Saturday, January 23, 2021

Section 32
Woman at a well

Once, when Jesus was traveling the Samaria  [ww.1] road between Jerusalem and Galilee, he arrived at Sychar, not far from the parcel of land Jacob had given his son Joseph. That's where Jacob's well is.

Weary from his journey, Jesus sat down by the well while his disciples went into town to purchase some food. At about the sixth hour [probably noon], a Samaritan woman came up to draw water from the well.

"Give me something to drink," Jesus said.

The woman was surprised. "You're a Jew and you're asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?"

Jews and Samaritans did not get along well in those days  [ww.2].

"If you knew the gift of God, and who asked you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water,"  [ww.3] Jesus replied.

"What? You don't even have a jug. What are you talking about? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and provided water for himself, his family and all his cattle?"

Jesus replied, "Everyone who drinks that water will thirst again. But whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst again – this water will be like wellspring water, bubbling up forever."

"Sir," she said. "Give me that water so that I won't have to come all this way to draw it up."

Jesus replied, "Go call your husband and bring him here."

"I don't have a husband," she said.

"You said that right: I have no husband. You have actually had five husbands, and your current man is not your husband. So, you spoke the truth."

Startled, she said, "I can see that you are a prophet!" Immediately, she wondered about different religious practices. "Our fathers have always worshiped on this mountain  [ww.4] but you Jews say Jerusalem is the right place."

Jesus said, "Woman, believe me, the time is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know – for salvation comes from the Jews. But the time is coming, and now is here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. These are the kind of worshipers the Father wants. God is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

The woman replied, "I know that when Messiah comes, he will reveal everything to us."

"I am speaking with you," said Jesus  [ww.5].

At this point, his disciples returned and were amazed to find him speaking with a woman. Yet not one of them asked, "What are you doing? Why are you talking to her?"

The woman left her jug and hurried back to town, where she told everyone, "Come see a man who told me everything about my past! Is this the Messiah?"

The townspeople decided to have a look and came out to the well.

But in the meantime, his disciples urged him to have some food.

"I have food that you don't know about," Jesus answered.

The disciples were puzzled. Has anyone brought him something to eat? they wondered.

"My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work," said Jesus. "Don't you say, 'In four months it will be harvest time?' But I say, look around. The fields are right now ready for the harvest."

He added, "He who reaps is paid for the crop of eternal-life fruit. But the sower also enjoys this harvest. So here the saying applies, 'One reaps where another sows.' I send you to reap where you have done no work. But now you join in the labor of others."

When the Samaritans of Sychar came out to him, they urged him to spend some time with them. This he did, staying two days.

Many of the townspeople put their trust in him after hearing him teach. Some told the woman words to the effect: "At first, we believed this man is someone special because of what you told us. But now we believe he is the Messiah because we have heard him ourselves."  [ww.6]

Next Page: Section 33
https://secretpath108.blogspot.com/2021/01/who-made-you-judge-youre-not-better.html

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