John 4:13-18

¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." ¹⁵The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." ¹⁶He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." ¹⁷"I have no husband," she replied. ¹⁸Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

Jesus talks spiritual water; the woman is thinking physical. Jesus patiently and mercifully proceeds to explain more clearly what He had said. He distinguishes between the use of the two kinds of water; that the one serves the body, and only for a time, while the power of the other gives permanent life to the soul. That which quickens the soul cannot but be eternal; the Holy Spirit is an ever-flowing fountain. Jeremiah 2:13

Once again, lacking the tone of the words, commentators suggest two views of the woman’s response. In the first, it is said that she knows full well that Jesus is speaking of spiritual things, yet because she despises Him, she will not allow His authority over all to be her authority. She still sees no need to accept His offer of spiritual blessing (and she doubts that He could provide it anyway) – but she’ll gladly (and sarcastically) take His physical blessing (as if He could really provide living water that would prevent her from thirsting or making a daily trip to the well).

The other view suggests that the woman no longer mocks Jesus – as she perceives that He is serious. Nevertheless, she (like Nicodemus was) is still stuck on physical water – and notes the benefits of His offer, as it would save her both thirst and a daily trip to the well – but does not grasp that He is speaking of spiritual water, despite His language of eternal life. She is genuinely confused about the light, given that she is in darkness. She doesn’t understand the water, because she is parched. Yet in her dry darkness, the Light blinds her with living water. You may have heard, “God is a gentlemen. He won’t make you come if you don’t want to.” And that’s true. Instead, He makes you want to come. And that is so much better, so much more gentlemanly, than leaving us in the gutter where we are, hoping we’ll want to come out on our own. We see this in action in the next series of verses.

Jesus gets personal; the woman is confronted with her sin; Jesus drives the dagger deeper. Jesus, upon hearing her continued scoffs or misunderstandings (however you want to view them), applied an appropriate remedy to her disease. He struck the woman’s conscience with a conviction of her sin. His command to “go call your husband” has absolutely no continuity with their conversation. If we were talking college basketball and you asked me if I thought UCLA would win it all and I replied, “You have stinky breath,” that might be akin to what took place here. It’s not the way that a conversation takes place, yet it is a remarkable proof of Jesus’ compassion. When the woman was unwilling of her own accord to come to Him, He draws her. His drawing her is not against her will, however. Rather, He is performing surgery on her will. He is changing her will, making her willing. He is step-by-step operating on this woman to bring her to Himself. It’s a process. The woman is in her natural state and cannot perceive spiritual things (1 Corinthians 2:14), yet Jesus opens her eyes and makes her see. We experienced the same operation. We were unwilling and unable to come to Him until He brought us to Himself. And for many of us, it was a painful procedure. But we give Him all the glory for it, because we recognize that we did not come to Him until He came to us. John Newton wrote in Amazing Grace, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” He didn’t cooperate in his transformation, and that’s why he can sing that song.

Jesus says, “Go call your husband.” And the woman says, “I have no husband.” So Jesus presses His point. Calvin sums it up well: “We are so intoxicated, or rather stupified, by our self-love, that we are not at all moved by the first wounds that are inflicted. But Christ applies an appropriate cure for this sluggishness, by pressing the ulcer more sharply, for He openly reproaches her with her wickedness when He says that she has had five husbands…She had prostituted herself to fornication.” Her stony heart wasn’t penetrated by His command to call her husband. She thought little about her sin when she responded, “I have no husband.” But when Jesus is done with His response, you can bet that she is thinking about her sin. What would it be like to hear Jesus tell you the sins in which you are currently living? That’s why we need to live a life of repentance.