She doesn’t have a name. We only know her as the woman at the well – a Samaritan – a group looked down on, shunned. But here was Jesus, in the middle of the day – his disciples gone to get food in the nearby village – asking a woman, a Samaritan woman, for a drink of water from Jacob’s well – and he’d have to use her vessel to drink from which would make him ceremonially unclean, as well. They converse – he can see her heart and pain, her longing to be whole and free. He’s never met her but he tells her all about her past and her present situation. He asks her what she’s waiting for and she says, ‘the Messiah.’ He tells her, “I who speak to you am he.”
She runs to her town and brings the people to hear Jesus. He ends up staying two days in the Samaritan village telling the people about the Kingdom of God. When he leaves all the people say…”we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42, ESV)