Jesus and his disciples had been in Jerusalem and were returning to Galilee. The road took them through Samaria and when they came near the town of Sychar Jesus sent the disciples into town to buy food. He stayed by Jacob’s well, because he had an appointment there. The woman who was coming to the well didn’t know she had a divine appointment, but Jesus did.

Jews considered Samaritans to be an unclean people and believed they would defile themselves if they touched anything that had been touched by a Samaritan. When the Samaritan woman came to the well, she recognized Jesus as being a Jew and expected he would ignore her.

Jesus asked her for a drink. That was unheard of, for a Jew to speak to a Samaritan woman, let alone ask for a drink from something she had touched. Jesus spoke to her of living water and revealed to her that he knew she had been married and divorced five times.

The Samaritans held strictly to the Mosaic law, as did the Jews. There is no provision in that law for a woman to divorce her husband, but a man could divorce his wife for any frivolous reason. Perhaps he didn’t like the shape of her nose, perhaps she had burned his toast once too often (or whatever the equivalent might have been in that day). This woman had been married and dumped by five men. Jesus mentioned another man, to whom she was not married. Perhaps she was betrothed but not yet married, or perhaps some kindly man had offered her a place to stay with no intention to take her as his wife.

Then the woman challenged him on the differences in the beliefs of the Jews and the Samaritans. Jesus refused to be drawn in, simply saying that Jerusalem and Mount Gérizim didn’t matter any more, but it was time for true believers to worship God in spirit and in truth.

The woman then said that she knew that all things would be made clear when Messiah came. Jesus told her “I am the Messiah,” something that he had never previously said to anyone. The woman believed him and ran to tell the people of her town.

The disciples returned with food and pressed Jesus to eat. He was not ready yet to eat but spoke to them of the harvest, telling them to lift up their eyes and see the fields that were ripe for the harvest. What did they see when they looked up? A stream of the despised Samaritans coming out of the town to the well to meet the Messiah.