One Act Play: The Samaritan Woman and Jesus at the Well

This was offered at Plymouth UCC, Eau Claire, WI on March 23, 2014. Based on John 4's story of the Samaritan woman who encounters Jesus at Jacob's Well.

Feel free to use, but please do note that it is copyrighted and I request that you give me attribution and let me know that is being used. 

The Samaritan Woman at the Well

One Act Dramatization for two actors

© 2014 Rev. David J. Huber

CAST

WOMAN A nameless Samaritan woman

JESUS Jesus, the guy in the New Testament

SETTING

At a well, or some other place – be creative.

ACT 1

Woman

My name?

[make some kind of gesture like “I don’t know”]

Let’s just keep that between him and me. HE knows my name. He knew it without me even saying it, actually. In fact, he knew a lot about me. Everything about me.

I met him at Jacob’s well. That’s the well that Jacob, son of Isaac and brother of Esau, dug many, many centuries before. It is here in my hometown in Samaria. I was bringing my water jug to fill it. It was about noon, and there he was, sitting by the well. I remember how hot and dirty he looked in the noon sun and heat pounding down on both of us.

Why would I go to the well at such a miserable time of day, you ask? The other women, of course, go in the morning or evening when it’s cooler. But they … I don’t like being near them. I’d rather face a beating from the sun and heat than the beating of their insults and their rolling eyes. They think they know me, they judge me on a few things, but they don’t know me at all.

It’s just safer. Easier on my soul, to go when I can be alone with the only person I can trust.

But that day, there he was! Sitting by the well. He’d clearly walked far. He had nothing to put into the well to draw out water. In fact, he had nothing at all. Never saw that before in a traveler. As I came closer I could see he was a Jew. Definitely not from around here! He had walked a long way. I figured I would be safe at least from insults since a Jewish man wouldn’t dare speak to a Samaritan woman.

But he was... different.

Jesus

Give me a drink.

Woman

[to audience]

Give him a drink? Was he serious?

Jesus

Give me a drink, please.

Woman

But sir, you are a Jew! And a man. You can’t accept water from me or anyone here.

Jesus

I need water, and you are the only one who can bring it up from the well.

Woman

I’m not sure that I...

Jesus

If you knew who it is who is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked me and I would have given you living water!

Woman

You don’t even have a bucket! Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than Jacob, who gave us this well, and who drank from it with his sons, and who watered his flocks from it?

Jesus

Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.

Woman

Oh, sir, give me this water! I am so tired of being thirsty, and so soul-weary from having to keep coming here, among these people, to fill my bucket.

[to audience]

I said that to him, but he just looked at me with eyes that seemed to look right through mine and into my soul.

Jesus

[beat]

Go, call your husband, and come back.

Woman

My husband? I have no husband.

Jesus

I know.

Woman

How did he know that?

Jesus

You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.

Woman

You are a prophet!

[to audience]

And he knew so much more about me. Maybe it was because he knew everything about me, or maybe it was because he said it so matter-of-fact without any hint of judgment on me, but I felt comfortable with him. Known. Comfortable enough to risk asking a question of a Jewish man.

[to Jesus]

Once we were one people, and our ancestors worshiped here, on this mountain. But now we are separated. We still worship here, but your people now say the only place that God may be worshiped is in Jerusalem.

Jesus

Woman, believe me, soon a time will come when you and I and all God’s people will worship neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. The true worshipers will worship in spirit and truth, for those are the ones whom God seeks.

Woman

[beat]

I know that the Messiah, the Christ, is coming, and when he comes, he will proclaim all things to us. He will show us and teach us the truth.

Jesus

I am he, the one who is speaking to you.

Woman

[to audience]

“The one who is speaking to you.” Did you hear that? He was actually speaking to me, not as a child or as someone to be humored for a moment and then dismissed, but as an equal. As someone who mattered. This was new. I wanted to talk more to this man who knew who I was, but who knew also that I was so much more than just that woman with the many husbands and a past.

But then his disciples came, and I feared that I would be sent away or dismissed by them. They were clearly astonished that he was speaking with a woman... but not a single one questioned me, “What do you want?” nor did any of them ask their rabbi, “Why are you speaking with her?” What new way was he teaching them that they were so comfortable around woman? They must have women in their circle back home, learning with the men and treated as equals. Could he be the Messiah? I felt it. His compassion, his acceptance of me, the way his disciples his acted, those are the signs of a man who could be the messiah.

I was so excited, that I ran from the well, leaving my water jar behind! I shouted to anyone who would listen, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! Is he the Messiah? I think he is! And he has come to us Samaritans.” Some of the people actually followed me back to him!

As we arrived, his disciples were trying to get him to eat.

Jesus

I have food to eat that you do not know about. My food is to do the will of the One who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’

I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.

Woman

Many Samaritans believed in him at first just because of my testimony, when I said to them that he told me everything I have ever done. We asked him to stay with them; and he stayed with us for two days. And many more believed because of his word. And they told me that they came to believe not just because of what I told them, but because they heard Jesus’ words, and they knew – they knew! – that here is truly the Savior of the world. And I was his first evangelist.

My name? My name is not important. Just think of me as... you.

[END]