1Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples), 3he left Judea and departed into Galilee. 4He needed to pass through Samaria. 5So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his children and his livestock?”
13Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.”
16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17The woman answered, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’ 18for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
19The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things.”
26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”
27Just then, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What are you looking for?” or, “Why do you speak with her?” 28So the woman left her water pot, went away into the city, and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything that I have done. Can this be the Christ?” 30They went out of the city, and were coming to him.
31In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
33The disciples therefore said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”
34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35Don’t you say, ‘There are yet four months until the harvest?’ Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already. 36He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit to eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap that for which you haven’t labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I have done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days. 41Many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
43After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee. 44For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast. 46Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”
49The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51As he was going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!” 52So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.” 53So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house. 54This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.
Living Water
John 4 – Living Water
39 From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I have done.” ….. 42 They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
Never discount the spiritual effect you may have on others. The power of that effect is centered in Jesus and the relationship you enjoy with Him. Jesus was tired and sat down by Jacob’s well in a Samaritan village. Along came a woman to draw water. The dialogue between them is not only engaging and humorous at times; it also presents profound theology. She is a real character, but in a good way. As we’d say here in Texas, “this wasn’t her first rodeo.” She is blunt and sometimes seemingly brash, but above all, she’s as genuine as she can be. Jesus says, “Give me a drink.” We can easily hear her thinking in her mind, “Now what in the world is this Jew up to here?” She probes Him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, are out here asking me for water?” Jesus doesn’t answer her question. He throws out a comment to pique her curiosity. He says something like, “You don’t even realize the gift of God here in front of you because He can give you living water.”
The banter continues. She retorts, “Okay, big guy, this talk about ‘living water’ is all nice and good, but you don’t even have a bucket. Just who in the world do you think you are, some patriarch of the faith?” She still is not taking Him seriously. She’s probably thinking that this is a hustle she’s never heard of before. Jesus proceeds to tell her that He Himself is the living water that He’s talking about, and it will meet some deep thirst in her life such that she’ll never thirst again.” Perhaps half jokingly, she says something like, “Well, give me some of that so I won’t need to keep coming out here drawing up water every time I’m thirsty.” Jesus is definitely different, but she’s not sure exactly who or what He is. She senses He’s speaking in metaphor, but she keeps bringing it back to the physical. It gets real when Jesus tells her to get her husband. She responds with a half-truth (which is really just a whole lie), “I don’t have a husband.” In one little response, Jesus blows her mind, “That’s right, the one you’re shacked up with now isn’t married to you, and you’ve had five before him.” She now KNOWS that she’s dealing with something that has outmatched her wit. She calls Him a prophet and turns the conversation to spiritual things.
In the verses that follow, Jesus erases the petty spiritual differences between the Jews and the Samaritans. He is speaking the truth, and she knows it. And then she wonders, “Maybe just maybe,” I’m talking to the Messiah, and she mentions this. And Jesus reveals that He is the promised Messiah, that living water, that is the answer to all things. In an instant, she believes. She is not the same, and she will never be the same. The townspeople see the change, and they, too, are compelled to believe.“42 They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” Reader, have you met Jesus at the well? Has He revealed to you the truth about your condition? Have you believed and been changed in such a way that the “townspeople will listen to you and believe?” If so, continue to walk in Him. If you have not, maybe it’s time for you to visit the well. He’s there waiting to give you living water such that you’ll never thirst again!