John 4:1-42
Jesus Talks and Teaches 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.”
When Jesus taught in His ministry, He was followed and taught not only His Disciples but also women...Women were not treated as equals to men...And yet, Jesus loved women, taught women, and sought out women to share the Good News...Luke lists three women who followed Jesus along with the disciples: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna...Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others...These women were helping to support them out of their own means...Jesus talks about women as disciples at other times...He does not differentiate between male and female on being disciples...While Jesus was still talking to a crowd one day, His Mother Mary and His brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to Him...Someone told Him, “Your Mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to You.”...He replied, “Who is My Mother, and who are My brothers?”...Pointing to His disciples, He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers...For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”...
Jesus had many teachings about women and helped many women in His ministry...Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead...So they gave a dinner for Him there...Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him at table...Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair...The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume...But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples (he who was about to betray Him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”...He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and was in charge of the moneybag...He used to help himself to the money that was put into it...Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial...For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have Me.”...
Another teaching was in the house of the Pharisee Simon...One of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him, and He went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table...And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner showed up at Simon's house...She had learned that Jesus would be there eating with Simon...When Jesus was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment...Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”...And Jesus answering said to Him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”...“A certain moneylender had two debtors...One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty...When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both...Now which of them will love him more?”...Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”...And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.”...Then turning toward the woman He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?...I entered your house; you gave me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair...You gave Me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss My feet...You did not anoint My head with oil, but she has anointed My feet with ointment...Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much...But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”...And Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”...Then those who were at table with Him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?”...And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”...
One day Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon...In the gospel of Mark, he writes about a Canaanite woman...Mark identifies her nationality...In Jesus’ time, Gentiles from this area were known as Syrophoenicians...Samaritans were another ethnic group Jews looked down on...Some authors note that the Canaanite woman’s status as a woman, gentile, and foreigner would make her a problem for many of the Jews of Jesus' Day...We see this play out in Jesus conversation, but He still has Great Concern for her and her daughter...The story is about a Canaanite woman from that vicinity who came to Him, crying out, “LORD, Son of David, have mercy on me!...My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”...Jesus did not answer a word...So His disciples came to Him and urged Him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”...He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”...The woman came and knelt before Him. “LORD, help me!” she said...He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”...“Yes it is, LORD,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”...Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith!...Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment...
The Messiah to come from the Old Testament Writings was a Jewish Messiah...He was not a Samaritan or Canaanite Messiah...But one would never know this by the Way Jesus treated these groups...Jesus throughout His ministry treated women and outside groups with respect and dignity....When one reads the gospels, I do not feel any tension about the way men saw women, and the way Jesus saw them and treated them...He rejected the false criteria upon which had a double standard against women and measured men and women by the same standards...He looked at their faith, their inner qualities of character and not by such happenings of where they were born or their ethnic or sexual differences...He treated women by His Manner, His Way, His example, and His teachings to them...He was an Inclusive Teacher...Jesus included women, and outside ethnic groups where the Jewish people excluded them from many activities and events...Women were excluded from participation in synagogue worship, restricted to a spectator role, and forbidden to enter the Temple beyond the Court of the Women...A woman was not to touch the Scriptures, lest she defile them...A man in Jesus' time was not to talk much with a woman...So men could enter the Temple of God, but not so for women...Women had a boundary line in the outer court where they could go and worship God...And women were also forbidden from touching the Torah, and rabbis would not teach women how to study the sacred text...And Jesus broke these rules in His Ministry, to help many and treat them as equals...