5 He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon. 7 A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, "Would you give me a drink of water?" 8 (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.) 9 The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (Jews in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water." 11 The woman said, "Sir, you don't even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this 'living water'?
13 Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. 14 Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst - not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life." 15 The woman said, "Sir, give me this water so I won't ever get thirsty, won't ever have to come back to this well again!" 16 He said, "Go call your husband and then come back." 17 "I have no husband," she said. 18 You've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now isn't even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough."
27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn't believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it. 28 The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, 29 "Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?"
The Samaritan woman did not expect Jesus to speak to her. And especially about something as intimate as life with God. May it not be that God also encounters us where and when we don't expect it as well as in those we don’t expect God to be.
No one can believe for you. We each must believe for ourselves.
Yet few if any believe alone, in isolation, without someone helping.
The testimony which most helps create faith is that which is most honest, real, and human. As was the woman’s words when she said, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.”
She opened others to God. Her testimony was honest, real, and human. She became living water. She would never thirst again! For she knew there was living water sufficient for anything and everything which was, is, and shall be.
A man from India once said the reason
why he could not accept Christianity was:
“It is not new, it is not true, but most of all,
it is not you.”
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, help me to live what I believe, so your love can become
living water through me.”
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