Jesus Speaks to Controversial People

The Point of the Gospel

Jesus Speaks to a Samaritan Woman {John}

(Some stories aren’t in chronological order. I’m grouping them—people Jesus taught, parables.)

The Pharisees heard that Jesus baptized more followers than John the Baptist. Jesus and the disciples left Judea for Galilee through Samaria and came to Sychar, a town where Jacob had built a well. (I assume the Pharisees weren’t happy at Jesus’ ministry and he left to escape reprisal.) Tired from the journey, Jesus sat at the well. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and he asked her for a drink. His disciples had gone into town to buy food.

The woman said, “You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” Jews would not drink from the same vessel as a Samaritan.

Jesus said, “God’s gift sits before you, and had you asked, you would have received living water.”

“Sir, you have nothing with which to draw water from this deep well. Where can you get the living water? Are you of greater rank than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons, flocks, and herds?”

“Drink well water and you will soon be thirsty again. The water I give is a spring that leads to eternal life. Those who partake of it will never thirst.”

“Sir, give me this water so I no longer have to make the trip to this well.”

“Go, find your husband and come back with him.”

“I have no husband.”

Jesus said, “You speak truthfully. You have no husband. You have had five, and the man with you now is not your husband.”

“Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim we must go to Jerusalem to worship.”

“Believe me, woman, a time approaches when you will worship the Father in neither place. You Samaritans worship what you do not know (fully understand?); we worship what we know, for salvation comes from the Jews.” (Personal Thought: yet Jesus often berated the Jews for either not understanding or willfully ignoring God’s commands.) “The time has arrived for true worshippers to worship in spirit and truth. They are the kind the Father, who is spirit, seeks.”

The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming and will explain everything to us.”

Jesus stated, “I am he.”