The Gospel of John 4:5-42
Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.” Let us Pray Most compassionate Lord, help us never to fear You but to always turn to You in our thirst. We pray we will become your merciful heart to those in danger and in need. This we pray in the Name of your all knowing Son our Lord and Saviour, Amen.
The woman at the well became an evangelist because she took time to listen. Time to just understand what Jesus was telling her. She only answered His questions when appropriate and that allowed her to fully grasp the words He spoke to her. Than, she took that message to others in her city and told them about her encounter and said to them:, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him. This gospel has many lessons. It points out the importance of listening, and the importance of sharing. It also points out that Jesus does not concern Himself with gender or what she believed in, He looked at her as a person, one that was willing to listen to Him and feel the Spirit and God’s love. . We all should be evangelists, but most of us find it difficult to share our beliefs. Jesus had a similar issue as His disciples questioned Him about talking to a woman and a Samaritan at that. Jesus had to explain to them that God’s work was unfolding and it can in any unexpected place
We go to church and we can feel the Spirit of God with us, but when we leave it seems we leave that spirit behind. The woman at the well definitely took that spirit with her and told others about it. We need to learn that when we leave church the spirit needs to go with us. True worship is not about churches or temples, it is wherever we take the time to recognize its presence. It is about the heart aligned with God’s truth. It is empowered by the Spirit, and not limited by ritual or geography. It is Us accepting the Love of God and feeling His spirit at work. What barriers, cultural, personal, emotional, might we look at crossing to be more like the Samaritan woman, She leaves her water jar, symbolically leaving behind her old life. What “water jar” might I need to leave behind to follow Jesus more fully? .This reminds us that God is always at work beyond our assumptions, and we are invited to participate.Remember Jesus’ words: His invitation to “Come and see”
Let us Pray: Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Reflections by Bob 