Slices
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Pray for your Christian sisters and brothers around the world, thanking God for them and the diversity within the family of faith.
Bible passage
Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman
4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptising more disciples than John – 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptised, 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 worshipped 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 worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshippers 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.’
Explore
This interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman bears the hallmarks of a courtship ritual. It is reminiscent of the first meeting between Jacob and Rachel, who later became his wife (Genesis 29:1–30). It is therefore appropriate to see Jesus – just identified by John the Baptist as the bridegroom (3:29) – as leading the Samaritan woman on, not towards marriage but revelation!
In its cultural context, the identification of the woman as both a woman and a Samaritan (v 7) and her arrival at the well in the middle of the day (v 6) to avoid the disapproval of the townsfolk who knew her reputation (vs 17,18), all emphasise the gulf between her and Jesus, and therefore the inappropriateness of their encounter. Jesus, however, subverts all these societal stereotypes by willingly engaging the woman in conversation (v 7). Imagine the impact on her self- esteem! How often might the simple choice to talk to someone enable us to see them in God’s light?
Like Nicodemus (3:1–21), the Samaritan woman is given one-to-one teaching from Jesus (vs 10,13,14,21–24). Unlike Nicodemus (see also John 19:38–42), however, she receives Jesus’ teaching and is rewarded with the revelation that he is the Messiah (v 26) – the person who as the focus of worship makes the place of worship irrelevant (vs 21–24).
Respond
Who does God want you to talk to by way of demonstrating his love for them? Start the conversation today.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Exodus 1,2; Psalms 11,12
Pray for Scripture Union
Please pray for Gemma Willis in her role as Head of Development Hub. Ask God to give her wisdom, inspiration and clarity as she balances competing priorities and plans for the future of Scripture Union’s content ministry.
