The Woman That Left Her Waterpot
“T?ie woman then left her voaterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Comey see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
It was a striking and instructive feature in the personal ministry of the Lord Jesus, that the most gracious and unreserved discoveries of His Messiaship were to the most unworthy and improbable objects. His saving and sovereign grace delighted to illustrate its wealth by conferring it upon the poorest, and its power by saving the most vile. It was dee’p in the mine of fallen nature He loved to sink the shaft of His Gospel, in quest of the lost and hidden jewels He had come from heaven to seek and to save. This fact introduces us to that large class of the community to whom, for the most part, our blessed Lord limited His ministry. They were the poor and unlearned, the depraved and despised of the race. Far different from these might have been His listeners. Had He chosen He might have identified Himself vnth the most celebrated scholars of Greece and Rome, placing Himself at their head, attracting and chaining them to His feet as His adoring disciples. He could have composed a poem, or have painted a picture, or have propounded a philosophy that would have filled all Athens with the splendour of His genius, and the world with the echoes of His fame. But this was neither His mission nor His sphere. He left these pagan sages to prove to the world that by its wisdom it knew not God; and suffered them to learn the utter inefl&cacy of art, science, and philosophy, either to emancipate their own selves from the grovelling superstitions by which they were enthralled, or to elevate the masses from the moral degradation into which they were sunk. The people asked for bread, and these heathen philosophers gave them a stone; they looked for a fish, and received a serpent. Thus true is the Bible, — ‘’Hath not Ood made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of Ood, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them, that believe” But let the evangelical Prophet Isaiah describe the nature of the ministry, and the character of Christ’s hearers: ‘*The Spirit of the Lord God is upon us, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek: He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound,**
The incident selected for our present exposition is a true, and impressive illustration of these remarkable
words. It refers to the conversion of the woman of Samaria. Our Lord had travelled forty miles on that day, and at the sixth hour (or, at about twelve o’clock, the time of the Jewish meal) weary and footsore He sat Him upon (or, probably, hard by) Jacob’s well. ‘’There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.’’ Then follows the remarkable, soul converting conversation of Christ with this woman, and the happy result, as narrated in the words I am about to unfold:” The woman then left her waterjpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men. Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ V — or, the Messiah. Guided by the leading points of this interesting and instructive narrative, three things suggest themselves for our study -. — Christ’s knowledge of the woman of Samaria, — the woman’s discovery of Christ, — and her spiritual change consequent upon that discovery.
The knowledge which the Lord Jesus possessed of this woman was marvellous and minute. They had never met before, and, perhaps, never met on earth again, and yet He knew all about her — her name, her abode, her past history, and the sad, sad life of sin she then was living. What a great and precious truth does this unfold with regard to Jesus — His especial knowledge of His people. “/ am the good Shepherd, and know My sheep: my sheep hear My voice, and I know them” Jesus knows them before conversion, when in their natural state of sin and rebellion. Hidden though they are in the quany of their unregeneracy, mixed with the world, lost in the crowd, He has His eye of mercy upon them, for He knew them from eternity. When the Father placed the lost jewels in His hand to seek and to save, each one passed before His eye; He knew them when, with His own hand. He wrote their names in His eternal Book of life; He knew them when He hung upon the cross, paying out His soul unto death — a ransom to God for their redemption.
Not less minute is Christ’s knowledge of His people after conversion. If He knew them from eternity, — if, when involved in the wreck and ruin of our’ fallen nature, He knew them, — if, in their rebellion and folly (lost, perhaps, in many instances, to virtue, honour, and happiness) He knew where to find them, — surely there is nothing belonging to them, since His sovereign grace has sought and found them, which He does not know — and with the minute knowledge of His own divine love. Believer in Jesus! the Lord knows you altogether: deem not yourself as hidden in the crowd. While His knowledge of His flock is universal, it is also personal and special He knows them collectively, and He knows them individually. You may feel yourself almost overlooked; those who are acquainted with you do not know you, and those who do know you may not understand you. But, be still every thought! hushed be every murmur! Jesus knows you personally, knows you minutely, knows you altogether. He knows your name, for He wears it upon His breastplate; He knows your burden, for He carries it upon His shoulder; He knows your sorrow, for He enshrines it in His heart; He knows all the way that you take, for all that way He has Himself ordained. Such knowledge as this, how unutterably precious to the believing soul! How closely and firmly does the faith of the Chiist-loving heart enfold around itself the omniscience of Jesus!” Lord, Thou hast searched me, and knovm me. Thou knowest my donmsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. If I take the wins of the m,oming, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall guide me!’
We approach now a remarkable and instructive part of the narrative — Christ’s discovery of Himself to the woman. In the course of a lengthened conversation the question of Christ’s Messiahship was raised. ‘’The woman saith unta Him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when He cometh He will tell us ail things.’’ The blessed Saviour could not resist this pointed and touching reference to Himself. The hidden spring of His Icfve was touched by the hand of a poor sinner, in quest of whom He had travelled that day many weary miles — and that touch, unconscious to herself, was irresistible with Him. No longer able to preserve His disguise, and, as if aware of discovery, He removed the veil, and stood before her — the long-promised, the true, the acknowledged Messiah: “Jesus
SAITH UNTO HER, I THAT SPEAK UNTO THEE AM Hk”
What a precious prophecy concerning Christ was now fulfilled! “ify people shall know My name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am He that doth speak: behold, it is /.” * What an honour did Jesus confer upon this woman! That He should make Himself known in such explicit terms, in so gracious a manner, and to so obscure an individual and so great a sinner, while from all others the fact of His Messiahship had been withheld, save to His Apostles — and only revealed to them under the seal of silence — surely was a marvellous and precious instance of His gi*eat and free grace to poor sinners. What an announcement, — “/ that speak unto thee am Hel” The discovery of a new world were as nothing to this! The Saviour promised, ere the gates of paradise closed upon our sinning and expelled parents; of whom Moses wrote, «jad Isaiah sung, and whose day Abraham saw; the Redeemer ‘whom types foreshadowed, and symbols taught, and prophets predicted; the Beloved Son and the unspeakable gift of God, now stood before this guilt-stained woman; the revealed, the confessed, the gracious Saviour of men! what marvellous, what sovereign grace!
*’ Isaiah lii. 6.
Here let me pause, and ask you, my reader, — Has there been a discovery of the Saviour, through faith and by the Spirit, to yofwr soul? Has this same Jesus been made known to yovj? I inquire, not if you have found Him, but, — has He found you? Oh! it is of infinite moment to’ you to be assured of this. The religion of many is a religion destitute of a manifestation of Jesus to their souls. It is a cold, lifeless profession of Christianity without Christ, — a form of godliness without the power. It is for your life I press the inquiry, — Has Christ revealed Himself to your soul? This is the essence, the very soul of vital, experimental, saving religion. Real religion is to know Christ, to have a revelation of Christ, — yea, it is Christ Himself in us. And there can be no true comfort, no assured hope until faith has apprehended or laid hold of Christ, and Christ has removed the veil from our heart and the disguise from Himself, and has spoken these precious words, — “I that speak unto thee am He.”
And the Lord Jesus is prepared to make Himself known to poor anxious souls. “What the woman of Samaria, in her deep sinfulness found, you may find, limit not His redeeming mercy, restrict not His free grace, doubt not His pardoning love, but bend your ear to His gracious voice. — “I that speak unto thee am He who came into the world to save sinners. I am He upon whom my Father laid the burden and the curse of your sins. I was wounded for your transgressions, and was bruised for your iniquities. I obeyed the law, and my obedience is your righteousness; I suffered and bled, and my death is your atonement I am He who bindeth up the broken in heart and healeth their wounds. I am He whose blood cleanseth from all sin, who pardons the guiltiest, accepts the poorest, saves the vilest. I require no merit, expect no worthiness, ask no price; but receive, pardon, and save you jvst as you are. It is My office. My delight, My gloiy to seek and to save lost sinners. I am the good Shepherd; I know My sheep and the work of My Spirit in their hearts, and the desire of their souls towards Me. I am He that speaketh unto you by My Spirit in My “Word and through My ministers; by all the temptations that prove you, and by all the sorrows that shade you, and by all the blessings that gladden you, and by all the hopes that cheer you. Let no voice but mine speak peace to your soul. Let no other pronounce you forgiven, or assure you that you are saved Let your prayer to me be, — ‘Say unto my soul, I am, thy salvation* Let Me speak, and all shall be peace!” Such, virtually, are the precious words of Jesus to every spiritually awakened sinner.
We now reach the transforming effect of this manifes — tation of Christ upon the character and conduct of this woman. Our text informs us, — “TAe woman tfien left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith
to the men, Come, see a man, which told roe all things thai eoer I did: is not this the Christ? “She left her waterpot. What means this sudden and marvellous change? Why this forgetfulness of her errand to the well? What had she found as a substitute? Why this hasty and eager abandonment of her worldly goods? Oh, she had now, by the Saviour’s converting grace, become “a new creature,” A new spiritual world had burst upon her view. She had found Him of whom Moses and the prophets spoke — Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God, the Saviour of sinners. She had found the Fountain of living water; she drank of it, and her soul lived. Until now she loved sin, lived in sin, and, but for Jesus, she had perished in sin. The object of His everlasting love, she now became the subject of His converting grace. The living water which Jesus gave her was now a well of water in her soul, — a springingweU of life, grace, and love in her heart; and, with this new-found treasure and this new-bom joy, she forgot her errand to the well, and retraced her steps back to the city, to tell her friends and neighbours what great things the Lord had done for her soul! Such, my reader, is tnts conversion! The Holy Spirit imparts a new and a divine nature; divine grace supplants the principle of sin with the principle of holiness, — changes the thirst for the world into a thirst for Christ. The pottery of earth is exchanged for the golden vessel of heaven, now filled to overflowing with the new-bom love and joy of Christ the Lord. *’ Whosoever drinheth of this water shall thirst again; hut whosoever drinheth of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst**
1 tUrst: but not as once I did,
The vain delights of earth to share;
Thy wounds, Immanuel, all forbid
That I should seek my pleasures there.
It was the sight of Thy dear cross.
First weaned my soul from earthly things;
And taught me to esteem as dross
The mirth of fools and pomp of kings.
“I want the grace that springs from Thee,
That quickens all things where it flows,
And makes a wretched thorn like me
Bloom as the myrtle or the rose.
Dear Fountain of delight unknown!
No longer sink beneath the brim;
But overflow, and pour me down
A living and life-giving stream I *’
Precious and important are the instructions we may gather from the whole narrative. We learn, in the first place, that our Lord’s initiative step in the conversion of this sinful woman, was to make her spiritually acquainted with her own self She was living in known and deadly sin. Jesus, who knew all that she was, said unto her, — ‘’Thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband** Thus did the Lord turn her eye in upon herself. Whence the knowledge of her sin? How did He know her life and read her heart? Because He was God as well as Man — the God-Man, Christ Jesus. What a proof of the divinity of our blessed Lord is this! Thus we learn, in conversion, that before the Lord makes Himself known to us He first makes us known to ourselves. A personal acquaintance with our sinfulness is essential to a personal acquaintance with Jesus as our Saviour. Have you been so enlightened, my reader? Have you approached God in the spirit, attitude and prayer of the humble and penitent publican, and cried, “Ood he ttwrdful to me a sinner” i this is the first step in your conversion! Lord! show me to myself, that I may know Thee!
We learn from the history of this woman the co-existence of formalism and sin in the same individual How close may be a religious form and an irreligious life! The woman of Samaria was a zealous Eitualist; she could argue intelligently and contend warmly for her place and mode of religious worship. ‘Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, tJtat in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship’’ How deceitful and desperately wicked is the human heart! Thus may an individual maintain with tenacity, and contend with fiery zeal for a form of godliness which is utterly destitute of its vital, sanctifying reality; for a party, a denomination, a church; and all the while be the vassal of Satan, the servant of sin, and the slave of concupiscence. But nothing can be a substitute for the new birth; no religious service, nor creed, nor zeal, nor profession, nor worship, nor sacraments, can be a substitute for the conversion of the heart. We mtist be born again, or eternally perish! Oh, let us examine our hearts, each for himself, touching this vital and momentous matter!
The Lord Jesus likewise teaches us in this narrative tfie nature of tribe and acceptable worship. He emphatically declares it to be spiritual” God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truths No other worship is acceptable with Him. However splendid the building, or beautiful the ritual, or imposing the ceremonial, it is nothing with Grod. The sweetness of the music, the grandeur of the service, the solemnity of the demeanour,-without the devotion of the heart are an abomination in His sight Let us seek much of the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, that we may worship our heavenly Father in spirit and in truth; for He seeks such, and only such, to worship Him. He looketh to the heart — ‘’to the man who is of an humble and contrite spirit*^ Oh how costly and precious in His view is the incense of a heart lying lowly and broken at His feet! — no sacrifice upon His altar is like this to Him. Thus our Christian HOMES may be true sanctuaries of God; the worship offered to Him there pure and spiritual, and its ministry — expounding and enforcing His sacred Word — a holy and divinely-authorized agency for making
known Christ, blessed and made a blessing, encircling the whole household with the fragrance of His precious name.
We are told, in the commencement of this spiritually instructive nanative, that Jesus “must needs go through Samaria.” Why this constrained necessity? Has it not a spiritual significance most precious? The whole incident supplies the answer. There was a poor adulterous woman living in that city, needing His grace, and for whom He had covenant purposes of mercy, and eternal thoughts of love, and He must needs — as in the case of Zaccheus — “pass that way” to search and find her, and draw her to Himself. We learn a most precious truth from this, my beloved reader. There is a holy needs be in all that Christ does. There was a needs be in the providence which brought you into grace; and there has been a needs be in all His gracious dealings with you since then, — a needs be in every permitted assault of Satan, and in every discovery of inbred corruption, and in every season of spiritual darkness. There is a needs be in all the way by which God is at present leading you, in all the dispensations of His love, in every cloud that shades, in every element that embitters, in every stroke that wounds. God dealeth not with His people as a despot, tyrannically and arbitrarily, — but as a Father, lovingly and wisely. O yes! there is a wise, righteous, loving needs 6e in all that He does with us. He would not thus have shaded your life’s bright landscape, nor have embittered your sweet domestic joy, nor have thus sorely tried your faith and patience, had there not have been a holy needs he; — some inbred corruption to subdue, some threatening evil to check, some unseen ill to prevent, some untold blessing to bestow. Yield yourself up unto God; and,” though now for a season, if needs be, ye are in heaviness through manifold tevfiptationSy* yet, the trial of your faith, though tried with ftre,^ will most surely result in your greatest good and in the Lord’s highest glory.
Have you left the waterpot? or, to speak less figuratively. Have you abandoned your idols for the Lord Jesus? — and, finding Him, have you turned your back entirely upon things that are seen and temporal. Caleblike, “WHOLLY following the Lord?’’ to be true followers of Christ! following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth — wholly, unreservedly following Him; renouncing a sinful, Christ-rejecting, God-hating world — its carnal enjoyments, its worldly gaieties, its human confidences, its unhallowed friendships and connections — following hard after that blessed Saviour whom the ungodly world condemned, whom the religious world covered with shame, and whom the infidel world nailed to the tree! Such is the world now! — and as such we must come out of it, and separate ourselves from it, and touch not the unclean thing. We must leave all, if need be, for Christ; we shall find all we have left, and infinitely more, in Him.” Lo, we have left all and followed Thee, And Jesus answered, and said, Verily, I say unto thee, TJtere is no man that hath left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake and the GospeFs, hut he shall receive a hundred-fold nofw in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life!’ And now the “waterpot” is left! The world ha§ lost its charm, the creature its attraction carnal sweets their power to please, earth is exchanged for heaven, and henceforth Christ is all in all through time and through eternity!
Let us imitate the zeal of this new convert, and seek to bring others to Christ. “Gome, see a man that told me all things that ever I did” One of the first publishers of the glad tidings of the Gospel would seem to have been a woman, just rescued from sin and made a monument of grace. The Lord would teach us by this fact that, while the ofl&ce of the Christian ministry, as a divine institution, stands alone, all private Christians not excepting the female sex, may, like the woman of Samaria, invite sinners to Jesus. While it is the work of the Holy Spirit alone to convert, it is our duty instrumentally to say, — “Come, and see Jesus.” Oh! let none of us aspire after a “starless crown.” May the diadem which Christ will place upon the brow of every disciple faithful unto death, be gemmed with many a precious soul, led to Jesus by our hands. Then, with the Elders we will lay down that jewelled diadem at Jesu’s feet, and He shall have all the glory, and to Him shall be all the praise!
Now will I teU to sinners round,
What a dear Saviour I have found:
I’U point to Thy redeeming blood
And say, — “Behold, the way to God!”
One word: “The well is deep! “God’s love, Christ’s grace is an infinite depth, — deeper than our sins, deeper than our unworthiness, deeper than our need. Come in child-like faith, and just as’you are, to Christ; and with joy shall you draw water out of this deep, this fathomless, this free well of salvation. ‘^ Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” The Lord add His blessing, for Christ’s sake. Amen.