Third Sunday in Lent, March 8, 2026

The Gospel reading from John unfolds at Jacob’s well in Sychar and sets a clash and convergence of histories into one redeeming encounter. A Jewish traveler meets a Samaritan woman at noon—opposite of Nicodemus’s secretive night meeting—so the narrative frames radical newness and radical inclusiveness. The story contrasts long‑standing ethnic and theological enmity—Jews and Samaritans worshiping on different mountains—with Jesus offering “living water” that transforms thirst into a perpetual spring of life. The woman’s identity and social marginalization—her lonely noon visit, multiple past marriages, and public shame—reveal how exclusion isolates people; yet the encounter shows how curiosity, honest questioning, and receptivity open the way to recognition of the Messiah.

The passage pushes beyond cultural boundaries: historic hatred rooted in competing claims about sacred space gives way to a new claim that genuine worship happens in spirit and truth. The exchange reorients religious practice from inherited loci and rules to the present work of God among unlikely people. The fields, suddenly ripe for harvest, emphasize that labor for the kingdom spans across whom the community considers insiders and outsiders; earlier laborers prepare the harvest that others reap. The narrative invites intentional movement into hostile territory—not for conquest, but for mutuality—asking for a drink, stepping into another’s world, and allowing grace to reframe relationships.

The text calls the faithful to examine private lists of enemies and Samaritan categories, to stop demonizing and start asking questions. The imperative to worship in spirit and truth reframes identity around participation in God’s redeeming work rather than around purity tests. Ultimately, the story insists that God’s saving love extends to the whole world, including the parts a community most fears or rejects. The only viable way forward lies in crossing boundaries, offering curiosity instead of judgment, and trusting that God’s Spirit can make hostile ground fruitful.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God loves the whole world God’s love does not pause at tribal or national borders. The claim that “salvation is from the Jews” becomes the basis for reaching all peoples, so love moves outward into places of enmity rather than retracting into secure enclaves. This challenges any theology that narrows God’s aim to a preferred group and insists that mission begins where division is deepest. [32:51]
• 2. Worship in spirit and truth True worship moves beyond geography, ritual monopoly, or ancestral claims to authenticity. Worship measured by spirit and truth reorients practice toward personal transformation and honest encounter with God, not merely compliance with inherited forms. This demands humility about assumed rights and a readiness to recognize God where tradition least expects it. [23:18]
• 3. Curiosity disarms long hatred Leaning into questions rather than accusations opens space for conversion and relationship. Asking for a drink models how a small, vulnerable request can dissolve categories of enemy and create mutual recognition. Curiosity disarms defensive postures and creates openings for grace to reframe narratives of blame and shame. [35:35]
• 4. Mutuality heals divided communities Mutual engagement—walking into another’s territory and receiving from them—breaks cycles of domination and marginalization. Mutuality presumes interdependence and refuses to ostracize whole groups as beyond redemption, insisting instead that healing comes through shared labor and testimony. This is the practical work that readies fields for harvest. [42:35]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [06:56] - Opening hymn and prayer
• [10:42] - Call to confession and collect
• [12:48] - Gospel reading: Woman at the well
• [21:14] - Jesus offers living water
• [23:18] - Worship in spirit and truth
• [24:26] - Fields ripe for harvest
• [28:18] - Maps, Samaria, and history
• [32:51] - “God so loved the world”
• [35:35] - Curiosity across boundaries
• [41:28] - Challenge: see modern Samaritans
• [48:24] - Prayers, absolution, and peace
• [50:25] - Announcements and invitations
• [61:02] - Eucharistic prayer and thanksgiving
• [73:37] - Final blessing and dismissal

Bible reading
John 4:1–26 (ESV)
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

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Observation questions

1. What details in the setting (time, location, cultural background) highlight the unusual nature of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman?
2. How does Jesus’ request for a drink ([34:29]) serve as an entry point into a deeper conversation?
3. What does Jesus mean by “living water,” and how does the woman misunderstand him at first?
4. How does the woman’s response to Jesus shift from skepticism to curiosity and then to recognition?

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Interpretation questions

1. Why did Jesus choose to travel through Samaria when other Jews avoided it? What does this say about his mission?
2. How does Jesus’ statement that “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” ([23:18]) redefine what true worship means?
3. In what ways does the woman’s personal history (five husbands, social isolation) become a doorway for grace rather than a barrier?
4. What does it mean that “the fields are ripe for harvest” ([24:26]) in the context of crossing cultural and religious divides?

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Application questions

1. Who are the “Samaritans” in your life—people or groups you’ve been taught to avoid or distrust? What would it look like to step into their “territory” with humility? [41:52]
2. How can curiosity instead of judgment change the way you engage with someone who holds very different beliefs or lifestyles? [35:35]
3. In what areas of your life have you tried to find satisfaction in “well water” (things that don’t last) instead of the “living water” Jesus offers?
4. Worship in spirit and truth means moving beyond rituals and locations to a transformed heart. How can you cultivate a more authentic, personal worship life this week?
5. The story shows that God often uses unlikely people to spread His message. Who in your community might God be calling you to see differently—not as an outsider, but as a bearer of good news?
6. Mutuality involves both giving and receiving. When was the last time you allowed yourself to receive help or insight from someone you considered very different from you? [42:35]
7. What’s one practical step you can take this week to cross a boundary—whether relational, cultural, or ideological—in the spirit of Jesus’ example?