The woman says to him, I know that Messias is coming, who is called Christ; when *he* comes he will tell us all things.
The talk at the well has moved from a drink of water to worship. The woman answers with her last hope — a coming Messiah who will explain everything — and she says it to His face.
She uses two names side by side: Messiah and Christ. They are the same title in two languages, and the title has a precise meaning.
An official title of the Lord Jesus, which came to be used as a name. In John 1:41 and John 4:25 this title is linked with the Messiah of the Old Testament. The Jews and Samaritans were expecting THE MESSIAH, "who is called Christ." ... The Hebrew word is mashiach and means "anointed." The same word is used of the high priest and the king as God's anointed; but the Lord Jesus is emphatically "the Anointed." The title refers to the Lord as Man, anointed with the Holy Spirit.
The Samaritans were rivals of the Jews, yet she speaks of a coming Messiah. One writer traces her hope to the Scriptures they kept — the first five books of the Bible.
It is an interesting fact that the Samaritans — the religious rivals of the Jews (John 4) — had a copy of the Pentateuch written in the ancient Phoenician or Hebrew characters. So it was not a translation. They regarded it with unusual reverence, and from it the Samaritan woman learned that Messiah was to come (John 4:25).
What she expected from Him was instruction rather than rescue. One writer, noting how the phrase about Christ has been read as the writer's own explanation, records this observation on her hope:
"The woman expected a teacher, not a liberator."
Another writer points to where her hope of full teaching likely came from:
Her expectation of full teaching from Him was very probably grounded on the passage in Deuteronomy 18:15-19. When He came, He would settle disputed points and decide every matter of doubt.
She does not say this at the start. She says it after Christ has uncovered her life and left her worship with nothing to stand on.
The deep meaning of the Lord's words may be entirely beyond what the woman can grasp, but at least they convince her that she cannot do without Christ. As the Prophet, Christ has spoken to her conscience and brought her face to face with her sins. In the presence of her sins she feels that earthly religion, whether in this place or that, will be of no use. Her sins exposed and her religion withered up, she knows that none but the coming Christ can meet her case. Christ as the Prophet has convinced her of her need of Christ as a Saviour. Her language is really the expression of the desire, "Oh that Christ were come!"
Her sentence admits as much as it believes. She hands the whole problem over to Someone else.
This woman did not have the Spirit, and so she could only look to others to teach her about everything. She felt these things reached out into a far fuller and richer system than she could take in. They were out of her reach. She had been brought to this — to feel that all her wisdom was ignorance. But there was One who would tell her all things. She had this one resource: she had heard and knew that Messiah is coming. So she threw her ignorance over onto Him. It was a happy moment for her soul. "I who speak to you am He," said Jesus. That was enough.
She spoke of an explanation still to come. It had already happened to her, point by point, in that talk.
"He will tell us all things" was the estimate she had formed of the Messiah. The One who sat there by the well had told her about her present and past life. He had told her too about the falsity of the Samaritan worship. He had told her what He could give. He had told her about God, and about the worshippers the Father was seeking, and He crowned it all by telling her that He was the Christ.
The Lord had reached her conscience. Her heart still had one thing to receive.
One thing more she needed, and He was waiting to give it: to know Him as already come, the One the Father sent. Without that there is no Christianity. He is everything, as He is in all who are His; but He is also for anyone, as the gospel announces, and the woman here discovers.
- Anointed. "Messiah" and "Christ" are one title in two languages. It means anointed, and Jews and Samaritans alike were waiting for Him.
- Expected. Her hope came from the first five books of the Bible, which the Samaritans kept — most likely from Deuteronomy 18, where the coming One settles every disputed point.
- Emptied. She says it only after Christ uncovers her past and leaves her religion no shelter. She has nothing left but the Christ who is coming.
- Entrusted. She admitted that all her wisdom was ignorance. She threw that ignorance onto Him, and that was the turning point.
- Encountered. The One she waited for had already explained her, her worship, God, and Himself. She needed only to know Him as present — and He gave that in one sentence.
Jesus says to her, I who speak to thee am [he].
The woman at the well has just named her one hope: a coming Messiah who will settle every question. The tired traveller who asked her for a drink answers that He is the One. Why did Jesus make that claim here, and why to her?
Commentators note how rare this moment is.
John 4:26 and following — The first direct assertion by our Lord that He is "the Christ," and outside Jewish territory.
The title was rare on His own lips. One writer links that silence to the death He came to die.
You never find the Lord saying He is the Christ, except to the woman of Samaria, "I who speak to you am He," and that was to a person who had no right to Christ. He delights to call Himself Son of man. He knew He had come to give His life a ransom for many, and so could not speak of Himself as the Christ. The Gospels are really the history of His rejection. In Samaria it was out of the way to do it, in one sense, because salvation is of the Jews.
Before He tells her who He is, He has told her what she is. That exposure is what makes her long for the One standing there.
In the presence of her sins she feels that earthly religion, whether in this place or that, will be of no use. Her sins exposed and her religion withered up, she knows that none but the coming Christ can meet her case. Christ as the Prophet has convinced her of her need of Christ as a Saviour. Her words are really the expression of the desire, "Oh that Christ were come!"
The exact wording carries the weight. He does not point to a Messiah somewhere else.
It was not merely, "I am He," but "I who speak to you am He." In these words He reveals His glory. He stands before her as the Messiah. He could, as she had said, tell all things. And He had now, as she had proved, really told all things — things that were terrible to hear for an awakened conscience. But He reveals it along with the sweet, humble, inviting grace of one who was sitting and talking with her. And this gave her soul the right to find freedom where she might have expected to be overwhelmed.
She had said the Messiah would tell them all things. One writer counts up what He had already told her.
The One who sat by the well had told her of her past and present life. He had also told her that the Samaritan worship was false. He had told her what He could give. He had told her about God, and about the worshippers the Father was seeking. And to crown it all, He had now told her that He was the Christ.
Her grasp of His words was thin. What settled the matter was not her understanding but His answer.
Her understanding may have been small. She could not grasp what Jesus had told her. Still, His love meets her where she can receive blessing and life, and He replies, "I who speak to you am He." The work was done: she had received the Lord. A poor Samaritan sinner receives the Messiah of Israel, whom the priests and the Pharisees had rejected from among the people.
The well is a pattern, not an exception. A warning comes with it for anyone who puts off the meeting.
Faith always meets Christ. He is the great divine discovery to the soul. All must meet Him on the throne one day. But this will be everlasting ruin for those who do not meet Him now. For them it will be judgment… To meet Him now by faith is life and salvation, as the Samaritan proved. Thousands saw and heard Him while on earth. But where there was no faith, there was no life. It was when the woman believed that she received the blessing.
- Exposed — He reached her conscience first. Her sins uncovered and her religion emptied out, she needed the very Christ she named.
- Revealed — to that need He gives the one open claim of His ministry, outside Jewish territory, to a woman with no right to it.
- Near — the force is in "who speak to you": the Messiah is not a distant figure but the One already talking with her in grace.
- Received — her understanding was small, but she received Him: a Samaritan sinner welcomed the Messiah the leaders had rejected.
- Now — everyone meets Him in the end. Meeting Him by faith today is the difference between blessing and judgment.