John 4:1-18

The news quickly reached the Jewish religious leaders known as the Pharisees that Jesus was drawing greater crowds of followers coming to be baptized than John. (Although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but only his disciples.) Jesus heard what was being said and abruptly left Judea and returned to the province of Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. Jesus arrived at the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Wearied by his long journey, he sat on the edge of Jacob’s well, and sent his disciples into the village to buy food, for it was already afternoon. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” She replied, “Why would a Jewish man ask a Samaritan woman for a drink of water?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, “If you only knew who I am and the gift that God wants to give you, you’d ask me for a drink, and I would give you living water.” The woman replied, “But sir, you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is very deep. So where do you find this ‘living water’? Do you really think that you are greater than our ancestor Jacob who dug this well and drank from it himself, along with his children and livestock?” Jesus answered, “If you drink from Jacob’s well, you’ll be thirsty again, but if anyone drinks the living water I give them, they will never be thirsty again. For when you drink the water I give you, it becomes a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit, flooding you with endless life!” The woman replied, “Let me drink that water so I’ll never be thirsty again and won’t have to come back here to draw water.” Jesus said, “Go get your husband and bring him back here.” “But I’m not married,” the woman answered. “That’s true,” Jesus said, “for you’ve been married five times, and now you’re living with a man who is not your husband. You have told the truth.”