This morning, we sit down at the “foot” of Jacob’s Well. This passage from John about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well just outside of Sychar is rich with messages and lessons for all who seek Jesus. One commentator reflected that this is “a text with it’s own bucket, ready for filling. Let it down again and again, each time it comes up with another sermon of living water, another deep drink from the well that will not go dry.” How very true that is! There’s the message of “living water,” within this passage, there is a message about reaping the harvest (though I did not read this part this morning). This passage is rich in significance for our lives. But this morning, as will be the case for the next several weeks, we are going to focus on the woman at the center of this passage. The Samaritan woman who has come to Jacob’s Well in the middle of the day to draw water, but who ends up having an unexpected, life-changing encounter with a Jew named Jesus.
Just as there is a lot to take in with this passage as a whole, so there is also much to be learned from the woman herself. Let’s start with the fact that she’s a Samaritan. Samaria is the name given to the land between Galilee in the North, and Judea in the south. If one is traveling from North to South, as John tells us Jesus and his disciples were doing, the natural root is through Samaria. But Jews often avoided this route so they could avoid the Samaritans. Any of us who have even a cursory knowledge of the New Testament know that the Samaritans were not so very well-liked to say the least, and the Jews and Samaritans really didn’t get along well at all. In order to understand why, though, we have to go way back in Jewish history, to more than 400 years before Jesus’ birth. During the Babylonian exile, most of the Jews were carted out of their homeland and distributed elsewhere around the Babylonian Empire. In this time of exile, many Jewish practices came to be influenced by the cultural tendencies of the Babylonians. But there were some Jews who remained in the area of Judea, and so they came to view themselves as the only true descendants of Abraham because they were the only ones not influenced by outside forces. They came to be known as Samaritans, and they opposed the return of the Jewish exiles after the end of Babylonian occupation. The Samaritans and the Jews also disagreed about the place of true worship; the Jewish people, of course, pointed to the Temple in Jerusalem, while the Samaritans believed God’s dwelling was the Temple on Mount Gerizim.
In any case, the Jews and Samaritans at their worst would get involved in skirmishes, with bloodshed and murder, but at best they still avoided each other at all costs and simply did not mix. “The Jews wouldn’t have anything to do with the Samaritans. They would, especially, not share eating and drinking vessels with them. And yet, Jesus [asks] this woman for a drink.”
Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well was a sign not only of Jesus’ mission beyond the Jewish people to Samaritans and Gentiles and many others, but also something much greater. Because, you see, this woman was a Samaritan, but she also seemed to have a somewhat questionable past….and don’t we all?!? Many theologians over the years have pointed to this woman from Sychar as some sort of sinful adulteress. How else could you explain five husbands and a live-in boyfriend? But John does not tell us that this woman is an adulterer; nor does he say that she is even a sinner. And Jesus never forgives any sin. Yet it seems fair to say that there was something in this woman’s life that she was ashamed of. We can discern this because she came to the well outside of the city in the middle of the day. It was, indeed, customary for women to gather water from the well each day, but the women would usually go to the well first thing in the morning so that they could collect their water supply for the day. And there was a well within the Sychar town limits, so there was really no reason for this woman to traipse out of town in the middle of the day to get the water; unless she was afraid to interact with the other women of the town and ashamed to be seen by them.
Yet, whatever her colorful past, no matter her gender, or even her heritage as a Samaritan, when this woman encountered Jesus at the well, none of those things were of any consequence. He asked her for a drink of water from Jacob’s Well, and here is the next thing that is noteworthy about this woman. She was willing. She willingly dropped the bucket down into the deep well and drew cold, fresh, water to serve to Jesus. And that one action, willingly taken, to serve a stranger in need, was the beginning of this woman’s salvation journey. Jesus engaged her in conversation, debate, even. They talked about the well and it’s connection to their ancestor Jacob. Jesus told her about “living water,” and offered her a drink, even as she collected water for him. Then they talked about the woman’s life. The conversation was to be completely transformational for the woman. Though she didn’t initially understand what “living water” was, by the time she was on her way back to Sychar to tell the village people about her encounter at the well, she must have known that it had something to do with being valued even when you feel ashamed.
You see, Jesus saw straight to the heart of what was going on in this woman’s life. The woman has had a life of one emotional upheaval after another. Whether her various marriages ended in death or divorce, she would have felt defeated every time. In the midst of it all, there was something in her life causing her great shame. We don’t know if she was equally sinned against as sinning. We don’t know what emotional traumas in her background may have made it harder for her to form lasting emotional bonds. Like women and men everywhere, she wasn’t a villain, she was just a sinner with a messed up life. And Jesus, in all his infinite love and wisdom knew she needed to be loved and respected for who she was a female, Samaritan, sinner. So he offered her living water.
And her life was changed, which is the best part of all! It wasn’t just that the woman left the well with a smile on her face and feeling a little better on that particular day. It wasn’t just that she gave herself a pat on the back because she had given some water to a thirsty stranger. No, she knew that she had encountered the Messiah. She was valued, even though she was a woman. She was respected, even though she was a Samaritan and felt ashamed. She was loved even though something made her feel unlovable. So this woman did what I hope any of us would do. She went back to her town to tell anyone who would listen. And did your hear what she said as she ran into what must have been the town square? “She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything I’ve done!’” But it’s what she didn’t say that’s even more wonderful. I imagine that as she said, “Come and see the man who has told me everything I’ve done.” That she must’ve been thinking, “And loved me anyway!” And with her enthusiasm, with her honesty, with her testimony, people came to believe in Christ. John says it right there. “Because of her testimony, many people in the village believed in Jesus.”
It didn’t matter that she was a Samaritan. It didn’t matter that she was a woman in a time when women were nobodies. It didn’t matter that she had five husbands and a live-in boyfriend. It didn’t matter that there was something in her life about which she was very ashamed. It didn’t matter that her life was “messed up.” She was willing, And because she was willing, Christ had changed her life, and when she told people about it, they saw it, they believed it. And they came to believe in Christ, too! With her words, she became one of the first evangelists, one of the first to testify about Jesus. And she was a woman! It didn’t matter that she lived in a time when women weren’t supposed to speak and weren’t really listened to if they did. Maybe the people of Sychar listened because they couldn’t believe that any person would be seen with this woman, much less engage her in a religious debate about the appropriate place of worship. But that’s really beside the point. She had a story to tell about this Messiah who loved her when nobody else did, and when she told it, people listened!
So here’s why the woman at the well matters for each of us. Do you ever feel like a nobody? Do you feel like you don’t matter because you are a woman? Or because you’re not part of the “in crowd”? Or because you are ashamed about all the mistakes you’ve made in your life? Do you feel like nobody values you or respects you because you don’t have the best job or the best house to the coolest car? Do you feel like you’re just a worthless sinner with a life that is completely messed up and there’s nothing to be done about it? Well, this is where the story of the Samaritan woman at the well is so wonderful. Because in her story, we learn that none of that stuff matters to Jesus. He loves us for who we are. He values us even when the world might not. He’s not concerned with all the mistakes of our past. He just wants to offer us “living water.” He just wants to have a relationship with us. He wants us to know that our messy lives are not so horrific in his eyes, and that if we will drink from the well of life, we can be made new.
But it’s even more than that. This woman became an unexpected evangelist. Who would’ve thought that the outcast would be the one to bring others in her village to a belief in Christ? Yet that’s exactly what she did! Her life was changed, she was willing, and she told the story. And when we are made knew, Christ wants us to tell the story. Even more than that, Christ values and respects us enough to expect that of all of us who have been touched by his grace and love. And here’s the thing: if that ashamed Samaritan, woman, outcast, sinner with a messy life can share the good news of Christ with others. Then so can any of us! And I hope that’s exactly what all of us do! Are you willing?
