“A Waterpot, A Well, & A Word!!!”
John 4:28-30
The Waterpot
This waterpot has a lot of valuable lessons that we can all learn and apply to our daily lives! Just like this woman, we all have a waterpot of our own. However, it is important to note that some of us have preoccupied our waterpots with stuff that should not be in them! The primary purpose of the waterpot was to carry water, but too many of us are carrying around so many other things in the pot that we can not use it for the exact primary purpose it has been designed for. The waterpot was supposed to be a means to a solution and not a method of suppression.
Some things that do not belong in the waterpot:
Anger, Frustration, Confusion, Depression, Worry, Gossip, Backbiting, Hatred, Disagreements, Grudges, Profanity, Adultery, Fornication, Lying, Gambling, Jealousy, Complaining, Alcohol, Drugs, Cigarettes, Murder, Suicide, Envying, Covetousness, Generational Curses, Dishonesty, Unfaithfulness, Unrighteousness, Unholiness
Some things that do belong in the waterpot:
Love, Joy, Peace, Longuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance, Friendliness, Blessing, Edification, Godliness, Righteousness, Holiness
Up until verse 28, this waterpot had helped to define the temporary purpose for this woman. What else she had to do later that day was not mentioned. Her previous future plans before this encounter with JESUS were not even pondered by the Bible. However, one thing is certain: verse 28 shows us that despite what her original purpose was when she left home that she had voluntarily relinquished that purpose and accepted the assignment of a new purpose that was meant for her to accomplish long before she ever touched the waterpot! This verse also shows us what we are to do after coming in contact with JESUS! She had left her residence with the waterpot in her hand apparently, but had left the waterpot at the well in the company of JESUS to go and carry a Word of Him and her witness of Him back into the town! She was to have carried the waterpot back into the town full of water but ended up leaving the outer vessel used to carry the need (water) to make sure and carry back the inner vessel that had been filled with the new Water that JESUS had spoken of (v. 14)! This Water that JESUS had introduced her to had in fact assigned her a new purpose for her life! It was so refreshing (John 7:37-39)! This woman had left where she was in the town carrying the waterpot with her the entire time. However, because of her awesome experience with JESUS, upon her leaving to go run back into town to tell everyone of what has just happened to her, she totally forgot about the object she had already been carrying around! This is to remind us that if we can just remember to move as the Spirit of GOD would have us to do, we also can move without restriction based on what we have already been carrying. Notice that the woman was not asked by JESUS to leave the waterpot behind, but she voluntarily did it! Also, look at the provision that had been made for she actually was concerned in the beginning with JESUS not having anything to draw with! However, in her haste to go and witness about Him, she did not realize that she had also left behind a tool of ministry for Him in that He could have (if He chose to) used that same waterpot to meet the physical need that He had in verse 7.
The waterpot had to have been:
Hard; round; of a considerably big size; leak proof.
The Well
The place where the water is contained in from the earth. It was at this same well that Jacob drank as well as his family and livestock. The woman knew the history of this particular well from learning about it possibly through her cultural upbringing. It was not a popular hangout but held much importance in their everyday way of life. Whether or not there was another accessible well close by is not known. However, the well contained water that was pertinent for survival of all physically living humans and creatures! Though there was no noted spiritual purpose of this particular well, its purpose in this text represents something far greater than that of just an average landmark or rest stop! For it was at this well that JESUS decided to stop, rest, and receive nourishment after waiting for someone to come and draw from it so that He might be able to drink! This in itself was rather amazing to understand and fully believe! Here we find JESUS who, just 2 chapters before this one, touched this very thing that He was waiting to drink and turned it into wine! This is the same JESUS that had stepped out on the edge of the boat when He and His Disciples were on a boat in the midst of a ferocious storm and told the waters and winds to be still at peace! This same JESUS had also in another like situation walked on the water to go unto the land on the other side in the midst of a great tempest and in the process also empowered Peter to momentarily walk on the water just as He was doing! Therefore, it is amazing to conceive and wholeheartedly believe that this same JESUS that had this type of power could have actually been in a helpless situation by not being able to draw any water from the well! He could have simply spoke the Word and the water would have filled up the well and overflowed for Him to drink as a glass would do under a running stream of water! He could have spoken a Word that would have made the water spring up in a small stream from where it was so that He could have drank from it as a water fountain! Not to mention the fact that He could have merely spoken a Word to nature and caused the rains to pour down in such a fashion that He would have the very waters of Heaven pour down and quench His thirst! Knowing that all of this is totally possible how is it then that JESUS was sitting here in need of a drink of water with no vessel to draw for Himself? Therefore, it is rather evident that His purpose for sitting on this well was not merely to receive a drink from someone that would eventually come and draw from it. His purpose for being at this well at this particular place and time shows us that GOD had already ordained this meeting that was about to occur! Here He is at the well at about the sixth hour. Why did he not get there at the fifth hour or at the seventh hour? The ordination of GOD is very clear on this wise in that it was the perfect time and place for GOD to work without hindrances (John 4:8)! This is how our Churches need to be---set up and centered around allowing GOD to meet others there, minister to them, work on them, and give them a new or renewed purpose in Him! Though this well was publicly accessible by many, at this point it was the basis of a one-on-one private & intimate encounter! This particular meeting was so intense that the woman never actually utilized the full purpose for which she had come to the well initially! However, one of the awesome benefits of the plan of GOD is that it always makes a completion of itself. Even though the woman is seen in the text leaving her waterpot at the well to go gather the people of the town, she also ended up coming back to where it was when she led the people out of the town to where JESUS was which was at the well with her waterpot! So even though her original plan was halted, she most likely was able to finish doing what she had initially started out to do in the first place. However, look at how much extra she accomplished just by moving according to the Spirit of GOD! This should in itself be a lesson for us all in that we should not get so caught up into pursuing what we would like to accomplish in our daily lives that we actually neglect the time and opportunity to allow GOD to use us to accomplish His purpose for us on that day!
The Word
In this particular instance, JESUS uses His Word to accomplish several different tasks within this situation. It is important to note and remember that the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. However, JESUS initiates conversation with this woman so as to set the stage for the ministerial work He is about to do. Seeing that He was truly GOD wrapped up in human flesh, He already knew whatever there was about this woman that there was to know! However, we need to be aware of His initial approach to conversating with her. He could have started off talking to her about her past, what she was doing wrong in her present, or what she was about to do wrong in her future. He could have also introduced Himself to the woman as to who He really was. He could have started teaching her in parables or preaching to her about what GOD said to do. However, He gives us an excellent example as to how simple and humble we all need to be in trying to witness to others! Despite all the different ways JESUS could have initiated conversation with her and all the different methods He could have implemented or the different works He could have done to captivate her mind, He simply chose to interact with her by trying to let her know of the need He had and how she could have assisted Him in taking care of it! This first statement unto her shows us how we should simply find a common ground between us and the other person! It does not matter how strong a person may seem to be or how disciplined they may seem to be, everyone alive comes to a point daily where they get physically thirsty! Knowing this, JESUS simply asked her for a drink of water. No matter how bad she may have thought of herself to be or what anyone else may have thought of her, she definitely would be able to identify with where He was coming from especially when she took into consideration that it was around the sixth hour of the day (noontime). However, despite how much she may have been able to understand the need that He had, she allowed her fear of the law and her cultural upbringing to try and offer a prejudice judgment towards Him by her response. This also shows us the all too common resistance that anyone may be able to face when dealing with an evangelical ministry setting! This is where JESUS simply continues along the same road she has chosen to turn down! Since she wanted to remind Him of what the laws, customs, and traditions were, He simply told her that if the shoe would have been on the other foot, He would have not only have given unto her, but also of what it was that she really needed! The next mistake the woman made was something that we all go through for she allowed what she was able to see to dictate to her about what she imagined concerning what He had said. Her mindset was restricted to the physical because she noted the depth of the well and the fact that He had no waterpot as she had. Apparently she may have been trying to discourage Him from proving what He said or challenging Him to prove what He has said. Since she could not see it (as we often do), she could not fully accept it for being true because it could not be proven based on her perception! Then she decided that she was going to try to compare Him to Jacob whom had died centuries earlier. She may have also been trying to make Him openly compare Himself to whom the Jews had accepted as one of their three great founding fathers of their nation (Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob {Israel})! However, JESUS did not fall for her little way of thinking for He was trying to elevate her mind into seeing what GOD was able to do for her spirit! He had to teach her within a few words that the water she was coming to get was only to satisfy a temporary need and would need to be done over and over and over again! However, the Water that He was offering her was what she really needed and deep down was longing for as all of us do (John 7:37-39)! This is the Water that quenches our spiritual thirst and comforts our souls into a state of Eternal Peace and Life! This woman has now had her mind captured by the Power of GOD for she now wanted Him to give her this Water so that she would not have to deal with her physical need ever again! She still had not totally grasped the concept that He was speaking of a Spiritual issue and not of a fleshly state! What happens next is in no way to be considered as happening by sheer coincidence! JESUS tells her to go and call her husband for if He were to actually be able to give her anything by law it would have to be by the permission of her husband only that she could receive it. This was not just His way of prying into her private life physically though He had told her this in a twofold sense. He was simply following the laws of the land but He was also about to usher her into a higher level of thinking concerning GOD and eventually lead her into her GOD-appointed purpose for that day at least! When the woman tells Him that she has no husband then He shows her His spiritual ability to deal with what she has tried to keep such a secret from others (as we all do)! Not only does He exclaim to her that she is currently without a lawful husband, but that she also has in her past had five husbands already not to mention that she was now in the state of unlawfully staying with someone that she was not legally married of even apparently espoused to! She then tries to turn spiritual on Him within a few seconds time. She has been able to observe that He dealt with something in her life that she had tried to hide from others and even keep secret in her own mind from herself. She, therefore, concluded by His Anointing to speak as He did that He must have been a prophet. Then she tries to go a totally different way with the conversation because He is starting to open up some sensitive areas that she wanted to try to keep closed forever! Up until now she had not said anything about worship or their fathers, but now it becomes such an important issue to discuss with Him to keep Him out of her festering wounds! However, JESUS was not concerned with who said what or where anyone said that it was necessary to worship GOD from or at! He tells her that truly they are caught up with worshipping something that they do not know much about, but He also tells her that the time would come and had already arrived where GOD would be seeking those who wanted to worship Him fully no matter where they may have been! He goes on to tell her that because GOD is a Spirit, that it was more than necessary that those who were to worship Him needed to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth! Therefore, JESUS defines what true worship is to us in that He states that it is conducted strictly in the spirit of man and must be based on the Truth of GOD which He is (John 14:6)! She then begins to focus on what she has been taught for so long that they are waiting on the arrival of the Messiah. This is where He chooses to reveal Himself unto her by telling her that He is the Messiah that she has longed for and has been waiting on to come! It must have been the most awesome encounter and meeting that she has ever experienced to actually meet the one she has heard so much about! The most looked-for and sought-after man to walk the earth ever was standing right before her and talking to her! He had dealt with her! He had ministered unto her! He had encouraged her! He had shown total love to her! It was so overwhelming that she had to run back into her town and tell everyone about Him! This is where we can all take a lesson from her life. If we have truly met JESUS and experienced Him as much as we say that we have, then why do we not drop what we are doing to go and tell someone about Him or even introduce Him to someone that needs to meet Him that He has directed our way? By her mere witness as to what she had seen and heard, so many people came out of the town to the well to meet Him and to hear Him which caused them to believe as well and even declare to the woman that they now believed not because of what she had said to them but because they had heard Him and experienced Him for themselves! His impact on them was so tremendous that this entire town was willing to discard their dislike for the Jews to ask JESUS and His Disciples to stay with the for a little while longer so that they might be able to hear His Word and receive it! Thank You, LORD, for Your Word!!!
