John 4:5-42

5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 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.) 10 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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.” 15 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.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 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.”26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

"I was sent to complete his work."

Jesus, going up from Galilee to the Temple in Jerusalem and back home had to go through Samaria. The Samaritans were not pleased to see Jews using their land because of the split between that made them two hostile nations.

The main articles of faith for Samaritans are---

There is one God and one prophet, who is Moses.
The Bible is just the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, other books are not admitted.
Moses delivered the tent of the Ark of the Covenant to Joshua, who pitched it on Mount Gerizim, where it disappeared, but should be back as evidence of Moses' return.
Abraham tried to offer his son Isaac on Mount Gerizim and not on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.
The Sabbath day must be a day of strict worship without any work.
No feasts or holidays except those mentioned in the Bible.
On the last day, God will reward everybody according to their deeds.

When the Babylonians occupied Samaria and exiled the elite Samaritans, Babylonians moved in and brought five of their gods who were worshiped in Samaria beside God. II Kings 17:24, "The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns."

This background may help us to better understand where and why Jesus is meeting with this Samaritan woman.

This is not the only time Jesus meets, dialogues or deals with a woman outside the Land of Israel. We remember Him speaking to the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15:21-28. Reading in depth, these two women represent two nations and, through them, Jesus speaks to their two respective nations. He proclaims God's love and respect to all nations, not only to Israel.

Jesus honors all of God's creatures in His own image, male and female equally. Here again He is teaching His disciples to change their concept as we see Him asking in verse 27, "Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, 'What do you want?' or, 'Why are you speaking with her?'"

Jesus is always going beyond social restrictions and superficial interpretations. He is the "Son of Man," the universal Christ, coming to redeem and save all humans. He came to complete the work of the One who sent Him, never to abolish, but to complete (Matthew 5:17).

The dialogue with the Samaritan woman reveals how Jesus uses the cultural, social, political and religious context to illustrate His approach with those he speaks to. Asking the Samaritan woman to go and "call her husband" the woman said, "I have no husband." Then Jesus tells her that she had five husbands and the one she lives with is not a true one in verses 16-18.

The word husband in Jesus' language (Baal), has three meanings: the false god of fertility and rain; husband; and owner of land, house or property. Jesus is referring to the whole nation, who were worshiping the five false gods brought from Babylonia. When they worship other gods with God, they are not worshiping the True God according to the third and fourth commandments (Exodus 20 3-4).

The woman ended by discovering who Jesus is. She went and told her fellow Samaritan citizens about Him. She should have kept in mind that, when the Messiah comes, He will reconcile all nations and that God's true worship is not determined by a place. It is neither in Jerusalem nor on Mount Gerizim. The worship of God the Father of all is in Spirit and Truth.

We are invited to listen to Jesus, hinting about the quality of our worship and about our gods today (our husbands). How many gods do we have?

With God's help, let us worship God in spirit and truth. Lent is the time now to bring us back to this acceptable worship.