The Woman at the Well

The Woman at the Well

I would like to share the story of a woman with you.  Maybe she will remind you of someone you know, or have known.  If you have heard her story before you might look down on her, or you might be sympathetic.

She was looking for something.  I would guess that she was looking for love and the story hints that she had not found it.  She had probably been married several times, but had reached the point where she had finally settled for living with someone – a partner.  This suggests that commitment in the past had disappointed her, she had not given up, but she was no longer hopeful.

She lived in a community where everyone knew her so she avoided them. The well was a meeting place where women would talk, share news and perhaps gossip.  She had broken the rules, she had a bad name.  People would talk about her but preferred not to talk to her.

She went to the well at midday because she had to.  No-one would be about because it was so hot.  They had all gone at an earlier hour, a sensible time.  On this occasion Jesus too was out in the midday sun, he was walking home from Judea to Galilee and he was tired, hot and thirsty.  That was how Jesus met the woman at the well.

She saw a Jew sitting there.  This would not have been unusual.  Jews used the route through Sychar because it shortened the journey to Galilee.  However a Jew was not a welcome sight.  The Jews and the Samaritans did not get on, they had historic problems, and they had religious differences. The Jews considered Samaritans to be a low form of life, a female one even lower.  Normally they would not speak to one another.

Jesus did the unthinkable however and asked a question, a favour.  ‘Will you give me a drink?’  She didn’t answer his question but asked one of him instead ‘You’re a Jew and I’m a Samaritan woman, how can you ask me for a drink?’  Her mean spirited response was her undoing.  Jesus had a hidden agenda.  His thirst took second place to hers and he saw before him a thirsty woman and from that moment on he was guiding her to the place where he could satisfy her thirst.  Although she didn’t know it, she was getting into deep water.  No longer the woman at the well, but fast becoming the woman in the well. 

The woman in the well.   She had come to draw water, water for thirst, for cooking food, for washing.  Spiritually speaking she was also thirsty, hungry and dirty.  So the conversation proceeds on two levels.  She is speaks about the physical, but Jesus about the spiritual.

To her question ‘Why do you ask me for a drink’ Jesus responded by reversing the situation ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is who asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water’.  How gracious the Lord is, how lost it was on her.

She had three more questions, ‘how can you draw water,where can you get it’, and  ‘are you greater than our father Jacob?’

Jesus does not answer any of these questions directly, he is homing in on her spiritual thirst.  He tells her that his water is a spring welling up to eternal life.  She missed his point but understood that if he could provide water that meant she no longer needed to make a daily visit to the well.   Jew or not, she was going to ask him for it.  ‘Sir, give me this water…’

Jesus next words moved the conversation into deep water.  ‘Go, call you husband and come back’ he told her.  It produced an honest and spontaneous response.  ‘I have no husband.’

The Rabbis did not approve of more than three marriages.  She was over the limit, she had no husband and she did not like the way the conversation had turned.    But she had realized that there was something different about this man, maybe he was a prophet, so she decided to change the subject to religion, in particular the right place to worship.  A Jew could not resist answering that surely.

Jesus took up her subject, but not in her way.  Not about where people should worship, but how they should worship.  The woman tried to dismiss Jesus’ words by saying ‘when the Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us.’  And Jesus did precisely that.  Without a parable, in plain language, the first person to be told in such a direct way…’You are speaking to him now’ he said.

She had within her a tiny seed of faith, she believed the Messiah would come.  It had brought her to the place he wanted her to be.  The woman was in the well and living water was splashing all around her.

Significantly, the woman dropped her water jar and rushed back to the town to tell everyone about her encounter.  She had a relevant question now ‘Can this be the Christ?’  She had taken a few sips of the living water and it tasted unlike anything she had experienced before.

The Well in the Woman  Now the well of living water was in the woman and it brought about an immediate change

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1. She left her water jar behind and went back to the town.  It was spiritual water that had her attention now.

2.  Instead of avoiding people, she went to find them.

1. She told them about Jesus and invited them to meet him and see for themselves.  She became a missionary!

And it all started because a physically thirsty Jesus, met a spiritually thirsty woman at a well.

What does this story teach us?  Firstly – Jesus used the most unlikely person in town to be his witness.  Her circumstances, bad though they were, brought her to the time and place where she met with the Lord.  He still uses unlikely people today.

Secondly, this story teaches us that everyone needs another chance, regardless of how far away from God they may appear to have travelled.  Her neighbours must have watched her downhill slide and given up on her a long time ago.  They didn’t see her loneliness, her hurt, her empty life.  They saw a defiant, thick skinned woman, but Jesus saw her heart..

This story is an encouragement to us because no-one is a hopeless case to Jesus.  His example of loving perseverance goes to the heart of the matter.  He remained gracious and committed to winning her. 

It is also a reminder that people come with problems that need to be sorted out.  She was a woman with attitude.  Life had dealt her some hard blows.  Jesus was slowly leading her into the living water but it meant some straight talking on the way. 

Sometimes we are afraid that by pressing the advantage we might frighten people away.  Or they may treat us as she treated Jesus - pushing him aside for the awaited but not present, Messiah.  So we too may seem of little significance, our answers trivial. 

Finally it presents a personal challenge to any practising Christian to compare ourselves with her.  She could not wait to tell others, she did not worry about whether they would believe her, laugh at her or ignore her.  She was so excited she could not contain herself, or to be more exact she could not contain the living water that was bubbling up inside her.

Jesus is the Source of this living water.  Dare we let the Holy Spirit bubble up in our lives, making us different, taking risks, inviting others to come and drink?

Have you met Jesus at the well, submerged yourself in Him, is he now flowing out of you into a needy and thirsty world?  If so, you also have a story to tell.

For full details read John Chapter 4 verses 1-42 from the New Testament.