1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
— John 3:30-36, ESV

This is a true story.  It is His story and her story.  It is a gospel story that repeats itself every time someone is saved.

His name is Jesus.  The name literally means “YHWH saves.”  YHWH, or Yahweh, is God’s personal name.  Salvation is God’s principle purpose amongst mankind.  The embodiment of God’s person and God’s purpose is our God and Savior Jesus Christ.  

Jesus saves.  Jesus, being God of very God, is sovereign, especially over salvation (ref. Romans 8:28-30; Ephesian 1:4-11).  Jesus sovereignly saves.  Jesus sovereignly saves souls, including this one.

Her name is, well, we do not know.  She is simply referred to as “a woman from Samaria,” or, “the Samaritan woman,” or, the woman at the well.  She is as unlikely a candidate as you could ever imagine to make a profession of faith in Jesus the Messiah.  

This woman would have never come to Jesus on her own time, initiative, or spiritual journey.  So, Jesus came to her.  This is the story of how Jesus sovereignly saves a soul.  

He Chooses Where to Go

“And he had to pass through Samaria” (vs. 4).

Actually, He did not, at least not logistically.  Most Galilean Jews going home from Judea would take a route upwards along the Jordan River and completely avoid any town or village in Samaria.  Samaritans and Jews lived like Blacks and Whites in the Old South before desegregation.  They did not have to, care to, or normally choose to cross over onto the other side of the railroad tracks.

He did not have to go, spiritually, either.  The Samaritans were not part and parcel of the Old Covenant with Israel, half-breeds that they were.  They were syncretists, like most religious people today, picking and choosing from various religions to make their own personal plan, like car insurance or a seafood buffet.  They’d make great Americans!  They were plainly pagan, hopelessly lost, and not yet exposed to the New Covenant gospel.  

Fevered by missionary zeal, I have heard some evangelicals say that no one deserves to hear the gospel twice until everybody gets the chance they deserve to hear it once.  It is a fair sentiment, except for the fact it tries to make God fair, and He is not.  He is not fair, He is perfect, and He is sovereign.  

No one can claim they deserve anything from God, not even the chance to hear the gospel.  For to declare you deserve anything from God is to misunderstand both God and grace.  Grace is God’s gift of Himself to those who do not deserve Him.

And so it was, on his day, God shed His grace on Samaria by going there, by His own sovereign will, to share the gospel with an unsuspecting soul.  

He Chooses Who To Speak To

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her … (vs. 7).  

Providence is part of God’s sovereignty.  Providentially, the body Jesus had emptied Himself into was “weary” from a half day’s walk in the hot sun.  Providentially, Jesus was alone at the well, having sent His disciples “into the city to buy food.”  Providentially, a woman, not just any woman, but this woman showed up to fetch water at the exact time Jesus was there.  

Jesus chose to speak to her.  It was an unusual choice for that patriarchal and racially charged day.  Men did not speak to women and Jews did not speak to Gentiles, especially Samaritans, most especially a Samaritan woman like this.

Music played in the background as she approached: “Oh-oh, here she comes, watch out, boy, she’ll chew you up, oh-oh, here she comes, she’s a man-eater” (Hall and Oates).  “Man-eater” is a nice way of putting what people in town actually called her.  She had chewed through five husbands and was living with a man she hoped would be number six. 

Of all of the people in the world, Jesus chose to speak to her, about her, about Himself, about the gospel.  This was unusual.  This was rare.  This was God’s sovereign grace.

Since the creation of man, God has drawn a thin red phone line in the sand that travels from Adam to Abraham to Moses to David to Elijah to John the Baptist and to Jesus, and the only people He chose to call was a tiny little remnant in a tiny little country called Israel.  Since the first advent of Christ, God has opened up the gospel phone lines to the whole world, yet most people in the world have never had an actual, meaningful, spiritual conversation with God.  The effectual call of God is rare, gracious, and powerful.

God sovereignly chooses not to speak to most people.  People do not deserve to speak with God.  People, frankly, are depraved and do not want to speak with God.  But when God wants to speak with His people, His people listen.  “Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified” (ref. Romans 8:30). 

And so it was, on his day, God shed His grace on this Samaritan woman by speaking to her, by His own sovereign will, about the gospel of His sovereign grace.  

He Chooses How To Speak To Them

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” (vs. 16).

There are certain things you don’t say to a woman.  “How old are you?” would be one.  “How much do you weigh?” would be another.  “When are you expecting?” would be a dramatically wrong thing to say to a woman who is not.  I once heard another man make such a mistake, shortly before the death blow fell.  

Jesus, being the omniscient God, knew everything about this woman’s sexual history.  It was not good, five times divorced and cohabitating with a man not her husband.  Why in the world would Jesus speak to her this way?

Jesus, being the omnipotent God, knew the power of the gospel, and the first punch the gospel throws is aimed at our sin.  “I have no husband” was a thin disguise, and Jesus quickly looked right through her lying eyes.  “You got me,” she must have thought.  It was her way of confessing her sexual deviancy and habitual sin.  

Jesus, being the ultimate prophet, preacher, speaker, knows when to listen, too.  Once she started confessing, He just let her speak.  Her talk turned to spiritual matters of God and worship, and she had it wrong, like most people.  Jesus spoke to her about a better way, and “the way, the truth, and the life” that leads to true worship of the true and living God.  

Then, humiliated by her sin, humbled by her lack of knowledge about God, she cried out in despair, “Maybe one day I’ll meet the Messiah and He will set me straight, forgive my sin, and show me the way.”

“Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’”

Immediately, she began to text her friends:  WOW.  YHWH.  OMG.  Heart emoji.  They came running.  And so it was, on that day, that not just one sinful woman, but many sinners, met the Lord and discovered that Jesus sovereignly saves.

It is always this way.  God chooses where He will go, who He will reveal Himself to, and how He will save a soul.  All we do is sin and hide until God finds us with the gift of salvation by sovereign grace through sincere faith in our God and Savior Jesus Christ.  

Then, we worship, regularly, in spirit and truth.  Then, we witness, doing the best we can to tell to our family and friends about Jesus.  Then, we realize, it is Jesus who sovereignly saves, when you hear Him say, “I who speak to you am He.”