March 8, 2026
Revised Common Lectionary
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42
Lectionary for Mass (RC)
Exodus 17:3-7
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (8)
Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
John 4:5-15 (16-19a) 19b-26 (27-38) 39a (39b) 40-42
In today’s reading from the Gospel of John, Jesus makes a simple request of a Samaritan woman: “Give me a drink” (Jn 4:7). What begins as a seemingly ordinary encounter, however, becomes an extraordinary dialogue in which water serves as a potent metaphor for the deep thirsts of the human spirit. This story offers us an opportunity to consider what we are thirsting for: Success? Companionship? Love? Knowledge? Acceptance?
John’s audience knew full well that Jews did not associate with Samaritans and that a man should not be speaking to a woman. The Samaritan woman responds to Jesus’s request by questioning its propriety—understandably so, given these social barriers. Rather than answer her directly, Jesus challenges the woman to look beyond the water that she can draw from the well and to seek instead the water that he can offer her—water that springs up within, “gushing up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14).
For the woman at the well, the dialogue about thirst was the starting point for a deep spiritual journey. At the beginning of their conversation, the woman assumes that Jesus is merely a thirsty Jewish traveler. As they converse about the water she could draw and the living water Jesus offers, she begins to recognize something extraordinary in this encounter. And so, she asks him to give her this never-ending supply of water.
Step by step she comes to an ever deeper understanding of who Jesus is—and what he offers to her and to the world. When Jesus lets on that he knows all about her marital history, she recognizes him as a prophet. When she then speaks about the coming Messiah, Jesus reveals to her that he is the one: “The one who is speaking to you, I AM” (Jn 4:26)—using the same language by which God’s identity was revealed to Moses in the burning bush.
John presents the woman of Samaria as a witness who gives testimony to what she has seen and heard. She runs into town and proclaims Jesus to the others: “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” (Jn 4:29) Her testimony implies what she leaves unsaid: “Come and see someone who told me everything I have ever done – and loved me anyway!”
In the course of the story, this woman of Samaria is transformed by her encounter with Jesus, moving from curiosity to fascination to awe to faith to witness. She doesn’t even have a name, comes from the wrong ethnic group, lives in the wrong neighborhood, belongs to the wrong denomination, is a person of the wrong gender, has looked for love in all the wrong places, and yet she is held up in John’s Gospel as a model of faith. Her unconditional acceptance by Jesus and her openness to the gift of living water frees her to place her faith in Jesus and then to give testimony to others.
As we continue our Lenten journey and reflect on the meaning of our baptism, today’s Gospel prompts us to examine our deepest longings. Do we, baptized disciples of Jesus, run after short-term thirst quenchers or do we seek the living water that transforms our ways of seeing and living and which alone has the power to satisfy?
The Samaritan woman’s example challenges us further. Just as she left her water jar behind to share her news, we might ask what we need to leave behind as we accept the gift of living water. And if we were to run into town to tell our friends about Jesus—as she did—what testimony would we offer?
Lord Jesus, give us living water, that we may never thirst again.
A Hymn for Today: “I heard the voice of Jesus say”
Horatius Bonar, a minister who broke from the Church of Scotland to join the Free Church of Scotland in 1843, wrote hymns that deliberately departed from the tradition of singing only psalms, at first as a way of providing songs that children would enjoy singing. He went on to create more than 600 hymns. In this text, written in 1846, Bonar looked to Scripture for inspiration, basing each of the three stanzas on familiar sayings of Jesus (Mt 11:28; Jn 4:10-14; Jn 8:12). The first part of each stanza recalls the words of Jesus, and the second part is the believer’s response.
The second and third stanzas are drawn from the Gospel stories for this Sunday and next, and so this hymn provides an apt response to the message of these two passages. To hear the first stanza sung to THE ROWAN TREE, a nineteenth-century Scottish tune, click here. Many hymnals today pair it with the English folk tune KINGSFOLD in an arrangement by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Listen here.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto me and rest;
lay down, O weary one, lay down
your head upon my breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
so weary, worn, and sad;
I found in him a resting place,
and he has made me glad.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold I freely give
the living water, thirsty one;
stoop down and drink and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
of that life-giving stream;
my thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
and now I live in him.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“I am this dark world’s light;
look unto me, your morn shall rise,
and all your day be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found
in him my star, my sun;
and in that light of life I’ll walk
till traveling days are done.
Text: Horatius Bonar, 1808-1889
Tunes: VOX DILECTI, KINGSFOLD
Image Credit: Christ at the Well, Peter Koenig, United Kingdom, 20th cent.
“Word and Song: A Lectionary Reflection” is written by the Executive Director of The Hymn Society, Rev. Dr. Mike McMahon. For his full bio, click here and scroll down to the “staff” section.
To receive these weekly reflections by email, please send a message to office@thehymnsociety.org and type “Lectionary” in the subject line.