John 4:1-25
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, 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 worshiped 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 worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers 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.”
Monday
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, 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.)
This week we are looking at the famous story of Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at a well. Jesus has to get away from Jewish leaders who are less than friendly towards him, and, ironically, he has to go through an area which is less than friendly to the Jewish people. There was deep seated antagonism between Jews and Samaritans. From the Jewish perspective, Samaritans were unclean, and so they had to be ostracised. Although ethnically they were very close, and they shared much of the same history, their religious ideas were, in the opinion of the Jews, all wrong. It’s worth thinking about the groups of people that we think are not quite right when it comes to faith and religion. Are there any groups that you think are not worth associating with? What is it you disagree about?
A woman comes along to get water from the well. She is a Samaritan, probably of low social status (otherwise she would have sent a servant to get the water) and Jesus shouldn’t really be talking to her. He certainly shouldn’t be asking for something from her because she is a woman and an unclean woman at that. If you were to meet someone whose views you strongly disagreed with (another Christian), how would you react? What does Jesus’ action suggest about his attitude to those who are considered to be religiously “wrong.” What can you learn from his interaction with the woman? Pray today for those people whose views you disagree with, and ask God to give you his view of those whom we think are beyond the religious pale.
Tuesday
9 The Samaritan women 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.”
The woman can’t believe what is happening – a man is talking to her, and a Jewish man at that! She points this out – you shouldn’t be talking to me! But such pettiness is not in Jesus’ purview. He doesn’t play these human games! He is also not willing to contribute to human prejudice. For him all are equal in God’s sight. How do you react to this? In the church in Scotland today there are many different denominations, and the history of the church is one of division after division. Pray that our churches will keep focussed on Jesus rather than on what divides us.
Jesus speaks of people having been given a gift from God. And he gives at this stage a veiled reference to who he is. He suggests that if the women knew who she was talking to she would have asked him for living water. Jesus is the one who gives us all that we need for fullness of life. Spend some time today praising God for his gift of living water and think about what that has meant and continue to mean for your own life.
Wednesday
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.”
The woman does not immediately respond well to Jesus. She is respectful (she calls him “sir”) but she wants to know more. What do you think of her response – is she suspicious? Curious? Scornful? Imagine yourself in her position – a lower status woman who is spoken to by a man she doesn’t know from a group of people which looks down on hers. How do you think you would react?
Jesus goes on to tell her that he can give her all that she needs for fullness of life – life-giving water. Her response is immediate – she wants that water, and she wants it so that her work load will be reduced! Some have thought that he response here is mocking – she is not taking Jesus seriously at all. Others think that she has just misunderstood – she doesn’t realise that Jesus is offering something far more than ordinary water from a well. Have you ever had an experience of telling someone about your faith and been met with ridicule, suspicion or misunderstanding? How did it make you feel? The woman’s reaction to Jesus reminds us that what we think is straightforward and desirable may not be immediately obvious to those whom we wish to share it with. A great deal will depend on the cultural background and personal experience of those we are sharing our faith with. Jesus of course, fully understood what was going on in the woman’s life, but we may not know what is going on in the minds of the people we are anxious to reach out to. Pray that God will give us sensitivity and wisdom as we reach out to those who do not know Jesus.
Thursday
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 worshiped 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 worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Traditionally it has been understood that this woman is a sinner par excellence – it is assumed that she is promiscuous and has been divorced several times. She is often assumed to be an adulteress – the one who is to blame for all the divorces. What do you think of this interpretation? It is important to note that we are not told that she has been divorced. In first-century Palestine, life was difficult and short – perhaps she had been widowed? Not only that, a woman could not divorce a man – only a husband could initiate divorce. Might she have been at the receiving end of cruelty and injustice from some of her husbands? Whatever the case there is no doubt that she has had a very hard life. We need to ask ourselves – what assumptions do we make about people? Are we inclined to make judgements without evidence to back them up? Pray that God will help us to be wise in our response to people and not to make assumptions about them.
The woman has some religious knowledge – she knows that Samaritans and Jews have different ideas about the correct place for worship. Samaritans think it should be Mount Gerazim while Jews think it should be Jerusalem. As a Jew, Jesus holds to the Jewish view, but ultimately, he says, such things will not be important. What will be important is that genuine deep faith which God wants from his people. What aspects of your tradition are very important to you? What do you think of the suggestion that the ideas which are most important to us are ultimately unimportant? We all have different emphases in our denominations and traditions – practises and beliefs that are very important for our communities. What are the emphases in yours? Take some time to ask God to help you to see what is ultimately important and what is not, and help you to worship in spirit and truth.
Friday
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26. The Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you – I am he.”
The woman has realised that Jesus is a prophet, and her words here might suggest that she is wondering if Jesus is the Messiah; or perhaps she is simply repeating what she has heard other people say. Jesus, however, says something rather startling. He says that he is the Messiah that people have been expecting. What do you think would go through the woman’s mind when she heard this?
Jesus says that he is the Messiah. What do you understand by the term? We sing that Jesus is Messiah and we declare that he is so but what does the term actually mean? The title means “anointed” – for a specific role such as a king. In Jesus’ time there were many ideas about what the Messiah would do – and many people who were thought to be Messiahs. Some thought the Messiah would be a religious figure, or a military leader, or a healer; some expected the Messiah to rescue them from the Roman oppressors. This passage points to Jesus is the one who has been anointed by God to enable humanity to worship in spirit and truth, to break down barriers between people and to show people what living under God’s sovereignty is like. Here, Jesus breaks down social and religious taboos. Is this something that is important to us as his followers? Or are we more likely to close ranks and prefer to be in our small comfortable communities? God’s picture of the world is so much bigger than ours and he may ask us to broaden our horizons in ways we do not expect – as he did with this woman. Are we willing to have our cultural and religious ideas broken apart in order to bring the light of Jesus into the world?
Saturday
Psalm 10:1-3
In the Lord I take refuge.
How then can you say to me:
“Flee like a bird to your mountain.
2 For look, the wicked bend their bows;
they set their arrows against the strings
to shoot from the shadows
at the upright in heart.
3 When the foundations are being destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”
Sunday
Psalm 10:4-7
The Lord is in his holy temple;
the Lord is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
his eyes examine them.
5 The Lord examines the righteous,
but the wicked, those who love violence,
he hates with a passion.
