Beads of sweat began to form on the woman’s brow as she carried her water pot to Jacob’s Well. Though the midday sun was scorching, she feared even more the heated scorn that she would face from the other women. Going now meant she was not likely to meet anyone on her journey since the other women of the city came to draw water at the cooler part of the day.

As she approached, she noticed a Jewish man sitting upon the edge. She avoided his gaze and did not speak. The Jews’ hatred for the half-blooded Samaritans was common knowledge. Some Jews would even take the longer route that crossed the Jordan in order to avoid Samaria entirely. He would ignore her, she would ignore him, and they would both be on their separate ways shortly.

As she set down her water pot and stopped to catch her breath, the man said, “Give me to drink.”

Startled, the woman looked up and found eyes that looked kindly upon her instead of being filled with scorn and hatred. She stammered, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”

He replied, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”

Puzzled, the woman glanced around. “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?”

He smiled knowingly, his eyes twinkling. “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

The woman’s jaw dropped. She could sense the sincerity in this man’s voice, and that caused her heart to race. If she could get a hold of this living water, it would solve all her problems. Never again would she be forced to face either the midday heat or the heat of scornful eyes! Breathless, she excitedly pleaded, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”

The man replied, “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.”

The woman’s face fell, and her cheeks flushed as she looked down at her feet. “I-I have no husband.”

The man nodded. “Thou hast well said, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.”

The woman gasped sharply in astonishment! _“How does he know so much about me?” _she wondered. “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. As a man of God, I have a question for you: where should people worship? Our Samaritan forefathers have worshipped in these mountains for generations; but you Jews say that all men ought to worship God in Jerusalem.”

The man smiled again and replied, “Soon, it won’t matter where men worship. They will be able to worship God freely, wherever they are. But the important part is not the place of worship: it is the Person that you are worshiping. Since you have mixed your knowledge of the one true God with that of pagan deities, you do not truly know the God whom you worship, nor His salvation. We Jews do.

“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.”

His eyes twinkled again as he said, “I that speak unto thee am he.”

The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the six men she had had relations with, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”