So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that 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 have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never 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 him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no 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 see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem."

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these 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 Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

What an incredible story! What a revealing story for this woman and for all who would seek to know more about this Jesus and drink of this Living Water.

They meet at the local talking place - the community well. They have come to draw water. The conversation leads to Living Water. But the very fact that this encounter and the ensuing conversation even take place is truly amazing. She comes. A woman. A woman with a past. A woman of Samaria (Jews in that day had no dealings with Samaritans). Wrong gender. Wrong morals. Wrong nationality. Such women did not normally engage in significant conversation with respectable Jewish rabbis. Or, conversely, respectable Jewish rabbis did not normally engage in significant conversation with such women! But this Jewish rabbi was different. And this woman left this encounter knowing that. She had come for water. And she drank her fill of Living Water. And she just couldn't wait to get back home and spread the word.

How many people sitting in our pews on a Sunday morning or, more likely, hanging out on the fringes of our congregation or perhaps not a part of any congregation - how many people fit this woman's description, feeling unworthy and very much like the "outsider" she was? And when they encounter God's people - and they will, - at all the various community "wells" out there - when they encounter God's people - Jesus' disciples - US - what will be revealed? Will they be drawn in? Will they drink deeply of this Living Water? Will they rush to tell others of what they've found, or, more accurately, WHO they've found? What an incredible and revealing story!