THE KING’S BUSINESS
159
the disciples went into the city to buy food, He sat down and rested on the well, but, as He saw this poor woman coming down the road His weariness was forgotten and all hunger was forgotten in the hunger to do the will of Him that sent Him (v. 34), and all other thirst in the thirst for per ishing souls. His first thought was, how can I reach and save this woman? Is that always our first thought when we see a perishing soul approaching? It was six o’clock in the evening. It was formerly thought that John used the reckoning that counted the hours from six in the morn ing, so that the sixth hour would be twelve, noon, but it seems to be conclusively proven that John used the reckoning that counted hours from midnight until noon and from noon until midnight. The woman came for a pitcher of water, she got a whole well full. That trip to the well was the turning point of her life and eternal des tiny, because upon it she met Jesus. Our Lord’s manner of dealing with her is full of suggestion to the personal worker: He began with the matter that was uttermost in the woman’s mind, but led her by a very short route to the great question; He asked a small favor of the woman in order that He might confer a great favor upon her; He took the woman when she was alone and so she opened her heart to Him. The word which is translated “well,” but which should be translated “spring”, is used twice in this verse and once in verse 14. In verses 11 and 12 the Greek word is used which properly means “well.” In this case it was a well supplied by the spring, hence the propriety of using both words. The country .roundabout abounded in springs, but Jacob dug a well probably because he was a stranger in the land, and to make himself independent of the heathen neighbors with whom he was surrounded. The well still exists; it is about half a mile south of Askar (or Sychar), and about a mile east of Shechem. It is called “Jacob’s spring,” or “Jacob’s well” to this day, two different words being used, corresponding to the two Greek words used in this chap
ter. It is lined with rough masonry and is now about 70 feet deep, but was origin ally much deeper, the bottom now being filled with stone and rubbish. When it was measured by an earlier explorer its depth was 10S feet. It is located right on the highway from Judea to Galilee. The real humanity of bur Lord comes out in the statement that He was “wearied with His journey.” He is shortly to reveal Him self as Divine by reading the woman’s thoughts and telling her all that ever she did, but we have here first a revelation of His true humanity. Constantly in the New Testament we find the genuine humanity of our Lord placed in closest juxtaposi tion with His true Deity. It is in John’s Gospel, which is the one gospel that brings out the Deity of our Lord most clearly, that we also find the clearest traces of the Lord’s perfect manhood. John alone of the four evangelists records the word, “I thirst” in the account of His crucifix ion (ch. 19:28). John constantly kept in mind the error of the Docetists, the fore runners of Christian Science,-'who denied the reality of the body of Jesus, holding that the body of Jesus was only an appear ance or an illusion (or, as the Christian Scientists would put it, mortal thought). We here find it was a real body and that our Lord was weary, as a little further down we find that He was really, thirsty. He was a complete man physically as well as spiritually (cf. John 1:14; Heb. 2:14). The question has been raised by the critics why this woman should come to this well in preference to the springs and streams which abound in the neighborhood. Some have suggested it was her reverence for sacred associations, but it is more proba ble she had to pass it on her way home from work. v. 9. “Then saith the woman of Samaria (The Samarian woman therefore saith) unto Him, How is it that thou,being a Jew, askest drink from me, which am a woman of Samaria (Samaritan woman)? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samari tans.” This woman displayed a mean
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs