The Woman at the Well

John tells this story at length (Jn 4:1–42), and it is the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in the Gospels. It is also full of surprises.

Some background. Samaritans lived between Judea and Galilee. They and the Jews shared Abraham, Moses and the first five books of the Bible, but they had been divided for centuries over who were God's true people and where he should be worshiped: on Mount Gerizim in Samaria, or in the Temple in Jerusalem. Many Jews traveling north went the long way round to avoid Samaria. Jesus goes straight through.

At noon, tired, he sits at Jacob's well near Sychar while the disciples go to buy food. A Samaritan woman comes to draw water, at the hottest hour of the day, alone. Jesus asks her for water, and she is astonished: a Jewish man asking a Samaritan woman for a drink? Jewish teachers didn't usually speak with women in public, and Jews and Samaritans didn't share cups.

Jesus turns the conversation. If she knew who was asking, he says, she would ask him, and he would give her living water. She hears 'living water' as fresh, running water, and points out that he has no bucket. Is he greater than Jacob, who gave them this well? Jesus explains the difference. Well water satisfies only for a while, but what he gives keeps flowing inside a person like a fresh spring, all the way into eternal life.

When she asks for it, Jesus tells her to fetch her husband. She says she has none. Jesus agrees, and gently shows he knows her story: she has had five husbands, and the man she has now is not her husband. John doesn't tell us why. He doesn't call her names, and neither does Jesus. Jesus tells her the truth and keeps talking with her.

She raises the great dispute: which mountain is the right place to worship? Jesus answers that the age of arguing over mountains is ending, and in fact has already begun: the Father wants worship in Spirit and truth, wherever his people are. He even tells her that salvation comes through the Jewish people. When she mentions the coming Messiah, Jesus tells her plainly that he is the one.

She leaves her water jar behind and runs to town to tell everyone. Many Samaritans come, Jesus stays two days, and they confess him as Savior of the world.

The living water, Jesus later explains, is the Holy Spirit (Jn 7:37–39; CCC 694).