WEEK THREE – FINAL THOUGHTS
Insights on Woman at the Well: John 4:4-26 (NIV)
(As a reference, this passage is repeated at the end of this section.)
NOTE TO GROUP LEADER: This is the final week on Insights on Woman at the Well. It is a time for personal reflection and to share our overall sense of the experience at the well… to allow the group to consider if this event and this discussion have affected our lives and how we live from day to day. Allow the discussion to flow freely so that the individuals in the group feel that they have been heard. Try to ensure that all members of the group have had an opportunity to share their thoughts. Do not insist that a person share but offer him or her the opportunity. The closing reflection and prayer may be read by the Group Leader, or one or two members of the group may be asked to read aloud. (Items needed: Closing Reflection, Discussion Questions, Lyrics to Living Waters)
Keith & Kristyn Getty: Living Waters
Closing Reflection and Prayer:
The Samaritan woman at the well was never named, but her story of that chance meeting at the well has been told for over 2000 years. While she represented the lowest of the low of that time, a social outcast … a female to be disregarded and demeaned, a woman of ill-repute, belonging to a race despised by the Jews, she discovered that Jesus was easy to talk to. She was courageous enough to challenge Him, to speak with Him almost as an equal and to ask Him questions.
And he engaged her, even to the point of acknowledging and addressing her life of sin.
As the Savior, the Messiah, despite her sins, he loved her, accepted her and told her that he wanted her to share in the living water of redemption and salvation. It resulted in an introspection of her own life, her own truth. Salvation was hers; and then, she ran off to tell the others. Her testimony brought others to believe, as well.
Jesus asked for very little – a drink and some conversation. In return, the woman received peace and joy beyond comprehension.
At some time in the future, we too will experience such a chance encounter, if it has not already happened. We will have a conversation with our savior who will reveal Himself to us. The conversation may start simply enough. Jesus may ask us for a favor … a drink of water, a pair of shoes, a warm coat, a loving hug, some time to share a sorrow or a joy.
Will we engage in the conversation, respond by giving him a drink or time to share and listen to His offer?
Will our conversation grow deeper and touch our spiritual life? Will it trigger old guilts? personal truths and fears?
Will it result in Jesus revealing Himself to us as the Savior and our acceptance of this truth and a cleansing of our souls?
Will we run off, shouting to all, “Come and see!”?
Let us pray:
Dearest Lord,
How many times have I missed a chance encounter with you?
I wasn’t ready to talk with you and to listen.
I was too busy, too distracted, too embarrassed,
Too afraid you would scold me and reject me.
And you would tell me that I was unforgivable.
But Lord,
Now I see. You forgave the woman at the well.
She was a sinner, an outcast, rejected by the other women,
Considered unclean.
But that didn’t stop you. You initiated the conversation.
You revealed to her that you already knew her sins,
You loved her anyway and
you offered her the “living waters of salvation.”
You have taught me that there is no sin that is unforgivable.
I just have to open myself to your grace.
To get on my knees and say I’m sorry
and to seek the forgiveness of others whom I may have hurt.
Then, like the woman at the well,
I, too, will run off and say “Come and see!”
Come and see the grandness of the Lord.
Come and feel His awesome love!
Come and rest in His comforting arms!
Amen.
Closing song: Keith & Kristyn Getty: Living Waters
Are you thirsty
Are you empty
Come and drink these Living Waters
Time unbroken
Peace unspoken
Rest beside these Living Waters
Christ is calling
Find refreshing
At the cross of Living Waters
Lay your life down
On Thee, all come
Rise up in these Living Waters
There’s a river that flows
With mercy and love
Bringing joy to the city of our God
There our hope is secure
Do not fear anymore
Praise the Lord of Living Waters
Spirit moving
Mercy washing
Healing in these living waters
Lead your children to the shore line
Life is in these Living Waters
There’s a river that flows
With mercy and love
Bringing joy to the city of our God
There our hope is secure
Do not fear anymore
Praise the Lord of Living Waters
Are you thirsty
Are you empty
Come and drink these Living Waters
Love, forgiveness
Vast and boundless
Christ, He is our Living Water
There’s a river that flows
With mercy and love
Bringing joy to the city of our God
There our hope is secure
Do not fear anymore
Praise the Lord of living waters.
— Keith & Krysten Getty
Closing discussion questions:
- What thoughts did you have as you read the final reflection? Can you identify with some of these thoughts and explain why?
- What thoughts did you have as you heard the closing song?
- What does “living water” mean for you?
- If Jesus were to stop at your well for a drink of water, would you linger and talk? What would you say?
- If he were to reveal some hidden secrets, how would you respond? Fear? Embarrassment? Anger? Denial?
- If he were to offer you “living water,” would you accept it? How would it change your life?
- Would you share the “living water?” With whom? Why? Why not?
- What message is Jesus giving to us today?
- What would your prayer be if you were to meet Jesus at the well?
- Who are today’s outcasts? How can our chance encounters with them enrich us and them? How can we be gifts of “living water” to each other?
- Reflect on the last three weeks of bible study. Share your spiritual and emotional journey. What questions did you have? What concerns did you address? Did you gain any insights or have questions answered?
- Closing Question for “Insights on the Woman at the Well”: Have these three weeks of Bible Study given you any sense of wellness, a sense of hope? If so, how? If not, why not?
NOTE TO GROUP LEADER: At the end of the session, you may want to allow the group to have a few moments for open commentary and thoughts about the session and what it may have meant for them.
John 4: 4-26 (NIV)
The Woman at the Well
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of waterwelling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you — I am he.”