Difficult metaphors and thirsty conversation.

They are both a bit vulnerable. He is the wrong side of the border in a country that hates Jews, she is a woman alone.
He initiates the conversation, which is surprising; hatred for each other prevents Jews and Samaritans from speaking, and it is unusual for a man to address an unaccompanied woman. She reminds him of this when he asks her to draw some water for him; he is sitting by the well side but has no utensil to drink from.
The subject changes and the (still thirsty?) stranger begins to insert spiritual metaphors into the conversation. The woman seems to be a good match for him, reminding him that the well he is sitting by was given by Jacob to Joseph, his son. Does this stranger think he is greater than Jacob? She doesn’t fully understand the metaphor about water:
“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never be thirsty. The water I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”
She can’t imagine what that means, nevertheless she replies,
“Give me this water.”
Then Jesus, the stranger, turns the conversation towards her, he knows things about her that she has not told him. He speaks directly to the pains she has endured in her difficult life.
Now she turns the conversation back to spiritual things, “Where is the correct place to pray to God?”
The answer stresses spiritual over physical location; since God is Spirit the correct way to worship him is truthfully and spiritually.
Then the woman voices the longing of all humanity.
“I know that Messiah will come and he will explain everything to us.”
The man sitting by the well replies, “Messiah is the man who is speaking to you now. “
She believes him, puts down the water jug (at last Jesus can get that drink) and runs to the village, telling everyone,
“Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Anointed Savior of the World?”
What convinced her? The fact that Jesus knew about her before she told him, convinced her. He understood the difficult life she had lived, and neither rebuked nor threatened her but offered her some spiritual gift that she scarcely understood, but felt the need of.
Did she ever understand the spiritual metaphor? Did she know what Jesus meant by talking about living water welling up inside a person?
I’m sure she did. I know because people who have developed trusting relationships with Jesus have this ‘water’ surging up in their spirits. It is placed their by the Spirit of God, and surges up without being drawn up. It is a profound confidence that God is for us, a sudden upsurge of joy, a deep sense of security.
Jesus still initiates conversations. Mostly these conversations happen after reading or hearing the Bible. Sometimes they come through the conversation of a preacher, sometimes they just happen in the mind of an individual as he/she reflects on what the Bible says. When this happens, hurry and believe. The pressure of the world will drown out the voice (Jesus’ disciples came back and were silently surprised about why he was talking to her)
The wise individual will understand that Jesus is the Savior of the world, and that he is asking entrance into each individual’s mind and heart. Hurry to speak to the Divine, saying something like, “Give me this water.” Thus begins a journey, full of adventure and challenge, a journey to a time and place where earthly kingdoms become God’s Kingdom, earth is re-created, justice is done and God lives among his people.

Gospel of John chapter 4, verses 4-42
The Savior of the World John chapter 4, verse 42