One day Christ Jesus sat beside Jacob's well when a Samaritan woman came to draw water. He said to her (John 4:7), "Give me to drink." The woman was surprised, seeing that he was a Jew, because the Jews disdained her nation. Understanding her confusion, Jesus said, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."
The Samaritan woman believed that water must come from the deep well and that it had to be drawn in the accepted manner of that day. What could this "living water" be which was offered her by Jesus? His sayings confused the woman, and she exclaimed, "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep." Jesus was a teacher who, prodding mortal thought out of its inertia, inspired his listeners to think and to grasp new ideas. Inertia is mortal resistance to change. At the well Jesus was urging the Samaritan to forget the traditions of her forefathers, which went back to the time of Jacob, and to accept the living water, the newness of life—to exchange the physical for the spiritual understanding of life.
Throughout the history of mankind water has played an important part in the economy of human life. Hence, the simile of the water of life or living water is fraught with deep meaning. Civilization followed the rivers, men building towns and cities upon the banks of rivers because of the necessity for water. It is no wonder, then, that Jesus compared the flow of life to the living water. Water also stands for purity. It washes the human body of physical impurities and so symbolizes the destruction of the iniquities of men. Its cleansing agency restores freshness and newness, thus representing the restoration of the concept of man as the son of God, free from fleshly beliefs, free from sin, sickness, and death.
