Living Water
John
4:1-30 The Message (MSG)
The Woman
at the Well
4 1-3 Jesus
realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John
performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They
had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in
the eyes of the people. So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to
Galilee.
4-6 To get
there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village
that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still
there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.
7-8 A woman,
a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of
water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)
9 The
Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a
Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead
talking to Samaritans.)
10 Jesus
answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be
asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living
water.”
11-12 The woman
said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep.
So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our
ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and
livestock, and passed it down to us?”
13-14 Jesus
said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone
who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will
be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”
15 The woman
said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to
come back to this well again!”
16 He said,
“Go call your husband and then come back.”
17-18 “I have
no husband,” she said.
“That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands,
and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth
there, sure enough.”
19-20 “Oh, so
you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this
mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship,
right?”
21-23 “Believe
me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father
neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in
the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is
made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact,
come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will
not matter.
23-24 “It’s who
you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage
your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is
out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before
him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him
must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in
adoration.”
25 The woman
said, “I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he
arrives, we’ll get the whole story.”
26 “I am
he,” said Jesus. “You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”
27 Just then
his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was
talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but
their faces showed it.
28-30 The woman
took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the
village she told the people, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I
did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And
they went out to see for themselves.
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H.
Peterson
posted by Clara Yeung at
10:02 AM
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