His return required him to go through Samaria. He came to Sychar, a city of Samaria, near the piece of land that Jacob gave his son, Joseph. Jacob's well was there and Jesus being tired from the travel, sat down at the well. It was about noon and a woman of Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink,” for his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

Then the Samarian woman replied, “How is it that you, a Jew, would ask for a drink from me, a Samarian woman?” The Jews don’t associate with Samaritans?”

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that asked you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

She said to him, “Sir, you don’t even have a pail to draw with and the well is deep. From where then, do you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it, himself, and his children and his cattle?”

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whomever drinks this water shall thirst again, but whomever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I give will be a spring of water in him, gushing up into everlasting life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I never thirst nor have to come here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.”

The woman answered and said, “I don’t have a husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You speak correctly, when you say, “I have no husband. You have had five husbands, and the one you are living with is not your husband. In that, you spoke the truth.”

And the woman said to him, “Sir, I recognize that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; yet, you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman! The hour is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain, nor at Jerusalem. You do not know what you worship. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming—and now is—when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming (which is called the Christ.) When he comes, he will tell us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I, who am talking with you, am he.”

Shortly, his disciples returned, and they were shocked that he talking with the woman. Yet no one said, “What did you need, or, why were you talking with her?” The woman rushed back into the village, leaving her water container, and as she passed others of the village, said, “Come! See a man who told me everything I ever did! Is this not the Messiah?”

Then they left the village and came to Jesus. Meanwhile, his disciples encouraged him to eat. But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” And the disciples discussed it among themselves, wondering if someone had brought him something to eat.

Jesus said to them, “My nourishment is doing the will of Him who sent me, and finishing his work. Don’t say, ‘It’s still four months until harvest. Look, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields. They are already white to harvest. And he who picks is paid, and is harvesting fruit into life eternal. Both the one who sows and the one that reaps will rejoice together. Thus, the saying is true: “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to gather that for which you did no work. Others have done the work and you have joined their efforts.”

And many of the Samaritans of that village believed on him because of the woman’s testimony, who said, “He told me everything I ever did.”

So, when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his teaching, but said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you said. We have heard him ourselves, and know that he is indeed the Messiah, the Savior of the world.”