Jesus came to a
Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had
given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by
his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus
said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to
buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew,
ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in
common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “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.” The woman
said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do
you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who
gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus
said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be
thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of
water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me
this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here
to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and
come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to
her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had
five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you
have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a
prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the
place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her,
“Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not
know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the
hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to
worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in
spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is
coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all
things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to
you.”
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished
that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?”
or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar
and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man
who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can
he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi,
eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not
know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has
brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the
will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four
months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you,
and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already
receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower
and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One
sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not
labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him
because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever
done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with
them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of
his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you
said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that
this is truly the Savior of the world.” John 4:5-42
Because of Her
She was just collecting water
a daily strenuous woman's chore
her mind on the task cooking ahead
when she met a stranger at the well.
He asked for water and they idly talked
she working him resting from traveler
two strangers passing the time of day
until the world around them changed.
She knew all to well her personal failures
she did what she did for her kids and to survive
life never got easier but she was mostly safe
this encounter turned into a new understanding.
The strangers became family in God's love
confronted by forgivenness and understanding
she was reborn, lifted from her fears and scar
turned upside down by the living God.
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