Jn. 4:10. Jesus answered and said to her: If you knew the gift of God and Who it is that says to you: Give Me to drink, you yourself would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.
Christ does not reveal Himself until the woman's virtue has been made manifest. But when the woman's virtue was revealed — her perceptiveness and exactness — then He begins to converse with her about higher matters. "If you," He says, "knew the gift of God," that is, if you knew what God grants, that He grants eternal and imperishable blessings, if you also knew Me, knew that I, as God, am able to give them to you — then you would have asked and would have received living water.
He calls the grace of the Holy Spirit "water," because it cleanses those who receive it and imparts to them great refreshment — not stagnant water, such as is found in pits and wells, putrid and spoiled, but "living" water, that is, springing up, leaping forth, flowing swiftly. For the grace of the Spirit makes the soul always active toward good, always making ascents (Ps. 84:5). Such water, living and always active, Paul drank, forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward to what lies ahead (Phil. 3:13–14).
Jn. 4:11. The woman says to Him: Sir! You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where then do You get living water?
The woman says to Him, "Lord!" Do you see how quickly she abandoned her low opinion and renders Him great honor, calling Him Lord. However, she did not grasp the depth of Christ's words, but He speaks of water in one sense, while she understands it in another sense.
Jn. 4:12. Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, and his children, and his livestock?
He considers Jacob his father and counts himself among the Jewish nobility. Look, if you will, at the woman's intelligence, how quickly she concludes from the difference of the waters about the difference of the givers. "If," she says, "You give such water, then without a doubt You are greater than Jacob, who gave us this present water."
The words "and he himself drank from it" indicate the pleasantness of the water. "The patriarch," he says, "was so pleased with this spring that both he himself and his children drank from it."
The words "and his cattle drank" point to the abundance of water. "This water," he says, "is not only pleasant, and so pleasant that Jacob drank it, but also abundant, and so abundant that it sufficed for the multitude of the patriarch's cattle."
Jn. 4:13. Jesus said to her in reply: everyone who drinks this water will thirst again,
Jn. 4:14. But whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never thirst; but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
When the woman said "are You greater than our father," the Lord, although He does not say directly that I am indeed greater, lest He appear vainglorious before having yet presented proof of His power, nevertheless prepares her for this with His words: "whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks My water will not thirst." That is, if you marvel at Jacob, who gave this water, then all the more should you marvel at Me, who gives far better water. For the water that I give becomes a source of water that constantly and unceasingly multiplies. For the saints not only preserve to the end what they receive from God, but through grace they receive the seeds and firstfruits of good, and themselves multiply and increase them.
The Lord points to this with the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14–31) and of the innkeeper (Luke 10:35). He who received two talents through putting them to work acquired another two (Matt. 25:17). And to the innkeeper who took in the man wounded by robbers, the Lord promises: "whatever more you spend, I will repay you" (Luke 10:35).
The Lord points to this here as well. I give water to the thirsty; but the water that I give does not remain in the same measure, but multiplies and becomes a source. Thus, in the instructions of Ananias, the Lord gave Paul a little water (Acts 9:17); but this small water of Ananias's teaching Paul showed to be a source, so that the streams of this source reached from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
Jn. 4:15. The woman says to Him: Sir! Give me this water, so that I may not thirst and not come here to draw.
What disposition does the woman show at this point? Although not yet a lofty one, for she thinks the discussion is about physical water, nevertheless she does reveal some forward progress. Before, she was perplexed and said, "Where do You have living water?" But now, having accepted that word as certain, she says, "Give me this water."
Therefore she appears more understanding than Nicodemus. He, after hearing a great many similar things, said: "How can this be?" (John 3:9). But she already begins to disregard even the well of Jacob. "If," she says, "You have such water, then give it to me, and I will no longer come here to draw." Do you see how she already places the Lord above Jacob.
Jn. 4:16. Jesus says to her: Go and call your husband and come here.
Seeing that she insists on receiving, and urges Him to give, He says: "Call your husband," as if showing that he too must share with you in this gift of Mine.
Jn. 4:17. The woman answered and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: you have rightly said that you have no husband,
She, in order to more quickly conceal and at the same time obtain, says: "I have no husband."
Jn. 4:18. For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.
Now the Lord, through prophetic knowledge, reveals His power, enumerates her former husbands, and exposes the one whom she is now concealing.
Some understand the "five" husbands of the Samaritan woman to mean the five books which alone the Samaritan woman accepted. "The one," He says, "whom you now have, that is, My teaching, which you now receive from Me, is not your husband; for you have not yet been joined to My teaching—that of Jesus."
Another may say that the Samaritan woman serves as an image of human nature. Our nature formerly dwelt on a mountain, possessing a mind full of divine grace. For Adam, before he sinned, was adorned with all divine gifts. He was also a prophet. Having awakened from sleep, he spoke clearly about the creation of his wife and the relationship of a husband to her, for he said: "This is now bone of my bones" and "For this reason... a man shall leave his father and mother" (Gen. 2:23–24). On this mountain, this lofty mind, was our nature, but for offending God it was led away into captivity. And the devil, having taken us captive, carried off the holy seed, that is, every divine thought, into Babylon, that is, into the confusion of this present world. In place of holy thoughts he settled coarse thoughts: lions reigning in us devoured our good thoughts, until they were persuaded to accept the sayings of God. But they did not accept them wholly. For wickedness, having once settled on our mountain, that is, in the mind, although it accepted the books of Moses, nevertheless did not become wholly good, but was still under a curse. And so Jesus, having completed His journey, that is, having traversed the many paths of the dispensation and the means for our salvation, improving our life now by threats, now by the blows of calamities, now by benefactions, now by promises of good things, and laboring to correct us by such means, grew weary. But He found yet another dispensation, upon which, as satisfactory, He sat down and rested. What was it? The fountain of baptism, by which He bestowed grace upon our nature, as upon a certain Samaritan woman. This fountain of baptism may rightly be called the fountain of Jacob, that is, of the supplanter, for in this fountain everyone tramples upon the devil. In it the Lord also crushed the head of the dragon, whom He gave as food to the Ethiopian people (Ps. 73:14). For it is none other than people darkened and black in soul, having no share in the divine light, who delight in and feed upon this dragon.