John 4: BACK TO the garden
John 4: Jesus at the Well — Covenant, Worship, and Revival
John 4 tells us that Jesus came to a town in Samaria called Sychar—also known as Shechem. This place carries deep spiritual significance. Both Abraham and Jacob built altars before the Lord there. Though the Old Testament doesn’t explicitly say that Jacob dug a well, John 4 states that Jacob had dug a well in that town.
It’s significant that Jesus, the Messiah, walked into this very town where Abraham made covenant with God and Jacob expanded the covenant by passing it on to his children—especially Joseph, whose bones would later be buried in Shechem. This was no ordinary town. It was sacred ground—a place of covenant, inheritance, and worship. And now, the One who made the covenant was stepping into that very soil.
It is also significant that Jesus came to meet a Samaritan woman at the well. Wells have always been places of divine appointment—Moses met Zipporah at a well, Abraham’s servant met Rebekah, and Jacob met Rachel at one. Now Jesus, breaking all social norms, meets this woman. Samaritans and Jews did not associate. Men didn’t typically speak to women in public like this—especially not a woman with a past. But Jesus was crossing every line: ethnicity, gender, and moral status—just to be with this woman, to set her free, and to give her the living water of eternal life.
In this place of covenant and worship, Jesus declares in John 4:24–25 that the time has come when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. This is restoration back to God’s original intent.
In Genesis 2, God tells Adam to “tend and keep” the garden. In the original Hebrew, these words can also be translated as worship and guard. It seems as though Jesus is saying that now, through Him—the One who gives the living water of eternal life, total forgiveness of sins, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit—we can become the true worshipers God has always desired: those who are filled with the Spirit and obey His words.
Jesus goes on to tell the disciples that the harvest is not four months from now, or some future time—harvest and revival are now. Now that Jesus is here, God has opened a way—not just for Jews, but also for Gentiles (whom this Samaritan woman represents)—to come into the Kingdom.
But what does it mean when Jesus says revival is now? Does it mean that everyone will be saved? No. In fact, we see Jesus not being honored in His hometown. So He moves on to Samaria and Galilee, where He finds people hungry for the Messiah. This is a takeaway for us too: we must recognize that Jesus has brought the Kairos of God. He declared in Matthew 4:17, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The time is now.
We shouldn’t wait to offer the living water of eternal life later—we must start offering it to people now. But what if they reject you? Then the Kairos of God ought to move to the next person. We see Jesus model what it looks like to establish the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is now available to everyone—but only to those who are truly hungry.
That Samaritan woman was hungry. She responded. And through her, many came to faith. This is the kind of person God is looking for.
So how hungry and thirsty are you for God?