John 4:1-26

Relax, Read and Reflect

Prayer- Lord, Open our hearts and open our minds and help us learn. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

¹The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹The 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.^a]'>)

¹⁰Jesus 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."

¹¹"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

¹⁶He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

¹⁷"I have no husband," she replied.

Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

¹⁹"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

²¹Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

²⁵The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

²⁶Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

The pharisees, or the religious leaders, had been bitter about John. Now they turn their attention towards Jesus and his disciples. Jesus thinks it may be wise to go home for a while, but in doing so has to go through Samaria. The Jews thought poorly of the Samaritans and vice verse. Not only did Jesus go through this naughty land, but he stopped during the heat of the day, he asked a local woman for a drink.

Why was this odd? First; rabbi's or teachers did not talk to women, especially strange women. Second; since this was during the sixth hour, the heat of the day, this woman was an outcast by her own people. If she was in social graces she would go to the well during the early morning or late afternoon when it was cooler. We find out why she is visiting the well alone.

He tells her that if she gives him a drink of earthly water he will give her living water, a swap. She is intrigued about this living water- would this mean she would not have to come to well again? Jesus gives her a test, he tells her to go get her husband and return. She tells him she has no husband, which is a true statement. We find that she has had five husbands and is currently shacking up outside of marriage, shocking even for a Samaritan. She is impressed that a stranger would know this and asks if Jesus is the Messiah. "I am he," he answers.

Questions:

1. Why did Jesus leave Judea?

2. Why did the Disciples leave him alone, tired and thirsty?

3. Does the Samaritan woman have more faith than a pharisee?

Prayer- Lord, give us your living water so we may no longer thirst for truth. We want to wallow in it and follow you. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.