Daniel Condurachi’s Blog

Photo of girls playing and running in the fields of Comarna village Iasi district Romania

I’ve just read about a ordinarily woman that had a encounter that changed her whole life . She was doing something ordinary in an ordinary day , like she did in all the other days.

Like in any other day she went out of her town to get some water. In that times and place people didn’t have current water. Each day, the women had to go to the the wheel, that was outside the town, to take water for the entire day. They were much more eco-friendly in that times. For a family 20 liters was enough, except the animals, that were brought directly to the water.

So, we see the woman going to take water, in the same manner as she always did , like in any other day. But something is different today . There, at the wheel, she sees a man . This man had different clothes than they used to wear in that area – Samaria.

This man was a Jew. In that times, Jews wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans. So, apart from other days and the custom in that times, a Jew talks to a Samaritan , and more than that, to a Samaritan woman. The woman is amazed and tells to the man "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" For so many years she felt discriminated, and maybe even angry about this.

The man gives her a strange reply. He tells her about God’s generosity and the fact that she should have been asking him for water, the living water . The woman asks a regular question and the man talks about God. Strange… the woman might thought: "What does God have to do with the relations between us and how we see each other? " The man talked about God generosity towards us, and the same should we be regarding the other people. But she replies to the man telling him that he has no bucket to draw water from the wheel. But also she becomes interested in the "living water". She came for regular water, so she wants to know what’s the catch with this "living water".

If I made you curious enough, here is the whole story and how this encounter continues.

1-3 Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed
(although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing).
They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead,
turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people.
So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.

4-6 To get there, he had to pass through Samaria.
He came into Sychar,
a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was still there.
Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well.
It was noon.

7-8 A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water.
Jesus said,
"Would you give me a drink of water?"
(His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)

9 The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked,
"How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?"
(Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered,
"If you knew the generosity of God and who I am,
you would be asking me for a drink,
and I would give you fresh, living water."

11-12 The woman said,
"Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep.
So how are you going to get this ‘living water’?
Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob,
who dug this well and drank from it,
he and his sons and livestock,
and passed it down to us?"

13-14 Jesus said,
"Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again.
Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever.
The water I give will be an artesian spring within,
gushing fountains of endless life."

15 The woman said,
"Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty,
won’t ever have to come back to this well again!"

16 He said,
"Go call your husband and then come back."

17-18 "I have no husband," she said.

"That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’
You’ve had five husbands,
and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband.
You spoke the truth there, sure enough."

19-20 "Oh, so you’re a prophet!
Well, tell me this:
Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain,
but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?"

21-23 "Believe me, woman,
the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father
neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem.
You worship guessing in the dark;
we Jews worship in the clear light of day.
God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews.
But the time is coming
—it has, in fact, come—
when what you’re called will not matter
and where you go to worship will not matter.

23-24 "It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God.
Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth.
That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for:
those who are simply and honestly themselves before Him in their worship.
God is sheer being itself—Spirit.
Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being,
their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."

25 The woman said,
"I don’t know about that.
I do know that the Messiah is coming.
When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story."

26 "I am he," said Jesus.
"You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further."

27 Just then his disciples came back.
They were shocked.
They couldn’t believe He was talking with that kind of a woman.
No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.

28-30 The woman took the hint and left.
In her confusion she left her water pot.
Back in the village she told the people,
"Come see a man who knew all about the things I did,
who knows me inside and out.
Do you think this could be the Messiah?"
And they went out to see for themselves.

John 4:1-30

This is not just a story. It was an actual true event. And it has so many implications in our lives . It is an application of Christianity to your life. This is the day when something could happen to you. This is the day when you could be changed for ever. Are we open to learn from the event that take place in our life?