Priming the Pump: The Teacher of John

It took me 40 years to realize the gift of God—the one the Teacher of John spoke of when he encountered the Woman at the Well of Sum Maria.

“If you knew the gift of God,
and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’
you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
—John 4:10

This verse—so often quoted—holds a hidden treasure in a single small word: “and.”
The Teacher does not say: If you knew who I am—the gift of God.
He says: If you knew the gift of God, and who is speaking with you…

That tiny conjunction reveals something profound. The Gift of God is not the man asking for a drink. The gift and the speaker are two distinct realities. The gift is something else—someone else—yet to be found.

Who Is the Gift?

The Gospel of John is deliberate in its naming. And one name stands out, easily overlooked: Nathanael.

His name means “God has given” or “Gift of God.”

In John 1:47, Jesus declares Nathanael “a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”

In John 21:2, he is again named—this time in connection with Cana, the place of the first wedding feast. This matters.

So why does the Woman suppose the Teacher is the gift?

Because he primes the pump.
He draws her out—into the Noon Day Sun and awakens the deep well inside her.
He does not give her a physical cup of water—but he gives her what no man had ever given her before: permission to seek, to ask, to believe she is worthy of the promise…
to Love and be truly loved in return.

According to John, the Teacher is Not the Christ

This is difficult to hear—let alone explain—so his disciples must listen if they have ears!

The Teacher of John—who speaks in riddles, who prepares the way, who rejoices at the Bridegroom’s voice—is not the Christ.

He says it himself:

“You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’”
—John 3:28

And again, in the same breath:

“The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice.”

The Teacher is the Forerunner—
The friend of the Bridegroom, not the Bridegroom himself.
He is the Baptist, the Son of the Father,
The one sent to prepare the way.

He does not give the woman living water.
Not yet.

Instead, he primes her—like an old village pump needing a few strokes to clear the air from her pipe before water can rise.
He draws out her confession, she’s had five husbands who have forsaken her, and the one she is with is not really her husband.

She is not yet the source.
She is the empty vessel.
The well that has not yet begun to flow.

But once she recognizes the Gift of God,
and he her.
Then he—the true Bridegroom—will give her living water.
And it will become a spring within her—
Ever-flowing. Ever-renewing.
A river rising up from the depths of her own being.

Only then does she become the well.
Because the Teacher in his asking if you knew who asked you for a drink,
primed her spirit to go and seek.

Seeking to know more about the man she just met—
She asks: “Could this be The Bridegroom?
My Lord?
Or is there another?

And then Nathanael comes along.

Was Nathanael—the Gift of God?
The one who would give her the water she was thirsting for?

Under the Fig Tree

“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
—John 1:48

Nathanael is found under the fig tree—
The very tree where Adam once hid from the Father in the Garden.

And as the Woman drinks in these words,
the truth begins to well up inside her.

Could it be?

Nathanael is the Christ—
The Everlasting Father Isaiah spoke of.
The Rock her soul has clung to since the beginning of time.

The one who was with her, even after the fall—
when she was lost,
when she was thirsty,
when she couldn’t remember who she was.

And the Teacher?
Yes—he is Christ,
the Son of God, the one born again of the Father,
the New Adam, the one who saw Nathanael under the fig tree.

But he is not the Christ who is the Bride— who belongs to the Bridegroom.

The Teacher of John is the Christ who comes ahead—
To prepare the way.
To prime the well …with a cup of water,
to drive out the demons,
the air, keeping her water from flowing.

He is not the Gardener, her husbandman.
He is Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.

And She? Well she is La Source.
She is Maria. She is the Magdalene.
The Amygdala, the almond branch.

Her faith is what makes her PURE.

The light hidden behind the veil
hammered and shaped into a golden lamp stand for the Holy of Holies.

Thus as The Teacher of John comes out of the tomb

He calls her to spring forth and blossom,
so that she might become the Christ who is the Bride—
and be re-joined to her Lord, her true husbandman, the Gift of God

She has always clung to
and as the Teacher and his disciples gathered at Bethany watch:

Nathanael, the father of Jesus of Nazareth—called Joseph, also known as Barnabas
—takes his Bride’s hand.
And a new covenant is read aloud, beneath the almond branch in bloom.

✦ ✦ ✦

This reflection has taken me 40 years to write.
It isn’t meant to stir controversy—but to stir the waters.
If your heart is moved and you’d like to go deeper, I welcome invitations to break bread and share more with your community or congregation.

The Gift of God is not what I imagined forty years ago.
And yet… can’t you see?

He has always been with us—waiting for his children to discover him… under the fig tree.