DOWNTOWN KIDS :: March 15, 2020 - John 4:5-42
Today’s lesson comes from the book of John. John tells a story of Jesus meeting a woman at a well. Way back then, before everybody had kitchens like we do with sinks and faucets, and water dispensers built into the fridge, people had to pull their water up from a well in the ground.
Jesus was on the way to Galilee and was traveling through Samaria with some of the disciples. Who remembers something about Jewish and Samaritan people? (They didn’t really like each other). Jesus’ disciples left him alone for a while, and went to get some food. Jesus walked around and then sat down beside a well.
A woman approached the well. She was probably not excited to see someone else there at the well. She preferred to go to the well when nobody was there because the people in the town didn’t treat her great. Instead of going during the times that everyone else went, she always chose to go when no one was there.
Imagine her showing up there with her bucket, expecting to be alone then looking up to see someone there. What do you think her thoughts were? [Let children answer questions] Maybe she was scared, or excited, or happy to see someone else? Do you think her being from Samaria and Jesus being Jewish mattered to Jesus? [Let children answer questions]
Jesus didn’t have any way of reaching down into the well. So to the woman’s surprise, Jesus asked her for some water. Another interesting thing about these times was that men rarely spoke to women in public. Men only talked to men. But these two had a nice talk about lots of different things. One of the things they talked about was water...living water! Listen to a part of that conversation:
11 The woman said, “Sir, where will you get that living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with. 12 Are you greater than Jacob, our father? Jacob is the one who gave us this well. He drank from it himself. Also, his sons and flocks drank from this well.”
13 Jesus answered, “Every person who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. The water I give will become a spring of water flowing inside him. It will give him eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water. Then I will never be thirsty again. And I will not have to come back here to get more water.” (International Children’s Bible)
What do you think Jesus meant by “living water”? (Accept answers: Possibilities - life in heaven forever, thirst for Jesus in our hearts, knowledge about Jesus, the Holy Spirit, nothing can satisfy us but Jesus).
I talked earlier about how the people of the town didn’t like the Samaritan woman. It seems that people saw her as a bad person because she had been married five times. That is a lot of husbands, but we don’t learn in this story why she had so many. She may have had so many husbands for reasons that the people didn’t like. That probably broke some laws or social norms for the time way back then. She may have had some “not so cool” husbands who abandoned her, or maybe some of them died. We don’t really know why she had five, but Jesus revealed to her that he knew she had that many. How do you think Jesus knew? (Accept answers: because he is Jesus). If it was for a reason that was sinful or unacceptable for the times, do you think Jesus would treat her badly for it like the rest of the people? No, Jesus saw her as a human being first — just like we are encouraged to do.
When Jesus revealed that he knew she had five husbands she knew that he could only be Jesus. There was no other way for anybody who was not from there to know that information. She was so excited about meeting Jesus that she left her bucket and ran to town to tell everyone that Jesus was there! Many people became believers because of what the Samaritan woman told them. They actually begged Jesus to stay in the town with them for a couple of days and Jesus did. As a result, many more people began to believe in Jesus.
Do you think the woman continued to hide and stay away from the rest of the town after this? Why or why not?
We’ve learned that the stories that we share together from the Bible teach us lessons about ourselves or about Jesus. What did you learn about Jesus from this story? Possibilities:
Jesus wants to erase the boundaries between people - Samaritans and Jewish people (different races) didn’t like each other but Jesus went through Samaria, and spoke to the people there. Men and women didn’t talk to each other much in public but Jesus talked to men and women.
Jesus sees us as humans first with problems, and fears, and insecurities, and sins, and shows compassion for us and loves us anyway.
Jesus doesn’t judge us as harshly as our peers do.
Jesus encourages us to tell others about Jesus’ love and the “living water.”
Jesus believes that ALL people are important. This is evidenced by him staying in Samaria for a couple of days.
ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS
2-D Art Project: Using colored pencils, crayons, markers or paint imagine what living water might look like. Is it blue? Is it the color of all the things that reflect on the surface? What does your own reflection look like in water?