Woman at the Well

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water,

Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

John 4:7

Imagine walking alone in the sun to complete a task that others did together before the sun became too unbearable. Do the feelings of isolation, loneliness, anger, resentment, or sadness come to mind? These feelings today might mirror the experiences of depression and anxiety. These feelings today might mirror the experiences of day-to-day life because of disagreements between friends, isolation with work, shifts in relationships, and worries about the future. These feelings of isolation, loneliness, anger, resentment, sadness, and even a little bit of anxiety are common experiences. He knew that you would experience these feelings, that these trials would exist. And He also knew to give you a way around them, through Him, in Him, and with Him.

Samaritans were not liked by the Jewish people. There was a long history of issues between them, stemming from the split of the kingdom into the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. Keep in mind that the temple for God's people to worship was in the Kingdom of Judah. Through corruption, war, and intermarriage, the Samaritan people came to be and settled the land. They were half Jewish and half Gentile. This mixing of spiritual and pagan beliefs led to many disagreements and the dislike of these people.

Why is this important? Because you will see that despite a dislike of the cultural differences, he seeks out his flock. And now enter the woman walking in the middle of the day, in the sun, to gather water (John 4:6). Why was she walking alone? Why was she walking during this hour? She was a Samaritan, and surely there must have been other Samaritan women. It was Samaria, was it not? You might have felt like this woman at some point, to some extent, in your own life. You might have felt like an outsider in your own community, in your own home, in your own town, with people who share many similarities. It is isolating, it is lonely, it brings up anger, it brings up resentment.

And yet, He waits for this woman by the well. He interacts with her in her element. He is stern yet comforting towards her sins, her faults, her trials. He shows compassion and love to someone whom everyone else left alone. She was walking at that hour because the other women would not walk with her. She was living with a man who was not her husband. She was divorced multiple times. She was probably tired, just getting by, going through the moments and the motions. And Jesus came to interrupt that. This story is so meaningful and valuable. He could have met her anywhere. He could have met her walking about the town, or coming outside her house where she lived with a man who was not her husband. Why did He meet her at the well? One perspective is: Water.

By meeting her at the well, He was able to acknowledge her chaos, her faults, her shortcomings, her trials. And He was able to ask for a drink of that water. Notice that first He asks for a drink of the water. He is requesting her chaos. He is asking for her trials. He is acknowledging her sins. This story is so much more than the well and that He was thirsty. When she returns the request with pushback because of the cultural components (John 4:9), He transitions from seeking her to inviting her to seek Him. This transition is His invitation to the living water that He offers, that runs freely, flows without drought. She becomes intrigued with this because of the labor it must be to walk in the sun to the well.

He offers this same opportunity to you. He seeks you out, He acknowledges your trials, and He offers you an opportunity to give them to Him and live freely. He meets you in your chaos, and He gives you living water; He gives you peace. I love how this woman is the first person outside His disciples to whom He reveals that He is the Messiah. He tells a woman, a Samaritan woman, who is living in sin, outcast from her community of other women, that He is the Messiah. He uses this woman to share the great news, and she then goes and shares it with others. This really drives home the significance of His transformation of people. This woman, whom many overlooked, became the deliverer of His message. If He can transform her, what could possibly be keeping Him from transforming you?

I've included the NIV version below for you to read the whole chapter. Before going to the discussion questions, read the whole chapter, considering it from the lens of water and chaos, and how He comes to her and then offers her hope.

John 4 (NIV)

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman 4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judeaand went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a]) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of waterwelling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is comingwhen you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ)“is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” The Disciples Rejoin Jesus 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.Could this be the Messiah?”30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” Many Samaritans Believe 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflection:

How do you relate to the Samaritan woman?

What is the water (chaos) that you are holding onto right now?

How does His offering of living water change your experience currently?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, you have come to us to offer an opportunity to reconnect with you through your son. Lord, you give us a way to engage with you and are so loving and compassionate. By your grace, the Samaritan woman was able to share with others your love, compassion, and hope. Father, I ask that passion be instilled in me today, and in the hearts of others who are sharing your goodness. May this story be a reminder that you meet us in our chaos but do not leave us there. In your son's name, Amen.