"The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:9-10.
'If you knew the gift of God', Jesus says to the woman at the well. What is the gift he's speaking of? The gift is himself. Jesus is the gift of God. And Jesus is saying to the woman, 'if you knew me; if you knew who I was; if you knew the power I posses; if you knew how valuable I am, you would ask me and I would give myself to you'.
Why would the woman want Jesus (even if she knew who he was)? The reason she came to the well was to draw water not to find Jesus. The answer is, the water from the well will leave her thirsty again, which is a metaphor in Jesus' conversation with her for all of life.
All of life leaves people thirsting for deep, meaningful soul-satisfaction. Jesus is saying, 'if you drink me you will be satisfied completely because I am not like normal water, I am 'living water'. I will satisfy your soul, all the way down to the bottom; I will slake your soul-thirst forever'.
'Sir, where can you get this living water?' she asks. Answer: 'you ask me for it and I give it to you. Freely. I will be to you the very gift of God. When my Father sent me into the world, he sent me as the gift of gifts; that gift that completely satisfies the longing of your insatiable soul'.
Jesus is the most valuable gift our souls can ever receive, which is why John tells us elsewhere, 'to those who received him (by faith, as the soul-satisfying gift above all other gifts) he gave the right to become children of God' (John 1:12). And, He is freely given to all who ask, because he has promised, 'Ask and it will be given to you' (Matthew 7:7).
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