Being the Samaritan Woman

I happen to love the woman in the Bible. There are a lot of reasons for that, one of them being that I am a woman and another being that there are not a lot of women in the Bible so I pay special attention to the ones that are.

Each woman in the Bible has a special message, so I listen to each one individually.

One of my favorite of all the woman in the Bible however is the Samaritan woman, commonly known as the Woman at the Well. (John 4:1-42)

Read the Bible passage first! You can find it here: John 4


This woman is a Samaritan. If you know the story of the Good Samaritan and the history behind it, then you're well aware that the Samaritans don't have many friends outside their community. But this woman is an outcast within her community.

How do we know this? Well, most women would have gone to the well in the early morning or later evening, when it wasn't as hot outside, but not this woman. When she comes to the well, it is at the hottest part of the day, alone. She came at the time when she knew no one else would be there; she didn't want to see them, or they didn't want to see her. Either way, we know she's not part of the group.

So here is this woman: a Samaritan, outcast from the world and even from her own people.

I imagine that she felt like the lowest of the low. She is the one that no one wants to talk to at all. She is the one who is spurned.

If I were her, I would feel pretty low.


Who knows how many times the woman walked the hot and dusty roads to a from the well alone? Today is different. Jesus is here, and he asks her for a drink. Then He talks to her and she talks back all about the water and living water (which quite honestly must have sounded like nonsense.)

But this man is talking to her. She is the woman who no decent man would speak too, but there doesn't seem to be anything seedy about Jesus. I'm sure the poor woman was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Which it does.

Because then things get personal.

"Jesus said to her, 'Go call your husband and come back.' The woman answered and said to him, 'I do not have a husband.' Jesus answered her, 'You are right in saying "I do not have a husband." For you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.'"
John 4:16-18


Jesus knows her. This strange man, a Jew no less, knows things about her. He knows what she has done and He knows how her life has played out. He knows her struggles and her fears. He knows the hidden burdens that she carries. And He looks at her with love. All I can think when I read this passage is I want to see the eyes of Jesus look at me with such love. 

Jesus has just told this woman everything that she has done wrong. He tells her he knows about all of her sin. That doesn't sound very loving to us. We live in a culture that refuses to believe right and wrong even exist, so to us, Jesus sounds like He's being anything but loving.

There are no words where Jesus says "You are loved by the Father", none of that. He simply talks to her. Still, I know that He must also be looking at her with eyes full of the love that he has for her, because nothing else could explain what she does next.

"The woman left her water jar and went into town and said to the people, 'Come see the man who told me everything that I have done.'" John 4:29


We have all done things we are not proud off, some a long time ago, some as recently as yesterday. This woman has been living a life of sin for years...and Someone knows.

Someone knows about all of her sin and all of her mess. He knows. . . and she wants everyone to meet Him?

It's like if I ran into a stranger at Starbucks who started to list all the bad things I had done in my life...

That conversation would be awkward...and at the end of it I would be trying to get away as fast as possible and never go back ever again.. (Even though fall and pumpkin spice lattes are coming. )

Yet this woman turns around and tells everyone. Come meet this man! Based on our modern day methods of communication, that would be like tweeting it, taking a selfie with this man and instagramming it and of course posting it on Facebook...

Can you believe that status?... (complete with selfie):

"Hey look me and the awesome man who told me everything that I have ever done wrong."

Awkward.

This is why I know that when Jesus looked at her, He looked at her with eyes full of love.

She did not want to run away. She did not want to hide. She felt loved and she felt forgiven. She turned around and (at the expense of everyone knowing all she had done) she wanted everyone else to know the love of Jesus. That's what love does; that's what conversion does.


So often, I am the Woman at the Well. I get mired in sin and I let it consume me. I focus on how bad I am. The things I have done. The mistakes I have made. I forget about the love of a Savior which can take it all away. When the woman got that chance, she jumped on it; I forget that I can do that.


The woman was not prepared for the saving encounter at the well. She just wanted to get her water and leave.

Then Jesus stopped her. He looked at her and He saw her. He saw her not for what she had done but for who she was.

That is the reason she turned around and wanted everyone to know. She had been seen for who she was as a person: intimately loved by God.


All that woman did was let herself be open to the love of God. That is it. She opened herself to the transforming power of God's love and He changed her.

This is a lesson for me, and probably for you too. Don't stay mired in your sin or in your muck. Don't stay mired in all the ways you feel inadequate or useless. Don't focus on what you can do for God.

Just let him love you. Just let him love you.


That is why I go back to this Bible passage a lot. I need to be reminded of the love of God, the love of someone who sees all my mess and sin and loves me anyway.

He's one whose love can transform my life.





Be not afraid!
-Emily