03. The gift of the Spirit, a well of living water (Joh_4:14; Joh_4:23-24)

(3) The gift of the Spirit, a well of living water (John 4:14;John 4:23-24) A new revelation about the Holy Spirit is given by the Lord to the Samaritan woman. Expelled from Judea by the hatred of the unbelieving Jews, our lonely Lord was crossing Samaria en route to Galilee, where He would accomplish most of His miracles (John 4:4). At Jacob’s well in Sychar, He then meets a lonely woman, reduced by a merciless world to occupy the lower end of the social ladder, as compared to Nicodemus, a respected ruler of the Jews. Humanly speaking, she would have been deemed less qualified than Nicodemus to receive the Lord’s message; But, how true is it that "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 55:8). Despised by the Jews as were all Samaritans, this woman had looked for happiness in the world, but had reaped utter misery. The Son of God, Lord of all creation, "wearied with his journey" (John 4:6), meets her at the well and asks from her something to drink, as though He, the Son of Man, was dependant upon her to quench His thirst (it was the heat of midday). This simple request was the occasion for the Lord to reveal the marvelous gift of God of the well of living water. Here, this is not essentially the gift of eternal life in God’s only-begotten Son (John 3:16). This living water characterises more the gift of the Holy Spirit as a source of refreshment for the believer’s heart. Consequent upon the gift of eternal life (ch. 3), God adds now the energy for the divine nature (ch. 4). This remarquable scene shows how God gives freely, while the Son of God stoops in humiliation and the Holy Ghost becomes a living source of energy and joy for the heart. At a difference with man’s material needs which constantly repeat, God’s spiritual gift is constantly renewed in the believer’s soul: the Spirit becomes in him "a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14).

Although implied in the Lord’s words, the work of redemption is not specifically mentioned. Also, the gift of living water relates here to the blessed effect of the Holy Spirit, while the coming down on earth of the Person of the Holy Ghost (the third Person of the Godhead) is not yet in view. The Lord will reveal this great fact only when speaking about His departure to heaven (ch. 14).

Immediately thereafter, the Lord Jesus reveals to the woman of Samaria the true purpose of God concerning His worship: God has saved us to gather for Himself a people as a company of worshippers. The apostle Peter confirms that we are built up as "an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). So if God has saved us and given us eternal life with the Holy Spirit, it is because He, the Father, seeks worshippers. God seeks such because He is spirit, and "they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24). The hour for the accomplishment of God’s eternal counsels had now come; it was consequent upon the coming of another hour, the solemn hour of Christ’s death. Christian worhip is now solely spiritual, and all former material display and decorum are out of place: neither Garizim (for the Samaritans) nor Jerusalem (for the Jews; John 4:21) were any more the place of worship. But christian worship is also in truth: away from mysticism, it is the earnest but sober outpouring of hearts overflowing with joy in the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. The last revelation the Lord Jesus gives to the woman in this astonishing scene is that He was the Messiah, the Christ, God’s Anointed One (John 4:26; cp. John 1:42).