The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." (John 4:7-10)
The previous verses tell us that Jesus came to Sychar, in Samaria, and stopped at Jacob's well.
"Tired as he was from the journey, he sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour" (John 4:6).
Jesus, in this picture of his life, is tired. It has been a long, hot trip. He could have stayed in the cooler area of the Jordan.
But he chose to take the weary trip into Sychar.
He knew a woman would be there -- someone who desperately needed the water of life.
It was not a chance encounter. Not a coincidence.
It never is.
He started a conversation with her.
She would not have started the conversation. She would have silently drawn the water into her bucket and made her way back toward the village.
It was noon: no one would be at the well, she reasoned. Other women came early, before the heat of the day, to draw the water necessary to sustain their family for the day.
That's why, of course, she waited until noon, so no one would be there to perhaps point their fingers at her, to roll their eyes, scowl at her with pious
gestures of disapproval. Or, at best, to ignore her completely!
Because she was a sinful woman. In later centuries the townspeople might have branded a large scarlet "A" on her forehead.
It must have been a shock to see Jesus there, to realize he was, by his dress, a Jew, and then to hear him talk to her!
He broke into her silent, sinful world.
It's always this way in life.
Jesus came to her first. He knew she would be there.
She didn't come seeking an encounter with the Messiah. He came to her, seeking an encounter with her.
He does not leave us to ourselves. Instead, he comes to us.
He asks the first question. He initiates the conversation. He uses all devices to break into our bolted, frozen and resistant hearts.
It might be with a question, a command, a chance remark made by someone else, or a reminder, like an echo, of a truth once heard and then ignored.
Anyway it comes, it comes from Him, calling us to seek Him for that "living water" only He can supply.
Sometimes we are that "anyway it comes." Perhaps it is our words of encouragement, our chance remarks, or our intentional pursuit of challenging a friend's dark silence.
"Anyway it comes" - today that likely means we are the anyway it comes!
We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
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