Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

John 4:1-38

1. Now when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was winning and baptizing more disciples than John
2. (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were),
3. he left Judea and set out once more for Galilee.
4. To get there, he had to pass through Samaria.
5. Now he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6. Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.
7. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Would you give me a drink of water?”
8. His disciples had gone into the village to buy some food, so Jesus was alone.
9. You are a Jew, she replied, “and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink of water when Jews and Samaritans won’t have anything to do with each other?”
10. Jesus answered her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11. But sir, You don’t have a rope or a bucket, she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would You get this living water?
12. Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.”
13. Jesus answered, “All who drink this water will be thirsty again.
14. but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15. The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16. He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.”
17. I don’t have a husband, the woman replied. Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband
18. for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”
19. The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
20. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here on this mountain, where our ancestors worshiped?”
21. Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.
23. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him.
24. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25. The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”
26. Jesus told her, “I am he, and I am speaking to you now.”
27. Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But none of them asked him what he wanted or why he was talking with her.
28. Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
29. Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?
30. So the people came streaming from the village to see Him.
31. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32. But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33. Then his disciples asked each other, “Did someone bring him food?”
34. Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work.
35. Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest.
36. Those who gather the crop are already getting paid. They are already harvesting the crop for eternal life. So those who plant and those who gather can now be glad together.
37. For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’
38. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”