In part two of our summer series, we’re focusing on the woman who met Jesus at the well full of shame and feeling like an outcast.
Read excerpts from a Billy Graham sermon on this story from the Bible—and how Christ restored this Samaritan to be a Gospel witness.
In our moments of deepest need, God often meets us when we least expect Him. Take a look at the gospel of John where the woman at the well has an encounter with Jesus Christ that changes her life forever.
During one ministry journey, Jesus and His disciples travelled through Samaria, an area filled with national and racial conflict. But this leg of the trip wasn’t an accident.
“Jesus had an appointment there that He was going to keep,” Billy Graham shared at his 1993 Pittsburgh Crusade. “That appointment had been made centuries earlier in the council halls of God.”
Read the story of the woman at the well in John 4:1–45.
As Jesus stopped to rest near a well, a Samaritan woman came to draw water.
Her timing was unusual. Women often drew their water in the cool of the day, but this woman was there at noon, wanting to avoid the crowds and the shame that her sin brought upon her.
Though Jews didn’t typically interact with Samaritans, Jesus spoke to her with one simple request: “Give me a drink” (John 4:7, ESV).
“In just that moment, Jesus was sweeping [away] many prejudices that people have, like race,” Billy Graham explained.
Taken aback, the woman wondered aloud why a Jew would even speak to her, a Samaritan. But Jesus avoids the question to reveal her deeper need: “If you knew the gift of God … you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. … Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” (John 4:10, 13–14, ESV).
“Many people are like that,” Billy Graham said. “They’re searching for something … that will bring satisfaction and quench this terrible spiritual thirst that only God can satisfy.”
The Samaritan woman still thinks He’s offering physical water, so He says: “Go, call your husband, and come here” (John 4:16, ESV). In His omniscience, Jesus reveals that the woman has had five husbands and is currently with someone who isn’t her husband.
“It was as if a thousand search lights had been turned on in her heart, and every dirty secret in her life leaked into the glare,” Billy Graham said.
Jesus showed His knowledge of the woman’s past—and revealed His identity as the Messiah, since only God could know the things He shared with her. She left her water jar and ran into town, carrying a very simple message.
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did,” she said to the people. “Can this be the Christ?” (John 4:29, ESV).
Her appeal was powerful.
“Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony …” Scripture tells us (John 4:39, ESV).
“She didn’t have much theology to tell them,” Billy Graham said. “She didn’t know what to say. All she said was, ‘Come and see Jesus, and Jesus can change your life as He’s changed mine.’
“Have you [encountered] Jesus like that?”
What Does Her Story Have to Do With You?
Life is filled with distractions that can turn us away from Jesus. We race through our busy schedules, seeking approval and contentment apart from God, only to come up empty.
The Samaritan woman looked for acceptance through human relationships. But Jesus showed her how this search for meaning came up short time after time.
“Deep inside your heart, something is lacking,” Billy Graham said. “There isn’t the fulfilment and the satisfaction and the peace that you would like to have, that you believe God could give you. What should you do? Drink of the living water.”
Jesus calls us to turn to Him, trusting that He alone will meet every need.
Go Deeper
Read part one of our summer series on Zacchaeus.