John 4

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

4 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.^[a])

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.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

From this parable, i learnt several things. Jesus is a Son of man, as he is tired. Jesus is not baptized when he is gaining and baptizing disciples. This reflects on me as I am called to make disciples, am I bounded by because I am not baptized and so I do not have the authority to make disciples? When Jesus came into this world, He was making disciples, even being not baptized. Shouldn't I do the same? Only that I am a born again Christian. Another i got from is how the woman can't recognise Jesus. I asked myself, if there comes a day that Jesus just approach me for a drink or anything, will I be able to recognise Him? And how am I suppose to recognise someone that I didn't see before as in really see Him. It's really the same thing as worshipping God, as said in John 4:22: "You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews." How important it is for me, for us to know Jesus and not know of Jesus!!! And we have the resources to know Him in general(bible), and personally(QT, prayers, special revelations). And lastly, Jesus taught me, us how to worship the Father. He, Himself, being the Son of God, worship the Father too!! Verse23: " Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and the truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." From here, Jesus drops me a hint of what kind of worshipers the Father seeks. He want a TRUE worshipers. Looking at some other people worshipping other religion gods, like buddhism, most people go to their gods for 4D numbers, longevity, protection, health and even marriage. To me, they are treating their gods as a wishing well or in other words, idols, idol of longevity, idol of luck, idol of health. Am I, are we, treating our Father, the One and Only True God the same?? Am I, are we, worshipping God for He is God Himself and not for other HIDDEN motives?? This is the thing I have to check my heart constantly. And how am I going to worship God? Verse24 reminds me again: "God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and truth." If I worship in my own flesh, how am I going to reach the Father, who is a Spirit? And if I have not know the truth, how am I supposed to worship the True God?