Isaiah 55:1-5 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?…. I will make with you an everlasting covenant…. 5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.”
This prophecy from Isaiah is fulfilled, in part, by Jesus in chapter four of John’s Gospel. He is the one who freely gives the water of life to his people, even though some of those people are from “a nation you did not know.” This water of life is able to meet his people’s every spiritual need forever.
After the Pharisee’s suspicion of Jesus grows, he travels through Samaria. It is remarkable that he travelled this way and associated as he did with a Samaritan, since most Jews would have considered Samaritans to be worthless half-breeds with a very unorthodox view of religion. Samaritan women were even worse than the men. They were considered to be perpetually unclean.
Rather than dealing with Jesus’ claim to be the giver of living water and her own sinfulness (she was an adulterer), the Samaritan woman shifts the conversation to the place of true worship. Jesus calls her back to himself by saying that he is the true temple, the true place of worship. He is the Son of God, the Word made flesh, and thus reveals God to men.
The Samaritan woman finally speaks of the Messiah. Jesus tells her that he is the Messiah, the great prophet who reveals all truth. He is the one who brings everlasting life to all the nations of the world. In the end, she seems to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
