“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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

Although Jesus had come as Messiah to the children of Israel John relates to us an incident that shows that the gospel message is going to be preached to all peoples, not just Jews. The invitation to enter the Kingdom was going to be made to people of all religions and moral backgrounds not just law-keeping Jews. Jesus came to make the Spirit of God available to all. This is why John tells us that the first person that Jesus actually told that He was the Messiah was a non-Jew and an idolatrous and sexually immoral Samaritan at that. This show us that God can and does save the vilest of sinners simply by showing them some tough and honest love.

But Jesus appealed to her based on the water she sought from the well in Sychar. Water is one of the necessities of life. Today we in the west are blessed because we can just open the tap to partake of all the fresh, clean water we desire. But in most towns and villages in Jesus’s day, water had to be drawn from a common well. This is how Jesus met that woman. She had come to draw water but received something far better: living water in Jesus Himself. This living water brings us eternal life as it did for that woman. We Christians are bearers of such water for the Holy Spirit lives and works in and through us to bring mercy and grace to all, even to people we resent or do not like. Rather than complain or rail against such, we ought to pray for them and, as Jesus commands us, to love them in word and deed even though they hate both us and Him.