Your Wells of Sychar


In this passage Jesus is traveling from Judea to Galilee, which is several miles north. History tells us that the established route between the two towns was to the east, along the path of the Jordan River which takes you straight to the Sea of Galilee. However, Jesus does not take the established route. Instead, He chooses to take a more westerly route through Samaria, a place shunned by the Jew as a theological ghetto. Why does Jesus take the usually-avoided road through the land occupied by the despised Samaritans? Why is it that He “must needs go” this way? Because Jesus knew that in Samaria, there was a well called Jacob’s Well, where at the sixth hour, a woman would come by who was appointed from eternity past to meet with Christ. He “must needs go”.

Humanly speaking, John chapter 4 is full of common things. “And he must needs go through Samaria“. There was nothing in the meeting at Sychar’s well that could not be explained by natural things. There was no miracle in going through Samaria. He “must needs” go through Samaria. Geographically it was on his way to Galilee. There was no miracle in resting at the well. He “must needs” rest there, He was thirsty and wanted something to slate His thirst. There was no miracle in finding the Samaritan woman whom He saved. He “must needs” find her. She too was in need of water, and came to draw at a time in the day when she would not be bothered by any of the Samaritan villagers. The whole scene was pieced together by the unfolding of the regular threads of natural progression. Each separate event, before it happened, was predictable. Jesus went to Galilee, through Samaria, by a well, where he met a woman. Several seemingly insignificant pieces, formed a composite whole, all from the normal, the predictable, and the mundane. Yet when all the pieces were put together, something Divine occurred. In other words, there was more to the whole than all the separate parts. Each natural incident was the handmaiden to an end beyond itself. Something that could not be seen by any single piece. Three natural needs; weariness, thirst, and a visit, composed a supernatural result; they brought salvation into a soul, and into a city.

Reader, do not refuse to see the Lord in the small things in life because you can’t trace the divine links between them. Was Peter’s dream of the meat filled blanket from heaven less real because the vision came from hunger? No. The hunger and the dream were both God’s messengers to him. Remember by this verse, that often, a good treasure is hid in an earthen vessels. God often speaks to His children in pieces. In our passing through Samaria (as it were), in our thirst for water, in our coming to a well, in an unexpected visit; never say that the little things of life are insignificant. Christ will cleanse them all in the final mosaic. Eventually, on that great day, they will all be apart of the completed whole. For some, they will see old sins pass before them piece by piece to form a blackened storm cloud of secrets against them. But for those in Christ, as these pieces come together, many events you believe should be first, will be last, and many that seem last will be first. For the believer, dark valleys will become glorious mountains. Hours that seemed to be of no apparent value; moments that appeared to be of little consequence; actions that in their doing seemed but ripples in the stream, will be found to be the very tidal waves that led your life to Christ and heaven. Never neglect your wells of Sychar, dear soul. For where you seem to be drawing only earthly water, you may be partaking all the time of those living springs whereof they that taste, shall never thirst again.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Lewis