Jesus and the woman at the well

JOHN 4:5-42

So Jesus came to a town of Samaria which was named Sychar, near to the bit of land which Jacob gave to his

son Joseph: Now Jacob's fountain was there. Jesus, being tired after his journey, was resting by the

fountain. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to get water, and Jesus said to her, Give me

some water. For his disciples had gone to the town to get food. The woman of Samaria said to him, Why do

you, a Jew, make a request for water to me, a woman of Samaria? She said this because Jews have nothing

to do with the people of Samaria. In answer Jesus said, If you had knowledge of what God gives freely and

who it is who says to you, Give me water, you would make your prayer to him, and he would give you living

water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have no vessel and the fountain is deep; from where will you get the

living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the fountain and took the water of it

himself, with his children and his cattle? Jesus said to her, Everyone who takes this water will be in need of

it again: But whoever takes the water I give him will never be in need of drink again; for the water I give him

will become in him a fountain of eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so that I may not

be in need again of drink and will not have to come all this way for it. Jesus said to her, Go, get your husband

and come back here with him. In answer, the woman said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have

said rightly, I have no husband: You have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your

husband: that was truly said. The woman said to him, Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers gave

worship on this mountain, but you Jews say that the right place for worship is in Jerusalem. Jesus said to

her, Woman, take my word for this; the time is coming when you will not give worship to the Father on this

mountain or in Jerusalem. You give worship, but without knowledge of what you are worshipping: we give

worship to what we have knowledge of: for salvation comes from the Jews. But the time is coming, and is

even now here, when the true worshippers will give worship to the Father in the true way of the spirit, for

these are the worshippers desired by the Father. God is Spirit: then let his worshippers give him worship in

the true way of the spirit. The woman said to him, I am certain that the Messiah, who is named Christ, is

coming; when he comes he will make all things clear to us. Jesus said to her, I, who am talking to you, am he.

At that point the disciples came back, and they were surprised to see him talking to a woman; but not one of

them said to him, What is your purpose? or, Why are you talking to her? Then the woman put down her

water-pot and went into the town, and said to the people, Come and see a man who has been talking to me of

everything I ever did! Is it possible that this is the Christ? So they went out of the town and came to him.

While this was taking place, the disciples were saying to Jesus, Master, take some food. But he said to them,

I have food of which you have no knowledge. So the disciples said one to another, Did anyone give him

food? Jesus said, My food is to do the pleasure of him who sent me and to make his work complete. You

would say, Four months from now is the time of the grain-cutting. Take a look, I say to you, at the fields; they

are even now white for cutting. He who does the cutting now has his reward; he is getting together fruit for

eternal life, so that he who did the planting and he who gets in the grain may have joy together. In this the

saying is a true one, One does the planting, and another gets in the grain. I sent you to get in grain which

you had no hand in planting: other men did that work, and you take the reward. Now a number of the people

of that town had faith in him because of the woman's witness: He has been talking to me of everything I ever

did. So when the people came to him they made request to him to be among them for a time, and he was

there two days. And a great number more of them came to have faith in him because of what he himself said.

And they said to the woman, Now we have faith, but not because of your story: we ourselves have given ear

to his words, and we are certain that he is truly the Saviour of the world.