Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, 
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him 
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him, 
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; 
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, 
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself 
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her, 
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; 
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty 
or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands, 
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; 
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand; 
we worship what we understand, 
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, 
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; 
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; 
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”

At that moment his disciples returned, 
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, 
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” 
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar 
and went into the town and said to the people, 
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another, 
“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment 
and gathering crops for eternal life, 
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; 
others have done the work, 
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.” 

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified, 
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,

they invited him to stay with them; 
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 
and they said to the woman, 
“We no longer believe because of your word; 
for we have heard for ourselves, 
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

OR:

Jn 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, 
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him, 
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him 
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him, 
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; 
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, 
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself 
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her, 
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; 
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty 

or have to keep coming here to draw water.

“I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; 
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father 
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand; 
we worship what we understand, 
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, 
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; 
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him 
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; 
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him.
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them; 
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 
and they said to the woman, 
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves, 
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Today’s telling is the story of the woman at the well. This story has many facets, and whole books have been written about this encounter. I am going to focus mostly on the woman’s interaction with Jesus. I believe that this converstaion is a story about the conversion of a soul.

The woman comes to the well in the middle of the day, the hottest part of the day. Women of this time, would be the ones that would fetch water, and the women would do normally do this chore at sunrise and sunset so as to avoid the heat of the day. It is believed by many scholars that because she was living in an adulterous relationship, and as such she was a pariah amongst the other women, and thus she was avoiding the other woman. There is also another poetic reference here of a person coming from the darkness of sin into the light of day, and forgiveness. I like this, but it is not a widely held belief.

So the woman comes to the well to satisfy the human need for water, and instead finds the lord Jesus and learns that He has an offer that is far more valuable. The interchange about water emphasizes this point. They are talking about the difference between the needs of the body versus the needs of the soul. The woman is seeking the former, but Jesus is offering only the later.

There conversation then moves into a discussion about marriage. The woman was in an adulterous marriage, and she had been in 5 others before that. But the 5, is also a metaphor for the what happened to the samaritan people. When the sons of Solomon split the 12 tribes up and the 10 in the north eventually fell to the Assyrians empire, the assyrians brought 5 other cultures with them. And the 10 jewish tribes eventually commingled not only their people in marriage, but also their faith with the 5 pagan cultures as well. This new culture of comingled people and religion thus became the samaritan people. They ultimatly created their own temple, and their own form of worship, and forgot the one true God, and their true jewish faith.

Jesus is telling her that this samaritan experiment of dabbling with other gods is a total failure, and that only the worship of the one true God can lead to total happiness, and freedom. What Jesus is offering here is a marriage of sorts. Jesus the bridegroom, is seeking His bride (the church), and not only are all of the jewish people called to this marriage, but all of the gentiles of the world as well. Jesus is proposing that this woman abandon all of her previous husbands, and all of that pagan worship and join Him in His new universal (aka catholic) church.

The last thing of note in this reading is that the woman left her jar, and ran to the village of samaritans, and became an evangelist for this new faith, and as a consequence converting many to the same end.

This is the story of conversion. We find ourselves in sin, avoiding all of the people that remind us of our faults, and are toiling in the hot of the day suffering simply to satisfy the most basic of human needs, and at our lowest we find Jesus, and He offers us something far greater, and proposes that you join Him in a nuptial bond forever. And if you accept, you will be forever changed, leaving everything that previously mattered behind, and you will seek out others to share the good news that you now have.

And it is the same today as it has always been. Jesus is waiting at the well for you. Are you tired enough to hear what He has to offer you. If you are ready, and accept what He is offering, so you too can be forever changed. If so, Pickup your bucket and walk to the well, it is the last time you will ever need it.

Oh lord, help me to take the good news that you have given me, and to share it with someone that needs it today. Amen.