The Woman at the Well

I have been studying "The Woman at the Well" (John 4:4-42) since I met Jesus in 1998. This story can be related to most of our lives in some fashion. I remember the first time that our choir director asked me to portray this woman in our Easter Program long ago how deeply I connected to her. She didn’t know that, she didn’t know my history. If you are unfamiliar with this story I encourage you to read it. It is very powerful. I believe the story is trying to teach us to forgive, love, and respect each other regardless of circumstance or status. I would like to know what others think about this topic and how you can relate it to your own life. I would sincerely appreciate your comments on this.

In OUR portrayal of her life she comes to the well during the hot midday and meets Jesus, realizes He’s the Christ, her life is changed and she runs back to the town meeting the women who had scorned her singing to them, “You’ll never find my story in a fairy tale, I wasn’t like the other women at the well, my life was full of pain, hurt, rejection. My loneliness I didn’t want to show, but Jesus saw the desert in my soul. Drink from this water, drink from this water, and you will never, you’ll never thirst again. Drink from this water. Drink from Living Water and you never, you’ll never thirst again.” Then suddenly the ladies who had scorned her accepted her and followed her back to Jesus and everything turns out lovely. It is a role I am honored to have been asked to play and am thankful that God has allowed me to bring her to life but really, there is only so much you can do in 4-5 minutes during a musical/drama. Let’s take a more realistic look at her life and her interaction with Jesus.

This was a socially unacceptable encounter that had occurred! Not only was she a woman, she was a Samaritan woman AND she was a LOOSE Samaritan woman! Being a woman was considered a curse back then and being a Samaritan woman was a double curse. My heart breaks for her. She made such a mess of her life. I relate to her. I’ve made many of those same choices she did. Living with a man whom she wasn’t married to, I've done that. Married more than once. I've done that. I’m every bit as bad as this Samaritan woman. I just happen to live in a different time period where it’s not as socially unacceptable. But it’s still unacceptable to God.

So, back to our woman at the well, Jews avoided Samaritans and treated them as half breeds, unclean, to be avoided at all costs, yet Jesus went out of His way to meet her at the place of her need. He knew she would be there at the hottest time of the day to avoid the condemnation of the other women in her community who drew water in the cool of the morning. He engaged her in conversation which was unheard of! A Jewish man speaking to a Samaritan woman shows that this Jewish man was more than just a Jewish man; He is the Christ revealing Himself to the lowest of society. What compassion He has. What love He felt toward this woman who was doing her best to mask her shame. Jesus had a conversation with this woman that was amazing. He asked her for a drink of water and then proceeded to give her a lesson on Living Water. Then He asked her about her husband, she answered she had no husband, He answered that she had answered well because she had not one but five husbands and the one she was with was not her even her husband. This brings me to an important point. In those days a man could divorce a woman for any reason he desired (burned the rice to birthed the wrong sex child) and she had no recourse, no resources, and no way to support herself. This could explain why she had so many men. Could it have not been her choice? Does this shine a new light on her? My point is this, she lived a very hard life whether it was by her own choices or the choices of others and how amazing it was that this God Man Jesus didn’t just come to the Jews, He came to her. He understood. He took the time to sit and talk to her when others avoided her and not only that, He offered her Living Water, eternal water. He handpicked this woman out of all the women to have this conversation with and I thank Him to this day for it!

Then Jesus taught her about worshiping in spirit and truth through the power of God’s Spirit. I’m not certain but I don’t think He had even shared that lesson with the disciples at that point. She told Jesus that one day the Messiah would come and tell them all thing and Jesus revealed to her, “I who speak to you am He.” WOW! I imagine she must have been blown away! But then the disciples came back and I imagine although no one said anything about Jesus talking to this Samaritan woman that they didn’t make her feel very welcome (they were Jews after all and in their defense they weren’t God in the flesh).

At this point she left her water pot and RAN in the midday heat back to the city to tell the men she had seen the Messiah! That’s right, the men. Because I imagine the women wouldn’t have listened to her even then. (Any woman who lived a life like hers was not only scorned but seen as a threat.) But the men, well, they knew all about her and when she came running into the town yelling, “I just met a man who told me EVERYTHING I ever did!”,  it probably got their attention since it likely included things they’d done as well.

The conversation recorded with the woman at the well was a long conversation, and not only was it long, it changed the course of history. The woman at the well was the first woman evangelist! She was commissioned by Jesus Christ Himself. In John 4:34-38 Jesus told the disciples that His food is to do the will of His Father who sent Him and of the fields being white for harvest. Many Samaritans believed because of the woman’s testimony. She took them to Jesus and they compelled Him to stay and many more believed because of Jesus’ own word. He is the Christ, the Savior of the world!

So, really, isn’t the story of the Woman at the Well really the expression of evangelism as it should be. The seed sower, Jesus, didn’t care about the social status of the soil He sowed the seed in, He looked upon the heart. He looked for the need, He came for the sinner, praise God because that’s ME! He commands us to sow seeds as well. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, regardless of their situation.  We are to ALL be evangelists! Every single one of us who knows Jesus Christ should be an evangelist regardless of whether we are Jew or Gentile, Man or Woman. We should sow the seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into every heart whether the person has influence and can tithe or is homeless and will need to be supported.

The Samaritan Woman said it all with her sense of urgency when she RAN in the midday heat to tell those who had rejected and scorned her that the Messiah had come! Let’s reach as many people as we can! Let’s stop splitting hairs about preferences and details. Who can and can’t go and tell, who is and who isn’t “worthy” to spread the good news. Truth is, none of us are worthy. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:23-26 NKJV

The Samaritan Woman was one of the very first that Jesus revealed Himself  to as Messiah beyond the Jewish people and she represents the very heart of ministry. Run to the hurting, tell them about Jesus, bring them to Him and let Him bind their wounds.