The Samaritan Woman at the Well (John 4:5-42)

We hear that our Lord “being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well” (John 4:6) We see here our powerful Lord who created all that exists without any labor, weary from the journey. We are reminded of our Lord’s great condescension when “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” It is so marvelous how as St. Augustine puts it that, “The strength of Christ caused that to be which was not: the weakness of Christ caused that what was should not perish. He fashioned us by His strength, He sought us by His weakness.” And just as Adam received his wife that was formed from a rib taken from his side while he slept in weakness, our Lord while sleeping on the cross in weakness gave life to the Church when he was pierced with the spear when the sacraments of the Church flowed forth. His weakness is our strength. It is in this weakness of our Lord that the Samaritan woman is able to encounter Jesus. Our Lord asks for a drink of water and the conversation goes back and forth about Christ’s Living water and the natural water in the well, with Christ eventually telling her, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again” (John 4:13)

Just as our Lord meant something spiritual when He spoke of the Living water that could satisfy her thirst for all eternity, he meant something spiritual as symbolized by the natural water from the well. The water in the well symbolizes the pleasures of the world in its dark depths which are drawn from with the vessel of lusts. This way of life never satisfies man, but only makes him thirstier and more malnourished spiritually. Only with great toil does man draw from this well that never satisfies. The Samaritan woman, while not recognizing fully the gift of the Holy Spirit that Christ was offering her at the moment, nevertheless expressed her unhappiness of drawing from the well of earthly dark pleasures by saying, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”

By our Lord telling the Samaritan woman, “the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life,” He was giving her the same invitation that He gave to His disciples when He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) When we stop following all the passions of the flesh, we can finally live a simpler life where we can rest in God, knowing that all is well in God because nothing can do harm to us or our loved ones except sin.


Next our Lord asks the Samaritan to call her husband. We then learn that she has had five husbands and that the man she has now is not her husband. This is a seemingly a very strange transition in the story. However, symbolically speaking, it continues right in line with what was just taught about following after the pleasures of the world. The five husbands represent the five senses of the flesh: hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch, by which every man born is ruled by until he can make use of the mind and reason. They are called husbands because they are lawful and right because they are gifts of God. But as we mature, we are called to move on beyond these senses of the flesh to the true husband of Wisdom. We are called to now discern between just and unjust, between good and evil, between the profitable and the unprofitable, between chastity and impurity, and to love the one and avoid the other. But the Samaritan woman had not yet reached this point and this man that she is with, representing her reason, is not her true husband. When we are capable of reason, but do not yet have Wisdom as our head, we have fallen into and are ruled by error. As was mentioned earlier, as our Lord in His great condescension approaches us in His weakness and reveals to us our lack of Wisdom, we are better able to recognize the powers of Christ and begin to mature and Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.


Then we are taught that it is not in physical mountains or temples where God is worshipped, but within man. We must ascend in the heart into the valley of weeping which is humility. We must make ourselves temples of God by striving after holiness.

Lastly, as we see the Samaritan woman come to the Wisdom of God, Our Lord is made her head as He declares to her, “I that speak with thee am He.” Now that she has received Christ into her heart, she leaves her water-pot that represents lusts, and runs to preach the gospel of truth.

May we learn from the account of the Samaritan women and cast aside all earthly cares and worship our Lord in spirit and truth, to whom be the glory, honor, and worship, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.