"Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well" (John 4:6).
He had been driven out from Judea by the hatred of the proud traditional religionists, there was neither, room nor rest for Him in their dead ceremonies, and could He find rest in the false pretentions of the Samaritans? No, "neither in Jerusalem nor in this mountain" was there rest for Jesus. He sat thus — just as He was — on the well, wearied, thirsty, hungry — how truly Man He was, feeling in His spirit the hatred and rejection of the Jews with a perfect sensibility, and feeling in His body the vicissitudes of life also — the heat of the midday sun, the roughness and the length of the way, the pangs of hunger and thirst. And yet He was God, the giver of living water. He was wearied in body but unwearied in His love, and at that well side He found both rest and food in doing the will of Him that sent Him.
Let us sit with wonder at His feet and learn of Him. It is not by the strict observance of rules and traditions that He is pleased, HE CARES FOR SOULS, and the soul of a disreputable woman was precious to Him. What a sight for us to look upon, when rejected and driven out by His own people, He finds consolation and compensation in blessing this wretched Samaritan who had exhausted her life in the vain search for happiness. He spoke to her of the Father, of the Spirit, of Himself, and if He did draw back the veil from her life, it was but for an instant, that one glimpse of it in His holy presence might make her turn from it with loathing to find her rest in what God is — the giving God.
What heavenly light filled the soul of that once ignorant and unhappy woman when He had finished His gracious work with her! Was there ever a more ready or eager witness than she, when she went to the men of the city and cried, "He told me all things that ever I did, IS NOT THIS THE CHRIST?"