THE WOMAN AT THE WELL

You may know her. She may even be your friend or sister, possibly your daughter or even yourself. She could even be someone that you dislike because of the personal choices that she has made. Some look at her and judge her mistakes as though they have none of their own. It’s easy to do when you are comparing your good to someone else’s wrongs. But you see when we look at our own sin in the same mirror that the woman at the well looked through to see hers, all of a sudden we no longer see our sin in comparison to someone else’s, but we see them in comparison to the One who was without sin all together and then we are shamed by our self-righteous, indignant, pompous flesh, which the scripture refers to as filthy rags.

I will never forget the time my pastor made the comment, “If you have been married 7 times, then maybe it’s you!” How true that is. The woman at the well was like that. You see she had made so many wrong choices when it came to her personal life that she was shocked that Jesus would even speak to her let alone love, forgive and accept her. Maybe you have felt that way before. Maybe you have felt like you have failed so many times in your life that there remains no hope and you have given up in even trying. When you look at the woman at the well through the eyes of the Lord, you will see her in a very different light. Because you will understand the reasons that she made the choices that she made and not simply that she was full of wrongdoing. You see she did have a problem, and her problem was that she was seeking happiness in the wrong place. She had a soul’s desire but was trying to fill it with the wrong things. Who of us has not been guilty of that? Where we may be seeking our happiness in temporal things such as jobs, big cars and homes, fine clothes, friendships with people who are drawing us away from God….is there a difference? I think not, especially when we see them through the pages of the scripture and in light of what god has to say about them.

As I was reading through John chapter 4 this morning, I realized for the first time that the woman at the well had not lost hope. As a matter of fact, she was even expecting hope. In His encounter with her, Jesus broke three very important Jewish customs (notice they were customs). First, He spoke to a woman, second, she was a Samaritan woman, a group the Jews traditionally despised and third, He asked her to get him a drink of water, which would have made Him ceremonially unclean from using her cup or jar according to Jewish law and by doing so, He shocked the woman right off the bat. Then Jesus told the woman that He could give her "living water" so that she would never thirst again. Jesus used the words living water to refer to eternal life, the gift that would satisfy her soul's desire only available through him. At first, the Samaritan woman did not fully understand Jesus' meaning.

Although they had never met before, Jesus revealed that He knew she had had five husbands and was now living with a man who was not her husband. At that point Jesus had her attention! As they talked with each other the woman voiced her faith that the Messiah was coming. Jesus answered her by saying that He was Him who she spoke of. As the woman began to grasp the reality of her encounter with Jesus, the disciples returned. They were equally shocked to find him speaking to a woman. Leaving behind her water jar, the woman returned to town, inviting the people to come, see the man who told her all that she had ever done. Excited by what the woman told them, the Samaritans came from Sychar and begged Jesus to stay with them. So Jesus stayed two days, teaching the Samaritan people about the Kingdom of God. When He left, the people told the woman, that they had heard for themselves and they knew that Jesus was indeed the Savior of the world. While others may not have wanted to give her the time of day in passing, she shared with them the most precious gift that she had ever received and was not ashamed to had done so.

You see the woman at the well came to draw water at the hottest part of the day, instead of the usual morning or evening times, because she was shunned and rejected by the other women of the area for her immorality. While she may have not been befriended by the world, Jesus knew her history but still accepted her and ministered to her becoming her friend. In turn she took Jesus to those very women who shunned her, because she knew even greater than they, that they too needed Jesus. Ironically, those that we judge the most may very well shake the dust of our self-righteousness off and beat us to the doorway of heaven. For while the High Priest, Sanhedrin and religious Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah, the outcast Samaritans recognized Him and accepted Him for who He truly was - the Savior of the world.

 

Loving on you today sweet friend,

Bren