The Women of Samaria

Day 1

The Woman of Samaria

She was looked down upon by the Jews because she was a Samaritan, and disdained because of her many romantic liaisons, she would not have been most people's first choice to advance the gospel in a region where it had not yet been heard.

Her Sorrow: To have lived in a way that relegated her to the margins of her society.

Her Joy: That Jesus broke through barriers of culture, race and religion in order to reveal himself to her.

John 4:1-42
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When 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.)
9The 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.)
10Jesus 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? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The 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."
16He 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. 18The 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. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus 27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
34"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
Many Samaritans Believe 39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.
42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

Day 2
Living Water

Water is used in symbolic ways throughout Scripture. David compared his troubles to "deep waters" (Psalm 69:1-2, 14; 124:5)

The book of Proverbs compares people's words to deep waters and wise words to "bubbling brooks" of water. (Proverbs 25:25)

Several passages refer to our sins being washed away. (Psalm 51:7; Ephesians 5:26; Hebrews 10:22)

Jesus told the Samaritan woman that he had water that would take away her thirst forever. The water he was speaking of was not, of coarse, two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, but spiritual water--a water that will fill us so full of himself that all our needs will be met, all our wants satisfied, and all our thirst fulfilled.

Heavenly Father, Thank you for the living water that flows within us. The water that purifies, the water that quenches the thirst in our souls.

Day 3

The woman of Samaria, an outcast because of her race and lifestyle, found acceptance in Jesus. When have you associated with someone considered an outcast or befriended someone who wasn't part of your group?

John 4:25-26
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

This is the very first time Jesus acknowledges exactly who he is. Why do you think he would choose to tell this woman, an outcast of society, instead of the leaders of Jewish religion and culture or even his own disciples? Do you find his action delightful or just a bit distasteful?

Day 4
Are you thirsty? Only Jesus can provide living water that will fill you to overflowing, that will satisfy your every longing, that will soothe your thirst so completely you'll never be thirsty again.

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing, for joy and be glad all our days. ~Psalm 90:14

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled~Matthew 5:6

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. ~Luke 6:21

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."~John 4:13