John 4:1-42
Jesus Talks to a Samaritan Woman
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When 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.)
9 The 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.)
10 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.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks 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 won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He 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. 18 The 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. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, 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, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you 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 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 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.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Jesus said He came to call on sinners, as He recruited the taxpayer Matthew to be one of His disciples...Taxpayers did not have a good reputation in Jesus' time, but He still chose one to be with Him during His Ministry -and it doesn't seem to bother Him...I do not think it bothered Him what others might have said about Him choosing a taxpayer to teach...I wonder if He found anyone offensive when He dealt with the people met and helped, as He traveled from village to village, meeting, helping, and teaching people...As I read the gospels, I always see He treated the sinner with respect, compassion, forgiveness, and LOVE...
Jesus dealt seemingly everyday, or almost everyday in His ministry with different people and different sinners...I don't think He would ever call any of the people He helped as moral failures...Jesus seems not to judge the seriousness of sins, in the sense, He did not rank the sins we commit, and have committed...Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman who had five failed marriages in her life...He spoke to her at length and got along with her as a Divine Messiah would...He never said you have failed at five marriages so you are at the top of the list in My sin list...As He talks to her, He doesn't seem to exclude her from His Ministry...He never excluded the woman who committed adultery (and where was the man who committed the other side of this adultery act) and rank her sin as worst than the Samaritan woman...And it looks like the Samaritan woman does some missionary work and gets many other Samaritans to believe in Him, because of her testimony...I do not read anywhere in the gospel that He excluded failed marriages, adultery, denying Him, helping one to overcome their unbelief, prostitutes, pride, hypocrisy, being a Canaanite woman, being Samaritan, being sick and bleeding for years from His Ministry...I am not sure which of these sins seemed to upset Jesus the most...He seems to hate the sin, but LOVE the sinner...He never seemed to differentiate one sin from another...He always seemed to have the right answer for people and include them in His following and Ministry...
We read about the above types of sinners and people of different backgrounds, and let us include the lepers who were left alone and were outcasts in the gospels...Jesus seems to believe that their is this Great Divine Harmony which all of need to see and believe in...And throughout the gospels He is a Rabbi of Inclusion as He teaches and helps them...He does not seem to believe in isolating a person or group because of their sins or their backgrounds...Jesus did not give up on people...He wants us to love God and to love neighbor, if we are ever going to make this world work...