Thursday
Read John 4:5-42
5 In Samaria he came to a town named
Sychar, which was not far from the field that Jacob had given to his son
Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by the
journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw
some water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” 8(His
disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
9 The woman answered, “You are a
Jew, and I am a Samaritan—so how can you ask me for a drink?” (Jews will not
use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use.)h
10 Jesus answered, “If only you knew
what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him,
and he would give you life-giving water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you
haven’t got a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get that
life-giving water? 12It was our ancestor Jacob who gave us this
well; he and his sons and his flocks all drank from it. You don’t claim to be
greater than Jacob, do you?”
13 Jesus answered, “All those who
drink this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the
water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will
give him will become in him a spring which will provide him with life-giving
water and give him eternal life.”
15
“Sir,” the woman said, “give me that
water! Then I will never be thirsty again, nor will I have to come here to draw
water.” 16“Go and call your husband,” Jesus told her, “and come
back.”
17 “I haven’t got a husband,” she
answered.
Jesus replied, “You are right when you
say you haven’t got a husband. 18You have been married to five men,
and the man you live with now is not really your husband. You have told me the
truth.”
19 “I see you are a prophet, sir,”
the woman said. 20“My Samaritan ancestors worshipped God on this
mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we should worship
God.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me,
woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on
this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans do not really know
whom you worship; but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews
that salvation comes. 23But the time is coming and is already here,
when by the power of God’s Spirit people will worship the Father as he really
is, offering him the true worship that he wants. 24God is Spirit,
and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know
that the Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
26 Jesus answered, “I am he, I who
am talking with you.”
27 At that moment Jesus’ disciples
returned, and they were greatly surprised to find him talking with a woman. But
none of them said to her, “What do you want?” or asked him, “Why are you
talking with her?”
28 Then the woman left her water
jar, went back to the town, and said to the people there, 29“Come
and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. Could he be the
Messiah?” 30So they left the town and went to Jesus.
31 In the meantime the disciples
were begging Jesus, “Teacher, have something to eat!”
32 But he answered, “I have food to eat
that you know nothing about.”
33 So the disciples started asking
among themselves, “Could somebody have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” Jesus said to them,
“is to obey the will of the one who sent me and to finish the work he gave me
to do. 35You have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest.’
But I tell you, take a good look at the fields; the crops are now ripe and
ready to be harvested! 36The one who reaps the harvest is being paid
and gathers the crops for eternal life; so another who sows and the one who
reaps will be glad together. 37The saying is true, ‘One sows,
another reaps.’ 38I have sent you to reap a harvest in a field where
you did not work; others worked there, and you profit from their work.”
39 Many of the Samaritans in that town
believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I have
ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to
stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days.
41 Many more believed because of his
message, 42and they said to the woman, “We believe now, not because
of what you said, but because we ourselves have heard him, and we know that he
really is the Saviour of the world.”
Think
A day is coming, says Jesus, when God's worshipers will worship in Spirit
and in Truth. The Samaritan woman is
closed off from the grace of God because the revelation is incomplete - Jesus
is the last piece of the puzzle.
Pray
Lord - may your Holy Spirit point me to your truth so that I will see you
clearly, and follow you closely.
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