John 4:1-42
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, 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 the sixth hour.
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 flocks and herds?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but 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.”
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 fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus declared, “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, 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 spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in 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 who speak to you 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 Christ?” 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 Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the 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.”
I think many people keep secrets from the family, co-workers, and friends...Do we keep secrets to keep a bond with others, and we think secrets strengthen that bond?...Do we keep secrets, because we do not want others to know of our weaknesses?...Do we keep secrets out of fear of being hurt?...Do we keep secrets from being shamed?...Or do we just keep secrets because we cannot open ourselves up and talk about certain things?...Do we keep secrets, because we do not want others in our lives?...
Some secrets that we hide, and do not tell others can affect our health and how we feel...We have no secrets with Jesus...The Samaritan woman thought she had a secret...The reason she would come to the well in the heat of the day, was to avoid people...She was not currently not married, and had been married five times...She probably did not want to confront her past with others -and talk about that...A single woman was not as well respected in the Biblical society as married women...She knew her past would ostracize her with others...Woman in her society, in her time, derived their social status from their marriage...But, given her background (and we are given little detail), she seemed to figure out who the Man sitting at the well was pretty quickly...And another part of this story is that Jesus and teachers and rabbis were not to speak to women in public -this was taboo...Plus the Jews despised Samaritans...
She told others "Come see a Man, who told me everything I ever did...Could this be the Christ?"...Just one chapter earlier, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council was speaking to Jesus...He, too, was curious about Jesus, and had trouble with the many answers Jesus was giving Him...It seems an uneducated Samaritan woman, has talked to Jesus briefly and believes He is the Messiah...She immediately knew He was a Prophet...But back to her secrets...This woman has had five husbands, and now was living with another man, and was not married...Jesus knew this and knew everything about her life...She had no secrets with Him, because when we know Him, He shows us exactly who we really are...
Maybe she felt weak in her secrets...Maybe she felt shamed in her secrets...Maybe she felt some guilt in her secrets...Was there a good reason, for coming to the well in the heat of the day?...But whatever the reason there is no use to keep a secret from Jesus, because that is useless...He knows exactly who you are and what you are thinking...While others may think negatively of your secrets, and what you have done in the past -Jesus never will...He loves you...Sometimes we think secrets are good to hide from others, but it seems to release a type of spiritual freedom in the Samaritan woman...She says -come she can show the others Someone who knows all about me...Her shame is gone...Jesus loves her...