The Woman at the Well

(John 4:5-18, 25-26, 28-30, 40-42, GNB)

In Samaria [Jesus] came to a town named Sychar, which was not far from the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by the trip, sat down by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw some water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” (His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)

The woman answered, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan--so how can you ask me for a drink?” (Jews will not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use.)

Jesus answered, “If you only knew what God gives and who it I that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water.”

“Sir,” the woman said. “you don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get that life-giving water? It was our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well; he and his sons and his flocks all drank from it. You don’t claim to be greater than Jacob, do you?”

Jesus answered, “Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water I give him will become in him a spring which will provide him with life-giving water and give him eternal life.”       

“Sir,” the woman said, “give me that water! Then I will never be thirsty again, nor will I have to come here to draw water.”

“Go and call your husband,” Jesus told her, “and come back.”

“I don’t have a husband,” she answered.

Jesus replied, “You are right when you say you don’t have a husband. You have been married to five men, and the man you live with now is not really your husband. You have told me the truth.”

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah will come, and when he comes he will tell us everything.”

Jesus answered, “I am he, I who am talking with you.”

Then, the woman left her water jar, went back to the town, and said to the people there. “Come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. Could he be the Messiah?”

So they left the town and went to Jesus. When the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his message, and they told the woman, “We believe now, not because of what you said, but because we ourselves have heard him, and we know that he really is the Savior of the world.”