John 4:3-26 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
John records that “the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John” (John 4:1), and so he left Judea to go back to Galilee.
This lesson reads what happened on the way, beside a well in Samaria.
3he left Judea and departed into Galilee.
4He needed to pass through Samaria.
5So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
8For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water?
12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his children and his livestock?”
13Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again,
14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.”
16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17The woman answered, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’
18for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
19The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
23But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.
24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things.”
26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”
He needed to pass through Samaria. “He left Judea and departed into Galilee” (v. 3). “He needed to pass through Samaria” (v. 4). “So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph” (v. 5). “Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour” (v. 6).
Give me a drink. “A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’” (v. 7). “For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food” (v. 8). She said, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (v. 9). The passage adds: “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (v. 9). It was Jesus who spoke first.
Living water. Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (v. 10). She said, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water?” (v. 11), and she spoke of “our father Jacob, who gave us the well” (v. 12). Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again” (v. 13), “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (v. 14). Then she said, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw” (v. 15).
Your husband. “Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here’” (v. 16). “The woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You said well, “I have no husband,”’” (v. 17) “for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly” (v. 18).
Where to worship. “The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet’” (v. 19). “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” (v. 20). Jesus said, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father” (v. 21), and “salvation is from the Jews” (v. 22). “But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers” (v. 23). “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (v. 24).
I am he. “The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things’” (v. 25). “Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who speaks to you’” (v. 26). She spoke of the one who was still to come; Jesus spoke of the one who was speaking with her now.
Afterwards. “Just then, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman” (v. 27); “So the woman left her water pot, went away into the city” (v. 28). The next lesson reads what happened after she went into the city.
Luke records that another time, when Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, his messengers “went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him” (Luke 9:52). “They didn’t receive him, because he was traveling with his face set toward Jerusalem” (Luke 9:53).
Readers can see this: in this chapter John says, “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (v. 9).
Perhaps there are questions you have carried in your heart for many years: where God is, how he is to be worshiped, whether he really pays attention to you. You have thought that perhaps you will understand one day, far in the future.
This lesson does not say that all your questions will be answered in one conversation; nor does it say that you need first to settle where and how to worship before you can come to him. What it shows you is this: “Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well” (v. 6), and he was the first to speak to her: “Give me a drink” (v. 7); she said, “When he has come, he will declare to us all things” (v. 25); and Jesus said, “I am he, the one who speaks to you” (v. 26).
This week: Think of a question about God that you have carried in your heart for a long time. This week, find a quiet time and tell Jesus about it just as it is; if you would like to, also find a brother or sister you trust and read this passage again together.
Scripture: World English Bible.