Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Context

Jews and Samaritans lived near one another, but a deep religious divide separated them. Both looked back to Jacob as an ancestor, yet they disagreed about where God should be worshiped, and they usually avoided close contact.

As Jesus’ work in Judea drew increasing attention, he left for Galilee. His journey took him through Samaria, where an ordinary request for water opened a conversation about God’s gift, true worship, and the identity of Jesus himself.

Story

Near the Samaritan town of Sychar stood a well associated with Jacob. Jesus reached it around the middle of the day, tired from his journey, and sat down beside it. His disciples had gone into town to buy food.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus asked her for a drink.

The request surprised her. He was a Jew, and she was a Samaritan woman. She asked why he would request water from her when Jews and Samaritans did not normally associate with each other.

Jesus replied that if she knew God’s gift and who was speaking to her, she would have asked him, and he would have given her living water.

She looked at the deep well. Jesus had no container with which to draw water, so where could this living water come from? Was he claiming to be greater than Jacob, who had given them the well?

Jesus explained that everyone who drank from the well would become thirsty again. But the water he gave would become like a spring within a person, rising up into eternal life.

The woman asked him for that water so she would no longer be thirsty or need to keep coming to the well. Jesus then told her to call her husband and return.

She answered that she had no husband. Jesus said she had spoken truthfully. He knew that she had previously had five husbands and that the man she was now with was not her husband.

Realizing that Jesus knew facts about her life she had not told him, the woman recognized him as a prophet. She raised the long-standing question that divided Samaritans and Jews: her ancestors had worshiped on that mountain, while the Jews said people must worship in Jerusalem.

Jesus told her that the time was coming when worship of the Father would not be centered on either that mountain or Jerusalem. Salvation came from the Jews, but the hour had now arrived when true worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth. These were the worshipers the Father sought, for God is spirit.

The woman said she knew the Messiah, also called the Christ, was coming. When he came, he would explain everything.

Jesus answered plainly:

“I am he—the one speaking to you.”

At that moment, the disciples returned. They were surprised to find Jesus speaking with a woman, but none of them questioned him about it.

The woman left her water jar and went back into town. She urged the people to come and see a man who had told her everything she had done. She asked, “Could this be the Christ?” The people left the town and made their way toward Jesus.

Meanwhile, the disciples urged Jesus to eat. He told them that he had food they did not know about. They wondered whether someone else had brought him something, but Jesus explained that his food was to do the will of the one who had sent him and to finish his work.

He told the disciples to lift their eyes and look at the fields: they were already ready for harvest. One person might sow and another reap, yet both could rejoice together as the harvest was gathered for eternal life. The disciples were being sent to reap where others had already labored.

Many Samaritans from Sychar believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony that he had known her life. When they came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and Jesus remained there for two days.

As the people listened to Jesus for themselves, many more believed. They told the woman that their faith no longer rested only on her report. They had heard Jesus themselves, and they knew that he truly was the Savior of the world.

What We Learned

• Jesus crossed a deep social and religious divide to speak openly and respectfully with the Samaritan woman.
• Jesus knew the truth about her life without humiliating her, and he invited her toward the life only he could give.
• True worship is not secured merely by a particular location; the Father seeks people who worship in spirit and in truth.
• The woman’s testimony brought others to Jesus, but they came to faith by hearing him for themselves.
• Jesus’ mission reaches beyond one community: the Samaritans recognized him as the Savior of the world.