Conversation at Jacob’s Well: Recognizing Christ

7A woman of Samaria *came to draw water. Jesus *said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8For His disciples had gone away to the city to buy food. 9So the Samaritan woman *said to Him, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11She *said to Him, “Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water? 12You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?” 13Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”

15The woman *said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water.” 16He *said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.” 19The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and yet you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.” 21Jesus *said to her, “Believe Me, woman, that 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, because salvation is from the Jews. 23But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman *said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26Jesus *said to her, “I am He, the One speaking to you.”

27And at this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What are You seeking?” or, “Why are You speaking with her?” 28So the woman left her waterpot and went into the city, and *said to the people, 29“Come, see a Man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is He?” 30They left the city and were coming to Him.

31Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” 34Jesus *said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work. 35Do you not say, ‘There are still four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together. 37For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have come into their labor.”

39Now from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41Many more believed because of His word; 42and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One truly is the Savior of the world.”