As we look at John 4, I want to share the three ways I think the Woman at the Well needed and experienced a COMEBACK.
I believe she needed:
A Spiritual Comeback
A Comeback of Her Credibility
A Comeback of Her Purpose
Let’s look at the her need for a SPIRITUAL COMEBACK first. In this encounter with the Woman at the Well, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a place for which she has come to be known. He meets her at a well. The spiritual conversation started with a discussion about Jacob. Who was that? He was Abraham’s grandson and was Isaac’s son. The Samaritans more generally claimed Jacob as their forefather, whereas the Jews claimed Abraham, the one with whom God made the Covenant. Over time, the northern kingdom of Israel, Samaria, gave themselves to idol worship and intermarrying with people from pagan nations.
The Jews in the southern kingdom would claim Abraham as their spiritual father and the Samaritans would claim his grandson, Jacob. Both groups were convinced that the place they would worship was paramount. Here, the Samaritan Woman was doing just that when she asked Jesus if He was greater than Jacob. This woman, and her community, had elevated a place, the place of Jacob’s well to give them a spiritual identity. We see this further in verse 20 when she says to Jesus, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Her identity as a worshiper had been tied to a place, but Jesus wanted her to know that true worship was not based on being in a right location, but it was based on being in a right relationship.21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
The woman said she knew that the Messiah was coming and that when He arrived, He would explain everything. Jesus told her that He was the Messiah, and He explained everything.
Living Water. That is what this woman needed. She didn’t need a dead religion. She didn’t need something that was tied only to the ancient past. She needed something that would give her life in her everyday experience. It was right in front of her. It was Jesus. That encounter with Jesus changed her whole life, and it made every other facet of COMEBACK available to her. When we get life with Jesus, we get everything else we need. Her spiritual thirst was quenched, and you will see as we go on that it energized every other part of her life.
The second COMEBACK I see is a COMEBACK OF HER CREDIBILITY. There was a reason she was at the well by herself in the hottest part of the day. She had a bad reputation. Her lifestyle didn’t lend itself to being well-liked. She was known to be in multiple relationships with men, whether one at a time or all at once. When this conversation took place with Jesus, she was living with someone she wasn’t married to. She was not a person anyone trusted, but after her conversation with Jesus, she left her water jar at the well and went back into the town to the people she had tried to avoid and told them about Jesus and her encounter with Him. Check it out for yourself in verse 29. What is stunning is that the townspeople heard what she said and instead of saying, “We can’t believe a thing you say” or “You’re just trying to get back into our good graces” or “You’re crazy, why would we take your recommendation on anything?” they actually came out of the town, verse 30, and made their way toward Jesus. And John is careful to tell us this in verse 39, “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
They believed because of her testimony. Pre-Jesus she wasn’t believable. She wasn’t credible. No one would have listened to anything she had said, but post-Jesus, she was leading people to Him because of her testimony. She had just experienced a CREDIBILITY COMEBACK. Something had happened to her in the exchange with Jesus that actually made her believable. Jesus was repairing her credibility and restoring her reputation. He truly is the God who makes all things new. Someone who couldn’t even live everyday life around others was now being used of God to bring them to Him.
This leads me to my third and final point. I believe the Woman at the Well experienced a COMEBACK OF PURPOSE. This woman had a new purpose for living. I am confident that day wasn’t the only day that she talked to people about her meeting with Jesus. It had changed everything. She had a new purpose now which was to share the Living Water.
It is easy to be defined by our failures, and when we get off track in life, it is easy to think that we are no longer good for anything or that we have messed up to the point where we no longer can make a positive impact on the world. I think it is easy for some people to think that if they are known for a certain bad or reckless behavior that now they have to sort of keep pursuing that direction and live up to that expectation even though it is a bad lifestyle. I guess some people think, “Well, if that is what people expect from me, that is what I will deliver,” and they just stay bound to a purposeless existence.
Life is not meant to be lonely or mundane without satisfaction or adventure. It is meant to be rewarding and energizing as we live out our God-given purpose. I should say that our God-given purpose is not in any way tied to the things of the world. Oh, a profession may be a tool God uses, a hobby may be a tool God uses, but our purpose is to glorify God and lead others to Him. After the Woman at the Well met Jesus, she encountered her true purpose for living.
What kind of COMEBACK do you need? Have you had a spiritual history that has maybe just become sentimental? Maybe it has become tied to a memory of the past, a place in the past or how things used to be? Maybe it is tied to the faith of your parents or grandparents like her identity had been wrapped up in identifying with Jacob and his well and the worship of God on that particular mountain. Maybe you have some spiritual knowledge, but you don’t have that relationship with Jesus that offers you Living Water every day. Today, you can have a SPIRITUAL COMEBACK.
Maybe you have blown it. You have really messed up. People no longer trust you because you have used lies, manipulation and deceit to get what you want. Maybe you have pursued the wrong things and people have gotten hurt in the process and they want nothing to do with you and have cut you off. That is a harsh reality to face. I have good news for you. Today, you can start a CREDIBILITY COMEBACK. By having a legitimate and ongoing encounter with Jesus your reputation can be restored and you can be known for your COMEBACK instead of your failures.
Maybe you wake up each day and think, “Why am I even here? What am I meant to accomplish? What is my purpose for living?” I will tell you first and foremost that if you are a follower of Christ, your purpose is to glorify God. How that plays out and becomes known is discovered through a daily walk with Jesus, through a daily drink of Living Water. Today, you can start a COMEBACK OF PURPOSE.
