She gets it, they don't

The parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph was in Samaria. Jacob's well was still there.

Jesus came to that place, and his disciples went into the nearby city of Sychar to buy meat.

Weary from the journey, Jesus sat down by the well. A woman came along to draw from the well, and Jesus asked her for a drink.

This piqued her curiosity, because the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. She asked him, "Why would you, a Jew, ask for water from me, a woman of Samaria?"

Jesus replied, "If you knew the gift of God, and if you knew the one who asked you, you would have asked him for a drink of living water, and he would have given it to you."

"You have nothing to draw with," she said, "and this well is deep. Where will you get that 'living water'?

Do you claim to be greater than our father Jacob who drank from this well himself, and gave the water to his children and cattle?"

"Whoever drinks this water will thirst again. But if someone drinks the water I give her, she will never thirst, for a well will spring up within her that will last forever."

"Then give me this water, so I'll no longer be thirsty or need to come here to draw."

"Go and call your husband, and bring him here with you."

"I don't have a husband."

"Well, that's true; he's not your husband. But you have had five of them."

"I see. So you're a prophet. Tell me this then: Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. Do you say that we should worship in Jerusalem instead?"

"You don't even know what you worship here; at least in Jerusalem we know what we worship. But believe me, the hour is coming, and is here now, when you will no longer need to worship on this mountain or in Jerusalem. For God is Spirit, and is seeking those who worship in spirit and in truth."

"I know that the one who is called Christ is coming, and when he comes, he will tell us all things."

"I am that One."

Just then, his disciples returned, and the woman went away, leaving her waterpot behind. She told many people in the city what had happened, and they returned with her to see him.

Meanwhile, the disciples marvelled that he had been talking with this woman, but no one asked him why. Instead, they offered him some meat.

But he said to them, "I have meat to eat that you don't even know about."

And the disciples said to one another, "Did somebody bring him food already?"

Then Jesus said to them, "My meat is to do the will of the One that sent me, and to finish His work."


- John 4:5-34, retranslated from the King James version