In the first chapter, the Evangelist explained the nature and power of the Word of God. In the second chapter, he pointed out two ways in which the Word manifested His power over nature: in the miracle at Cana and in His own bodily resurrection. In the third and fourth chapters, he showed how the Word demonstrated His power by bringing about the spiritual regeneration of fallen man through His gift of grace. In chapter three, he explained how this grace was offered to the Jews, and in chapter four, he shows how this grace was offered to the Gentiles. The Jews are represented by Nicodemus (Jn 3:1-21), a Jew through and through, a learned man, a leader of the chosen people. The Gentiles are represented by two people: a Samaritan woman and a certain official. The woman at the well (Jn 4:1-42) was a Samaritan, whom Jews considered to be Gentiles, even though Jews and Samaritans shared a common heritage, for Samaria was the capital of the Kingdom of Israel for the greater part of its history, from 879 to 722 B.C. Christ, Who is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 6:14), guided all three onto the road to spiritual regeneration, even as He offers His saving grace to all of us, for God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tm 2:4). These three people, taken together in their diversity, represent the whole human race. As Christ revealed His power and divine authority to each of them, He offers the grace of salvation to all people.

The grace of Christ was dispensed to the Gentiles in two ways: through the teaching of the apostles and through the miracles (signs) which confirmed the authenticity of their teaching: “And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it” (Mk 16:20). Through the story of the woman at the well (Jn 4:1-42), the Evangelist demonstrated how the Gentiles would be converted in the future by the teaching. Through the story of the healing of an official’s son (Jn 4:43-54), he showed how the Gentiles would be converted by signs.

St. John the Evangelist implied that Jesus went out of His way to avoid a confrontation with the Pharisees, when he wrote, “Now when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John” (Jn 4:1). Just as the Baptist had calmed the resentment of his envious disciples, Christ took steps to calm the rancor of the Pharisees. Our Lord knew what lay hidden in their hearts, for “before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him” (Heb 4:13). In His divine nature, Christ knew from eternity all things past, present, and future. In His human nature, He acquired knowledge through sense experience, just as any man would. It is this human acquisition of knowledge that St. John meant by the words, “the Lord knew.” It is not that Christ learned anything new through sense experience and discursive reasoning, but rather, He learned in a new way what He had already known by virtue of His divinity. Christ willed to acquire knowledge in a human way in order to affirm the reality of His human nature. He was like us in all things but sin.

Why should the Pharisees care that Christ was making more disciples than John? The Pharisees were leery of the Baptist, ever since his tense confrontation with the priests and scribes which the Pharisees had sent down from Jerusalem (Jn 1:19-34). Surely the Pharisees were not interesting in promoting John’s ministry. There are two ways to account for the interest they took in Christ. First, it is possible that the disciples of John who had complained about Christ (Jn 3:25-26) were either Pharisees themselves or allies of the Pharisees. On a later occasion, John’s disciples confessed that they strictly observed the fasting laws like the Pharisees: “Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’” (Mt 9:14). If the Pharisees mentioned in Jn 4:1 were also disciples of John, this would explain why they were concerned that Jesus was making more disciples than John. In this way, Jn 4:1 can be understood as a reiteration of the complaint they raised earlier: “here he is, baptizing, and all are going to him” (Jn 3:26). Second, it is possible that the Pharisees were envious of Christ’s success, just as they were of John’s success. Christ was speaking of the Baptist when He said, “Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of man will suffer at their hands.” (Mt 17:12) If the Pharisees disliked John’s baptizing, then they would have disliked Christ’s all the more, for “Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John.”

How did the Pharisees hear that Jesus was making disciples and baptizing? The good man hears in order to obey, as the pilgrims prayed on the way to the temple: “Lo, we heard of it in Ephrathah, we found it in the fields of Jaar. ‘Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool!’” (Ps 132:6-7) But the wicked hear in order to promote their evil purpose, as Job said, “Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears’” (Jb 28:22). The Pharisees heard what they wanted to hear in order to fan the flames of their own resentment of Christ. They heard two things. First, they heard that Christ was making more disciples than John. But we know that this was fitting, for John himself admitted, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3:30), for Christ’s teaching was more magnificent and more certain that John’s. Second, they heard that Christ was baptizing. This, too, was fitting, for by baptizing, He was cleansing the penitents from their sin, in accord with the Psalm, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” (Ps 51:4) In Ps 7:6-7 we read: “Arise, O Lord, in thy anger,” for anger is the pain of punishment for sin (Ch. 3, Lect. 6, on Jn 3:36); “lift thyself up against the fury of my enemies,” by baptizing for the remission of sin; “Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about thee,” that is, gathered about Christ, the Head of His Body, the Church.

“(Although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples)” (Jn 4:2). This presents an apparent inconsistency, for in the previous verse we read that Christ was baptizing. It appears that the Evangelist had corrected himself in the present verse. But, there is really no inconsistency in what he wrote, for we can explain the juxtaposition of these two verses in three ways. First, according to St. John Chrysostom, in the first verse, the Evangelist did not himself say that Jesus was baptizing, but rather that the Pharisees had heard that He was baptizing. In order to correct this false rumor, he explained, in the second verse, that it was Christ’s disciples who did the baptizing, presumably under Christ’s supervision. The reason why Christ Himself did not baptize was because the Holy Spirit was not given until after Christ’s passion and death, for it is written, “as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (Jn 7:39). It would seem, then, that the baptisms performed by Christ’s disciples before His glorification did not confer grace, but like John’s baptism, their baptisms prepared men to someday receive baptism with water and the Spirit. Second, according to St. Augustine, the disciples did indeed baptize with the baptism of Christ, that is, with a baptism of water and the Holy Spirit. While the disciples performed the external ritual, the washing with water, Christ alone effected the interior cleansing and spiritual regeneration of the recipient. The office of the disciples was to wash the body, whereas the office of Christ was to bestow the Holy Spirit, which cleansed the soul. So, it is true to say that Christ did not baptize, inasmuch as He did not pour the water, but it is equally true to say that He did baptize, inasmuch as He gave the Holy Spirit to each one who received the water. Third, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine offered the better explanation. However, Chrysostom was correct in a qualified sense, if we say that the Holy Spirit was not given in visible signs until after the Resurrection, but that He was given to believers by an interior sanctification when Christ’s disciples were baptizing with water and the Spirit before the Resurrection.

Did Christ baptize His disciples? It is possible that they were baptized by John, for many of them had been disciples of John. But it is more likely that they were baptized with the baptism of Christ, that is, a baptism of water and the Spirit, for it seems fitting that Christ would have baptized servants with the same baptism with which He would later commission them to baptize others. Thus, He said to Peter, “He who has bathed does not need to wash” (Jn 13:10), that is, since Peter had already been baptized with the baptism of Christ, he did not need to be baptized again.

The fact that disciples were allowed to baptize implies that it is proper for prelates to designate lesser clerics to perform baptisms, as St. Paul said of himself, “Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel” (1 Cor 1:17).

“He left Judea” (Jn 4:3a) for four reasons. First, to avoid a confrontation with the argumentative Pharisees, who were disturbed by the news that Jesus had been gathering disciples and baptizing. Here Christ taught us, by His example, that it is sometimes wise to yield to our persecutors for a time. Sirach advised the same, when he said, “Do not argue with a chatterer, nor heap wood on his fire” (Sir 8:3). Second, He quietly left that place to teach us that it is not sinful to flee from persecution. He instructed His disciples, “When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next” (Mt 10:23). Third, He left Judea, for it was not yet time for Him to die upon the cross, as He had said to His mother at Cana, “My hour has not yet come” (Jn 2:4). Fourth, in a spiritual sense, He left Judea to signify that His disciples, on account of the persecution they would face, would abandon the Jews and take the gospel to the Gentiles.

The Evangelist gave Christ’s intended destination when he added, “and departed again to Galilee” (Jn 4:3b). He reported that Christ went again to Galilee, for He had gone there before, to Capernaum, after the miracle at Cana. Galilee has been understood by various authors to signify various things. Some say Galilee signifies the Gentile world. The fact that Christ traveled from Judea to Galilee signifies that He first offered salvation to the Jews, who are God’s chosen people and heirs to the promises God made to their forefathers; and then salvation was offered to the Gentiles by the apostles. Others say that Galilee signifies the glory of heaven or the revelation of the Word.

St. John then gave the reason why Christ was in Samaria: “He had to pass through Samaria” (Jn 4:4), on the way from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north, for the region of Samaria lies between Judea and Galilee. The fact that He entered the region of Samaria seems to run counter to the instruction He later gave to the apostles: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 10:5-6). But, here it seems that Christ passed through Samaria, not by choice, but out of necessity, on account of its central geographical location.

The capital of the region of Samaria was the city of Samaria, which had been built by the sixth king of Israel, Omri, about the year 879 B.C. The region’s historical foundation is recorded in 1 Kgs 16:24, where we read that Omri “bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver; and he fortified the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.” This city remained the capital of the northern kingdom until its fall to the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

The Evangelist then further specified the location: “So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph” (Jn 4:5). Sychar is the city of Shechem, which is where Jacob camped during a journey through the region: “Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan” (Gn 33:18). There he bought land and erected an altar. It was also the place where Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, raped Jacob’s daughter, Dinah (Gn 34:2). In retaliation, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, slew all the males of the city (Gn 34:25). Jacob took up residence there and dug wells for his household. Hence we read, “Jacob’s well was there” (Jn 4:6a). The patriarch passed along to his son Joseph a parcel of land, with the words, “I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope which I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow” (Gn 48:22). This parcel is the “field” mentioned in Jn 4:5. These references to Shechem, Jacob’s well, and Joseph’s field were carefully recounted in order to demonstrate how the historical events of the patriarchs’ lives have culminated in Christ, Who descended from them, according to the flesh, through His mother Mary. Mention of the well is particularly apropos to the subsequent discussion of the spiritual font of grace, which is Christ. Speaking of Christ, the Psalmist said, “with thee is the fountain of life; in thy light do we see light” (Ps 36:9). The Old Testament prophet Zechariah prophesied of the day of salvation: “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (Zec 13:1).

“And so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well” (Jn 4:6b). Here Christ revealed His human weakness, even though His divine power was unlimited. He did this to affirm the reality of His human nature. According to St. Augustine, He was both strong and weak: strong, for “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1), but weak, for “the Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14). To demonstrate the reality of His divine nature, He performed great signs; to affirm the reality of His human nature, he frequently checked His divine power so that He might hunger and tire like other men. He called upon His divine power when necessary, in order to strengthen His human body, that He might not tire in His labors. Jesus allowed Himself to tire from this journey through Samaria in order to teach us not to shrink from striving to bring salvation to others. He laid to rest on the bare earth to give us an example of humility, and to affirm the value of the evangelical counsel of poverty.

In a spiritual sense, to sit down signifies two things. First, it signifies the humiliation to which the passions frequently lead. “Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up” (Ps 139:2), that is, God knows both the good and the evil deeds we do, even when they are hidden from plain sight. Second, to sit down also suggests the authority of Christ, for a teacher of great authority sits when he teaches, and his students gather at his feet, as when Christ gave us Beatitudes while sitting before a crowd (Mt 5).

The Evangelist indicated the time when he wrote, “It was about the sixth hour” (Jn 4:6c), that is, about noon. The literal reason for giving the time was to suggest a physical cause for Christ’s tiredness, for men grow weary in the heat of the day, especially when the sun is directly overhead at noon. As men are accustomed to take refreshment at noon, Christ stopped to rest near a well. In a spiritual sense, the sixth hour denotes temporal prosperity, as Job lamented, “if I have looked at the sun when it shone” (Jb 31:26). At noon the sun is at its zenith, marking the end of its rising and the beginning of its decline. Noon signifies the peak of temporal prosperity. The Word of God came in the flesh at noon, as it were, when natural love flourished in the world and reigned supreme. But, from that time on, natural love waned as supernatural love became more apparent.

“There came a woman of Samaria to draw water” (Jn 4:7a). This woman signifies the Church of the Gentiles, who had not yet been justified. They practiced idolatry, as this woman perhaps practiced adultery. They courted false gods, as she slept with a man who was not her true husband. But they were destined to be justified by Christ, as Christ led the woman to repentance. The Jews considered any Gentile a foreigner, as they did any Samaritan. As the woman came to draw water at the well, the Gentiles would one day come seeking Christ, as He foretold, “many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 8:11-12).

Christ prepared the woman to receive His teaching when “Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink” (Jn 4:7b). He asked for a drink for two reasons. First, in a literal sense, because He was thirsty. He wished to slake His thirst, having traveled up a long dusty road from Judea. Second, in a spiritual sense, He thirsted for our salvation because of His great love for us. And so, He cried out from the cross, “I thirst” (Jn 19:28).

One would expect His disciples to fetch the Master a drink of water. We are told the reason why Christ had occasion to ask this favor of the woman instead: “For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food” (Jn 4:8). We can make two observations. First, notice Christ’s humility, for all His disciples had abandoned Him, as they did when He was hung upon the cross. A prophet foretold this: “I have trodden the wine press alone, and from the peoples no one was with me” (Is 63:3). Christ’s patient humility, both at the well of Shechem and on the cross at Jerusalem, served as examples to His disciples, that they might suppress their pride and imitate their Master, for Christ said, “the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). One might think that lowly fishermen and tent makers would need no lesson in humility, for they were born into that condition and surely must come by it quite naturally. However, it often happens that, when a lowly man is raised to an important position, he responds to his elevation by exhibiting a haughty and arrogant attitude. This happens sometimes when simple men are raised to become prelates. Second, notice Christ’s temperance, for He cared so little for food, that He did not bring a sufficient quantity for the journey. By contrast, His disciples were so hungry that they left their Master to find a meal.

Although Christ asked the woman for a drink of water, He wanted to give her a taste of spiritual water. The reason He asked her to draw water for Him was to provide her with an occasion to question Him. And so, “The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’” (Jn 4:9a) We can make three points here. First, Christ chose to be born a Jew, for the Lord promised, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (Gn 49:10). He to whom the scepter belongs is Christ. Second, the woman could tell He was a Jew by the way He dressed, for Jewish men wore, on the corners of their garments, small tassels with blue cords. This was in accord with the regulation set down in Nm 15:38-39, so that they might frequently recall the Commandments whenever they catch a glimpse of these tassels during the day. Third, the fact that she asked the question indicates her surprise that a Jew would address a Samaritan, “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (Jn 4:9b). Many Jews avoided Samaritans, but Samaritans did not go out of their way to avoid Jews. The animosity the Jews felt for the Samaritans stemmed from the era of the divided monarchy. The northern Kingdom of Israel was comprised of ten tribes; the southern Kingdom of Judah consisted of the remaining two. Many Jews living in the north failed to keep the faith, and some even practiced idolatry. As a result, the Lord punished them, using the Assyrians as His mighty instrument. In 731, the Assyrian Tiglath-Pileser occupied Israel, and when Israel withheld tribute in 722, the Assyrian Sargon II deported Israelites from the capital city of Samaria and its environs, and resettled the area with a hodgepodge of pagan colonists. These colonists, who came to be called Samaritans, worshipped the God of the Jews alongside with their individual pagan deities. Their religious syncretism never sat well with the staunchly monotheistic Jews, especially with the conservative Jews living in Judah. After the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile in 538, the Samaritans interfered with Ezra’s effort to rebuild the temple and restore Jerusalem to its former glory. These unfortunate historical events were never forgotten in Judah. Even in Christ’s day, the age-old animosity that Jews felt toward their Samaritan neighbors smoldered. Despite the fact that Jews and Samaritans had a common heritage, Jews viewed Samaritans as Gentiles, outsiders, to whom the law of Dt 7 seemed to apply: “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, . . . you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, and show no mercy to them. . . . You shall not make marriages with them, . . . you shall break down their altars.” (Dt 7:1-5)

Why did Christ ask the Samaritan woman for water if it was unlawful for a Jew to associate with Samaritans? Christ said, “the Son of man is lord of the sabbath” (Mt 12:8). In fact, He has authority over all law, for all human and divine law is derived from the eternal law of God. Since He has authority over law, He can suspend the observance of a law for a suitable reason. He suspended the law of Dt 7 because the time had come to call all the nations to the faith. To call the nations, one must associate with them. Hence, He spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well.