – dug while he watched from Heaven. Dirty feet, face gritty with sand, he sits and waits. Drips of sweat, the smell of perspiration – fully man.

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He waits, knowing the thirst of the one who is coming. He knows her. From her mother’s womb, he knows her. His heart has broken for her as she’s struggled through life, his eyes pained by her striving in this place. This place called Sychar, meaning wages.

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On the way from Judea to Galilee, Jesus and his disciples walk through Samaria. John 4:4 says, “Now he had to go through Samaria.” But did he? The King James Version puts it like this: “And he must needs go through Samaria.” He needed to go through Samaria.

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Many Jews refused to take this route. Not wanting to spend time in Samaria, many took a more arduous route and even considered it unholy to go the way of the rabbi and his disciples. Jesus himself had bypassed Samaria before, why not now?

As the scorching heat of the noon sun baked his skin, he saw her. She came carrying the jar, her burden. The dust and dirt stuck to her feet. This may have been her second trip for water that day, the morning’s portion already exhausted with the day’s washing and cooking. So, again she toiled, lifting the jar to her shoulder, returning to the well every day.

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Her life has been hard. Searching for love and fulfillment, finding none. She has known five husbands and now lives with a man who will not marry her. This makes her an outcast, a whore. And she knows it. With each step she feels the weight of her past, heavier than the jar when it’s filled to the brim. She’s chained to her shame. These are her wages; this is what her life has earned. The hard stares and hushed whispering as she walks by, the jar digging into her shoulder, head down. But still, she burns for love – to feel lovely, to be safe and cherished.

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She didn’t even notice the stranger at first, a Jew. He talks to her, and she’s stunned. The hatred between their people ignored, risen above. Not even her own people talk to her, not in public anyway, and now a man, a Jewish man, speaks to her in the daylight for all to see.

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He’ll draw me water? Water that will become a well inside of me, and I won’t need to draw water again? He’s gotten her attention. Her tongue sticks to her teeth. I need water. He cares for me, her mind flashes. Her arms ache as she lowers her jar. But he’s not here for that. She’s the reason he’s come, but it’s for so much more.

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And then he tells her who she is and in doing so reveals who he is. His description of himself is even more plain than what he’s disclosed to his own disciples: “I am.”

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Fully God.

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The burden of the jar is left on the ground as the woman runs into town. The wages of her life don’t matter anymore – forgotten, she proclaims the one who told her everything she ever did! Everyone knows that, they mutter, we know who you are. But she is not ashamed anymore. The conversation with Jesus about her past husbands and present adultery wasn’t condemning but convicting. It’s brought her to a new life. Now her profit is Truth!

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The people cannot jeer away the joy in her eyes or the excitement in her voice. Messiah? They’ve begun to believe just based on the shift in her step. They aren’t sure how, but she’s changed, impacted by this stranger, this God-Man. They’re compelled to hear the voice that has this kind of transforming power.

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Jesus was invited to stay with the people for several days after the testimony of the woman piqued their interest, to the point that they couldn’t resist an introduction. How about us? Does my excitement about what Jesus has done in my life draw people irresistibly to him? Do people see the irrevocable change that has taken place within you and ask for a “drink”?

Precious Yeshua, since you were fully man and know our struggles, you long for us to lay them on you. And since you are fully God you are more than able for this task! You ask us to yoke ourselves with you (Matt. 11:30), to work together with you so that you can strengthen us in our battles. I pray we do just that! In doing so, I pray we would have a powerful testimony and impact about who you are and how you love each of us, so that the world would be attracted to you in an irresistible way (Matt. 5:16). I pray that the truth of the change you have created in our lives would reach the ends of the earth (Phil. 2:15). Lord, let us put down our “jars” to meet you and run into town to eagerly share what you have done in us and for the whole world!