Living Water for a Thirsty Woman | Based on John 4:4-29, 39-42
Jesus was passing through the land of Samaria. At noontime he sat down by a well. A woman was coming from the village to draw water. When she was near the well Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink of water.” The woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” For the woman knew that the Jews had nothing to do with the Samaritans. Jesus 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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?” Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst again. Indeed, the water I give will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to Jesus, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw more water.” Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” She admitted, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands! And the man you now live with is not your husband!”
“Sir,” the woman replied, “I can see you are a prophet.” Then she quickly changed the subject saying, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews claim the place we must worship is in Jerusalem.” At this Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know. Yet a time is coming when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. God is a spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am the Messiah!”
The woman left her water jar at the well and ran back to the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could he be the Messiah?” Many people in the town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” They asked Jesus to stay with them, and he stayed two more days. Because of his words many more believed in him. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know this man really is the Savior of the world!”
