NARRATOR: On his way through Samaria Jesus came to a town called Sychar near the land Jacob gave his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon. His disciples had gone into town to buy food. A Samaritan woman came to draw some water.
JESUS: Give me a drink.
WOMAN: You are a Jew. How can you ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?
NARRATOR: Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.
JESUS: If only you knew God’s gift and who is asking you for a drink, you would ask him and he would give you living water.
WOMAN: Sir, you don’t have a bucket and this well is deep. Where do you expect to get living water? You don’t pretend to be greater than our ancestors Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, who gave us this well and whose family and flocks all drank from it?
JESUS: Everyone who drinks this water will keep getting thirsty, but whoever drinks the water that I give will never be thirsty again. The water I give will become a spring within that wells up into eternal life.
WOMAN: Sir, give me this water! Then I will never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to keep coming here for water.
JESUS: Go, call your husband.
WOMAN: I have no husband.
JESUS: You are right. You have had five husbands, but the man you are living with now is not your husband. What you have said is true.
WOMAN: I see you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship God.
JESUS: Believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not understand, while we Jews understand. Salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is already here, when real worshipers will worship God in spirit and truth. These are the worshipers God wants. God is spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth.
WOMAN: I know the messiah is coming, the one called the Christ, who will announce all things to us.
JESUS: I am the one, who is speaking to you.
NARRATOR: Jesus’ disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. The woman left her water jar at the well and went off into the town.
WOMAN: Come and see someone who told me everything I ever did. Couldn’t this be the messiah?
NARRATOR: The people set out to meet Jesus. Many Samaritans from that village believed in Jesus on the strength of the woman’s word, “He proclaims all the things I ever did.” When the Samaritans came to Jesus, they begged him to stay, so he stayed for two days. Many more believed in Jesus after listening to his teachings. They spoke to the woman.
SAMARITAN 1: Now we believe in Jesus not because of your story but because we ourselves have heard him.
SAMARITAN 2: We know this is the Savior of the world.
John 4.5-30, 39-42
Sunday Readings: Exodus 17.3-7 Romans 5.1-2,5-8 John 4.5-42