Third Sunday of Lent

Jesus Talks to a Woman by a Well

John 4: 5 - 42

The water of life, living and life-giving water, is a theme that recurs through the Old and New Testaments. Moses struck water from a rock when the Israelites were almost dying of thirst in the desert.

Jacob and Joseph are important people in Jewish history. A well associated with Jacob is in Samaria.

Samaritans are the people who lived in the region of Palestine called Samaria and who worshiped the One God in ways that were different from the Jews.

People of that day counted time from sunrise. The sixth hour would be 12 o'clock, or noon.

In this passage, Jesus is willing to share the living water with a strange woman (a person many observant Jewish men would not even talk to) who was a Samaritan, a member of a group that the Jews of that time despised.

Jesus was always ready to share the whole love of God with any one at any time, without restriction.

1. What did Jesus ask the woman to give him?

[Jesus asked the woman for a drink of water.]

2. What does Jesus tell the woman he would have given her if she had asked him?

[Jesus told her he would have given her living water.]

3. A huge disagreement between Samaritans and Jews was where God was to be worshiped - in the local hills of Samaria, or only in the Temple in Jerusalem. Where did Jesus say we should all worship God?

[Jesus said we would all worship in spirit and in truth, meaning in our hearts.]

4. How did the Samaritans treat Jesus at that time?

[Many Samaritans came to believe that he was the Savior of the world.]

Lent 3 Art | Lent 4 Lesson | HomePage | Calendar | References and Resources