The Woman at the Well

“But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.” — John 4:14

Jesus and His disciples were walking from Judea back to Galilee, and they had to go through a land called Samaria. The Jews and the Samaritans didn’t like each other at all, and they usually didn’t speak to each other.

At about midday, they came to a town called Sychar. Near the town was a well that had been dug long, long ago by Jacob. Jesus was tired from the long walk, so He sat down by the well. His disciples went into the town to buy food.

Then a Samaritan woman came to the well with her water jar. She came alone, in the heat of the day.

“Will you give Me a drink?” Jesus asked her.

The woman was astonished. “You are a Jew,” she said, “and I am a Samaritan woman. How can You ask me for a drink?”

“If you knew the gift of God,” Jesus answered, “and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” said the woman, “You don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where can You get this living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well?”

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,” said Jesus. “But whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. The water I give will become like a spring inside them, bubbling up to eternal life.”

“Sir, give me this water,” she said, “so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here!”

Then Jesus told her things about her life that a stranger couldn’t possibly know. She had been married five times, and the man she was living with now was not her husband. Perhaps that was why she came to the well alone, when nobody else was there.

“Sir,” said the woman, “I can see that You are a prophet.” Then she said, “I know that the Messiah is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

And Jesus said, “I am He, the one speaking to you.”

Just then His disciples came back. They were surprised to find Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman. And the woman left her water jar and hurried back into the town.

“Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did!” she said to everyone. “Could this be the Christ?”

The people came out to see Jesus. Many of them believed in Him because of what the woman told them. They asked Him to stay, and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of what Jesus said.

“Now we believe not just because of what you told us,” they said to the woman. “We have heard Him for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.”

Jesus knew everything about her, even the things she was ashamed of. And He didn’t turn away from her. He offered her living water. And the woman who came to the well alone went back and brought her whole town to Jesus.

The promise kept: The woman said, “I know that Messiah is coming.” Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He” (John 4:25–26). The King God had promised for so long was sitting by Jacob’s well.

Read it in your Bible: John 4:1–42

Dear Jesus, thank you that you know everything about me and still love me. Please give me your living water, so that I will never be thirsty for anything more than you. Amen.