The Forgotten Waterpot

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then (therefore) [because the disciples had come] left her waterpot, and went her way into the city…” (John 4:25-28)

The woman then left her waterpot… Her leaving it shows that her natural human errand is forgotten or neglected as of no great importance compared with this encounter with the man who sat on the well. She was so penetrated with the great truths which Jesus had announced that she forgot her errand to the well and returned to the city without the water for which she came out!

How exquisitely natural! The presence of strangers (the disciples, now returning with lunch to share with Jesus) made her feel that it was time for her to withdraw, and He who knew what was in her heart and what she was going to the city to do, let her go without exchanging a word with her in the hearing of others. Their interview was too sacred, and the deep emotional effect on the woman was too overpowering to continue in the presence of others. But this one happening―she left her waterpot―speaks volumes. The living water was already beginning to spring up within her. She found that man does not live by bread nor by water only. She found water of such a wondrous virtue that elevated people above meat and drink and the vessels that held them and all human things. In short, she was so moved, so transported by her encounter with Jesus that she forgot everything, and with her