It was a hot day. Jesus and His disciples were entering a city called Sychar (Nablus today). They were tired, hungry and thirsty. Jesus sat on the well of Jacob to get some rest and wait for His disciples who went to the city to find something to eat. This is when a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well, where Jesus was sitting.

How tragic today’s story of the life of Christ is. A man had been paralysed for years. He had lain at a short distance from healing, but he himself had no strength to merge into the waters of ablution. And no one – no one in the course of all these years – had had compassion on him.