The process by which Jesus gradually unveils His full character to this
woman, so unspiritual and unsusceptible as she appeared at first sight
to be, is interesting and instructive. It would occupy too much of your
time for me to do more than set it before you in the barest outline.
Noting the singular divergence between the two sayings which I have
taken as our text, it is interesting to notice how the one gradually
merges into the other. First of all, Jesus Christ, as it were, opens a
finger of His hand to let the woman have a glimpse of the gift lying
there, that that may kindle desire, and hints at some occult depth in
His person and nature all undreamed of by her yet, and which would be
the occasion of greater wonder, and of a reversal of their parts, if
she knew it. Then, in answer to her, half understanding that He meant
more than met the ear, and yet opposing the plain physical difficulties
that were in the way, in that He had 'nothing to draw with, and the
well is deep,' and asking whether He were greater than our father
Jacob, who also had given, and given not only a draught, but the well,
our Lord enlarges her vision of the blessedness of the gift, though He
says but little more of its nature, except in so far as that may be
gathered from the fact that the water that He will give will be a
permanent source of satisfaction, forbidding the pangs of unquenched
desire ever again to be felt as pangs; and from the other fact that it
will be an inward possession, leaping up with a fountain's energy, and
a life within itself, towards, and into everlasting life. Next, he
strongly assails conscience and demands repentance, and reveals Himself
as the reader of the secrets of the heart. Then He discloses the great
truths of spiritual worship. And, finally, as a prince in disguise
might do, He flings aside the mantle of which He had let a fold or two
be blown back in the previous conversation, and stands confessed. 'I
that speak unto thee am He.' That is to say, the kindling of desire,
the proffer of the all-satisfying gift, the quickening of conscience,
the revelation of a Father to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and
the final full disclosure of His person and office as the Giver of the
gift which shall slake all the thirsts of men—these are the stages of
His self-revelation.
Then note, not only the process, but the substance of the revelation of
Himself. The woman had a far more spiritual and lofty conception of the
office of Messiah than the Jews had. It is not the first time that
heretics have reached a loftier ideal of some parts of the truth than
the orthodox attain. To the Jew the Messiah was a conquering king, who
would help them to ride on the necks of their enemies, and pay back
their persecutions and oppressions. To this Samaritan woman—speaking, I
suppose, the conceptions of her race—the Messiah was One who was to
'_tell_ us all things.'
Jesus Christ accepts the position, endorses her anticipations, and in
effect presents Himself before her and before us as the Fountain of all
certitude and knowledge in regard to spiritual matters. For all that we
can know, or need to know, with regard to God and man and their mutual
relations; for all that we can or need know in regard to manhood, its
ideal, its obligations, its possibilities, its destinies; for all that
we need to know of men in their relation to one another, we have to
turn to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who 'will tell us all things.' He is
the Fountain of light; He is the Foundation of certitude; and they who
seek, not hypotheses and possibilities and conjectures and dreams, but
the solid substance of a reliable knowledge, must grasp Him, and esteem
the words of His mouth and the deeds of His life more than their
necessary food.
He meets this woman's conceptions as He had met those of Nicodemus. To
him He had unveiled Himself as the Son of God, and the Son of Man who
came down from heaven, and is in heaven, and ascends to heaven. To the
woman He reveals Himself as the Messiah, who will tell us all truth,
and to both as the Giver of the gift which shall communicate and
sustain and refresh the better life. But I cannot help dwelling for a
moment upon the remarkable, beautiful, and significant designation
which our Lord employs here. 'I that speak unto thee.' The word in the
original, translated by our version 'speak,' is even more sweet,
because more familiar, and conveys the idea of unrestrained frank
intercourse. Perhaps we might render 'I who am talking with Thee!' and
that our Lord desired to emphasise to the woman's heart the notion of
His familiar intercourse with her, Messiah though He were, seems to me
confirmed by the fact that He uses the same expression, with additional
grace and tenderness about it, when He says, with such depth of
meaning, to the blind man whom He had healed, 'Thou hast both seen
Him,' with the eyes to which He gave sight and object of sight, 'and it
is He that _talketh_ with thee.' The familiar Christ who will come and
speak to us face to face and heart to heart, 'as a man speaketh with
his friend,' is the Christ who will tell us all things, and whom we may
wholly trust.
Note too how this revelation has for its condition the docile
acceptance of the earlier and imperfect teachings. If the woman had not
yielded herself to our Lord's earlier words, and, though with very dim
insight, yet with a heart that sought to be taught, followed Him as He
stepped from round to round of the ascending ladder, she had never
stood on the top and seen this great vision. If you see nothing more in
Jesus Christ than a man like yourself, compassed with our infirmities,
and yet sweet and gracious and good and pure, be true to what you know,
and put it into practice, and be ready to accept all the light that
dawns. They that begin down at the bottom with hearing 'Give me to
drink,' may stand at the top, and hear Him speak to them His unveiled
truth and His full glory. 'To him that hath shall be given.' 'If any
man wills to do His will he shall know of the teaching.'