Jesus the Friend of Women: The Woman at the Well
Text: John 4:1-41
We’ve been teaching about the Images of Jesus Christ, and last week, we started the topic on Jesus, the friend of Women. Today, we will be teaching on a very popular but important topic, The Woman at the Well.
Jesus felt a dire need to pass through Samaria. A godly persuasion. He moved in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Jews intentionally avoided traveling through Samaria because of the rift between the two.
Sometimes, we have to go through a less traveled path to reach our destination.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Usually, women would go to the well early in the morning in groups, but this woman decided to go at the 6th hour, probably around noon. She probably went to the well at that time to avoid the scrutiny and rejection from the other women.
This woman wore shame as her garment. ‘For your shame, you shall have double honor.’
Jesus asked her for a drink.
Why did Jesus ask the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink?
As Christians who want to fulfill the mandate given by Jesus to go into the world and make Him disciples, we have to learn how to strike up a conversation. Jesus struck up a conversation with the Samaritan woman. In the Middle Eastern culture, men do not strike up conversations, especially in a public place like the well, with women they are not familiar with.
Jesus asked this woman for a drink. A Jewish Man asking a Samaritan Woman for a drink? That’s sacrilegious! An outright abomination!
Samaritans were considered unclean and outcasts to the Jews, who prided themselves in their ethnicity and Jewishness. They lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Samaritans were half Jewish and half Gentiles, both in ethnicity and religious practices. They were considered to be dogs. There had been an age-long history of hatred towards the Samaritans.
When a grandson of the high priest, Eliashib married a daughter of Sanballat, the governor of the province of Samaria, he was driven away from Jerusalem by Nehemiah. A temple was built on Mount Gerizim by Sanballat for his son-in-law Eliashib to carry out his priestly role. This caused a full break up between Jews and Samaritans. Nehemiah 13:28-30
Jesus broke racial, religious and gender barriers by having a conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.
We cannot reach out to the world if we hold on to our nationality. We have a great example in our society today, Christian nationalism based on race and class. This is totally against the principle of Christ. You are either a Christian or a racist, you can’t lump both together.
The woman is surprised by this request and questions Jesus about His actions. What’s your motive Jewish man?
The Samaritan woman had every reason not to trust Jesus because her people had experienced several oppressions from the Jews. But Jesus was a different kind of Jewish Man.
According to Jewish rabbinic laws, a) Jewish men were not to have public and open contact with women; b) Jewish rabbis considered Samaritan women to be menstruants from their cradle- perpetually unclean. Jews considered all Samaritans to be unclean.
By asking the woman for a drink, Jesus was ready to disregard every hostile presumption against the Samaritan women and He did.
Jesus offered her the Living Water. She challenged Him to fulfill His offer: “Sir, give me this water, that I may drink it and never thirst again. Make it so I never have to return to this well- John 4:15
Jesus asked her to call her husband. The Word of Knowledge. Prophecy is not to bring shame, guilt, or dishonor. It is to bring edification, encouragement and comfort. 1 Corinthians 14:3
The woman had 5 husbands and was shacking up with a man who was not her husband. She was married 5 times. What could have happened? Was she promiscuous? 1) She may have been widowed; b) She may have been divorced. Rabbinic law only allowed 3 marriages, but in the Samaritan society up to 5 marriages were permitted by levitite law (a law that requires the men to marry the widow of their deceased brother). Deuteronomy 24:1-4
The woman said, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. This woman, although she had married 5 times, was perceptive enough to know that Jesus was not just any man, but Divine.
Jesus revealed Himself to the Samaritan Woman as the Messiah. John 4:26. The first person Jesus revealed Himself to as the Messiah was a woman, and not just any woman, but a woman with a tainted past. A past filled with shame and ridicule.
She left her water pot and said to the men, not women but men, come and see!
She became a witness for Jesus Christ! She could no longer be silenced; her encounter with Jesus rolled away from her every garment of shame and reproach. Joshua 5:9 “Then the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”
This woman became the first evangelist in the New Testament. She went out of her way, by her own initiative, to tell others of her encounter with Jesus; this encounter was eternal. She drank of the Living Water and did not thirst again.
She left her water pot because she no longer had a need for it.
An encounter with the Messiah brings a radical transformation, leading to a new way of life and a deeper connection with God.
There is repentance, a spiritual rebirth, a new identity, and discipleship.
Jesus challenged societal norms and religious traditions, calling His followers to a higher standard of righteousness and love.
Jesus’ ministry was marked by interaction with the marginalized, outcast and abandoned. He offered them forgiveness, restoration and a new identity.
Jesus also challenged unjust systems and advocated for the marginalized.