John 4:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

See how the Evangelist shows that the woman too had come out of the city for another purpose. He cuts off every occasion for the shameless objections of the Jews.

No one can say that He contradicted His own commandment by ordering His disciples, "Do not enter a city of the Samaritans," while He Himself conversed with Samaritans.

For this reason he also adds, "His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food," thus setting forth many reasons for His conversation with the woman.

Once Jesus went near Samaria. He found a Samaritan woman drawing water and said to her, "Give Me a drink." The Giver of life says to her, "Give Me a drink."

He was sitting by the well, the Source above the source.

Since, according to His human nature, He thirsted, He also needed drink. When He asks for a drink, the woman enters into conversation with Him, having a soul eager to learn.

What, then, was He to do? Should He reject a woman so eager to learn and so thirsty to hear her perplexities explained? This is in no way proper to the love of God for mankind.

Observe here also the modesty of the Lord. He remains alone by the road when the disciples have gone away into the city to buy food.

They regarded the needs of the belly as so secondary that, when almost everyone had dined and was resting, they were only then buying food, that is, bread alone.

Thus we too may learn not to be anxious about a variety of dishes.

The Savior was not ignorant of the woman's coming. As true God, He surely knew that she would presently come to draw cool water from the spring.

As soon as she came, He began to catch her in the nets of the Kingdom of God. At once He offered her the word of teaching and began the conversation from the things at hand.

The Law strictly required the Jews not to be defiled in any way. It therefore prescribed that they avoid every unclean thing and have no dealings with foreigners or the uncircumcised (Lev 5:2).

The Hebrews extended the force of the commandment further. Following their own empty inventions more than the precise prescriptions of the Law, they did not only refuse bodily association with foreigners.

This concerns the image of the sinner: this woman comes from foreigners and appears as an image of the Church. For the Church had to come from the Gentiles, alien to the Jewish race.

Therefore let us hear ourselves in her, recognize ourselves in her, and in her give thanks to God for ourselves.

Why did He ask this woman for drink? To fulfill the will of Him who sent Him.

He said, "I thirst; give Me a drink," in order, we must understand, to awaken faith in her and to drink her faith, so as to bring her into His Body. For His Body is the Church.

"A woman comes" (Jn 4:7). This is an image of the Church, not yet justified, but already destined to receive justification. This is the matter under discussion.

Our Lord came to the well as a hunter (Jn 4:6-42). He asked for water so that, taking occasion from water, He might give water.

As one thirsting, He asked for water, in order to arrange for Himself an occasion to quench thirst with a drink of another kind.

He made His request to the woman, teaching her that she too, in turn, should ask of Him. The supremely rich One did not disdain to ask as one in need, so that by His need He might move others to requests.

Nor did the embarrassment of speaking alone with a woman frighten Him. He thereby taught us that one who stands firmly in the truth cannot be put to shame: "They marveled that He talked with a woman" (Jn 4:27).

"A woman of Samaria came to draw water," because the inhabitants of the city mentioned above drew water from there, since there were few wells in the surrounding region. "Jesus said to her, 'Give Me a drink.'" From the fig tree that withered (Mt 21:18; Mk 11:12), Jesus Christ sought figs not because He was hungry, but according to the purposes of the divine economy, so that He might fittingly proceed to the miracle. So now He asks for water at the spring, not because He thirsts, but with a wise purpose. He wished to have a convenient occasion to speak with the woman. He knew beforehand that she would believe and would become the cause of many others believing. Therefore, once He began the conversation, He left the water entirely aside.

The Source cannot experience thirst, and He in whom there is living water cannot draw earthly, muddy water. Did Christ thirst, then?

He truly thirsted, but not for human drink. He thirsted for human salvation. He thirsted not for the water of the world, but for the redemption of the human race.

Thus, in a wondrous way, the Source, sitting by the well, there pours forth streams of mercy. With the wave of a living current He cleanses the woman living in fornication with a sixth man, not a husband but a lover.

In a new and wondrous way, the woman who came as a harlot to the Samaritan well returns cleansed by the spring of Christ.

She who came for water carried back chastity. Immediately, as the Lord indicates, conscious of her sins, she confesses Christ, calling Him Savior.

But when the Compassionate One was by the well, as I said, a woman of Samaria lifted the water jar upon her shoulders and came out from Sychar, her own town.

Who does not call her going out and coming in blessed? (Ps 120:8). She went out in filth, but came in unblemished, as a type of the Church.

She went out and drew out life like a sponge. She went out carrying water and came in carrying God.

Who does not call this woman blessed? Or rather, who does not revere the woman from the nations, the type who received joy and redemption?

When a fisherman wishes to catch fish, he goes to the sea, casts his fishing tackle into its depth, and draws out the fish swimming there.

So also did Jesus Christ, who in His divine economy cares for our salvation. Sitting by the spring, He caught the Samaritan woman who came to the well to draw water.

When she believed, He sent her to proclaim to the Samaritans the power of His Godhead.

Is this not an example of fishing filled with wisdom? Is this not a catch worthy of praise?

The Samaritan woman comes to the spring to quench her thirst a little, and there she meets the true Source. Whoever drinks from Him never thirsts.

As He sat thus alone by the spring, a woman from Samaria came to draw water. The Lord endured thirst as man. Seeing her coming, according to His humanity, to quench her thirst, He also saw, as God, her heart thirsting for saving water. She did not know the One who could give it to her. Therefore He hastens to reveal Himself to the thirsty soul. For He Himself thirsts for those who thirst for Him, as it is written. Beginning His speech in such a way as to be easily understood, He says to her, "Give Me water to drink."

Did the woman come at that hour to draw water by chance? No, but by the divine command and ordering. Having come there, she found salvation.

The salvation of men does not happen unforeseen or by chance, but by the providence and care of God.

Zacchaeus found salvation by climbing, according to God's dispensation, into the sycamore tree. Matthew found it sitting at the tax office, Nathanael standing under the fig tree, and Andrew and Peter casting nets into the sea.

So too the Samaritan woman, coming then to the well to draw water, found the Savior of her soul.

Did He ask water of the woman because He thirsted bodily? Though He thirsted as man after a midday journey, as God He could have brought water out of a rock if He had wished.

"A woman of Samaria comes." In saying this, the Evangelist wished to explain that this woman was a Samaritan, belonging to the tribe that inhabited Samaria.

Therefore he connected the words "of Samaria" with "woman," not with "comes."

The woman came for water. Jesus, being thirsty, said to her, "Give Me a drink." The astonished Samaritan woman, recognizing Jesus as a Jew, reminds Him that Jews permit themselves no dealings with Samaritans.

But Jesus came into the world to save all, not only the Jews. He explains to the Samaritan woman that she would not raise such a question if she knew who was speaking with her.

Nor would she raise it if she knew what happiness, what gift, God had sent her in this encounter.

"A woman of Samaria" means not from the city of Samaria, which was far from this well, but from the region of Samaria generally, a Samaritan woman.

She undoubtedly lived in the nearest city, that is, Shechem. Compare Jn 4:28-39.

"Give Me a drink." It is natural for one wearied from a journey to thirst. The Lord turns to the woman so that she might quench His thirst with the water she drew.

Yet thirst alone did not move Him to this. The Lord wishes to begin a conversation with her, in order to sow the seed of divine truth in her heart.

His all-knowing gaze saw there soil favorable for sowing. He loved to use occasions from ordinary life and images taken from visible nature.

Verses 7-8. "A woman of Samaria came to draw water. For His disciples had gone away." Samaria here, as above in 4:4-5, is the name of the region, not of the city. The woman lived in the city near Jacob's well (vv. 6, 28, 30). This was Shechem, not Samaria. "For His disciples had gone away." This is said to explain why the Savior asked water from the Samaritan woman. Some write, as Schleiermacher does, "We cannot believe that the disciples left Jesus alone. Certainly one or two remained with Him." But this means reading what is not written.