Living in the Image of God, The Gospel

The Art and Practice of Conversation Based on Jesus and Samaritan Woman

Living in the Image of God M07S05

An interaction between Jesus and a Samaritan woman illustrates how to hold a sustained, engaging, and fruitful conversation even with a person you are meeting for the first time. The bible account (John 4:1–26) starts with the two strangers meeting by Jacob’s well. Jesus was sitting by the well to rest from a tiring journey. The woman came to fetch water. We discuss their interaction to illustrate several points about holding a conversation toward understanding the art and practice of conversation.

We learn the following based on the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

  • Initiate a conversation with a simple subject likely to be familiar to either party.
  • The other party (receiving party) has to respond to keep the conversation alive. A conversation works like a tennis game. Having received the ball in your court, you have to play it back to the other court to continue the game.
  • Each response should address the previous contribution and add related information, generally increasing in complexity as the conversation proceeds.
  • Be responsive and respectful, even if you have to steer the conversation away from a subject.
  • However, be open to every subject in order to expand the conversation.

Conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

Let us discuss the interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman to see how they applied the principles of conversation.

  • Jesus initiated conversation by requesting a drink of water from the woman [John 4:7]: “Will you give me a drink?” His request for a drink of water was real. His disciples that could have helped him were not there. The request also served as a good way to start a conversation, because both he and the Samaritan woman were familiar with the subject.
  • The woman responded by remarking that his asking her for water was out of place because he was a Jewish man [John 4:9]: “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” The woman’s response was neither an acceptance nor declination of the request but provided opportunity for the conversation to continue.
  • Jesus took the conversation into higher gear by using the opportunity to introduce himself as more than an ordinary Jew: “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” [John 4:10]. This was a subtle but clear introduction of the Gospel message to the Samaritan woman. She still did not get it, but Jesus had introduced the subject and will expand the message through the next rounds of the conversation.
  • The woman did not understand the information about living water. The only source of water she knew was the well. Also, she knew that the man did not have any tool for getting water from the well. She used the opportunity to brag about the history of the well, how it was handed down from their ancestral father [John 4:11–12]: “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 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?”
  • Jesus recognized an opportunity to provide a clear Gospel message to the woman and did so in his next contribution to the conversation [John 4:13–14]: “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”
  • The first phase of the conversation ended with the woman accepting the offer of living water without understanding the message. She still saw it as something unreal: “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water” [John 4:15].

The next phase of the conversation was more complicated and ultimately led to Jesus introducing himself as the Messiah.

Summary of What We Learned

An interaction between Jesus and a Samaritan woman illustrates how to hold a sustained, engaging, and fruitful conversation even with a person you are meeting for the first time.

The bible account (John 4:1–26) starts with the two strangers meeting by Jacob’s well. Jesus was sitting by the well to rest from a tiring journey. The woman came to fetch water.

We discuss their interaction to illustrate several points about holding a conversation toward understanding the art and practice of conversation.

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