John 4:1-26
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10Jesus 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."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17"I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
Jesus loves all of us, Jew and Gentile...He loves everyone, even His enemies...Many Jews and Samaritans considered themselves enemies...Jesus showed no animosity toward her or the Samaritans...
The Samaritan woman recognizes not only that Jesus is a prophet, He is THE Prophet...He is our Messiah, our Savior...He is also a Jew...But regardless of their differences, the Samaritan woman recognizes He is special, He is the One who was and is to come...She saw, heard, felt, and recognized something about His presence...
Jesus tells the woman that salvation is with the Jews...They know the scriptures and know about God...They knew about salvation...The Samaritans do not know the scripture like the Israeli's...God has no favorites...He does not care where we live...But the time has now come where God does not care about where religion is...Jerusalem was and is an important city of religion, but Jesus says now we can worship Him anywhere...Jesus is here, now...The good news would soon be revealed to the whole world, everywhere...
Who we are, our past history, and our past sins do not keep us from the Father and Son...
Jesus tells her that regardless of who we are (or where we are), we must worship God in spirit and truth....This is the kind of worshipers that God seeks...God is spirit...Jesus then repeats this about His Father's worshipers... God's worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth...God wants us to worship Him from our hearts...Worship involves faith and reason...Sometimes these two things, faith and reason, battle with doubt...Truth is where faith and reason meet...When we trust in the LORD, we can feel these two attributes of faith and reason meeting...Truth means worshiping the Father, the One God who Jesus reveals in His teachings...The God of Israel...The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob...Your heart must lead your head...Faith must lead your reason...Trusting in the LORD, and doing the spiritual act of worship means doing His good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:1-2)...True worship means more than an outward telling of others about the Father and Son...It is how we feel inwardly, an inner obedience, a fear and yet respect, about and to them...It really is a personal relationship with something we cannot see, yet still believe...Jesus tells a doubting Thomas, because you have seen, you have believed: blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:29)...