“Jesus said unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, ‘Thou hast well said I have no husband’: For thou hast five husbands; and he whom thou hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.” John 4:16–18 [KJV]
It wasn’t only strange for Jesus to sit alone with a woman while his disciples were away. It was culturally unacceptable for a Jew to associate with a Samaritan, particularly a Samaritan woman. What was wrong between the Jews and Samaritans? Of course, there was a serious religious and cultural disparity between these two groups of people. Jewish synagogues publicly denounced and cursed the Samaritans due to their partial pagan ancestry and defective devotion to Judaism. They were considered unclean in all manner of religious rites and worship.
The Jews believed that by going through the Samaritan land, they might become contaminated and hence unfit for the temple’s presence. So they preferred to travel TransJordan for trading rather than through the much easier and more accessible route of Samaria. Meanwhile, the Samaritan also hated the Jews, and so “the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans (John 4:9). But Jesus was a different Jew. He was on a mission to actualize the will of God by bringing many sons and daughters into glory, be they Jewish or Samaritans.
Jesus did not only go to that well, but he remained there until this woman showed up.
The fourth verse of John chapter 4 told us that Jesus sensed “a strong need to go through Samaria.” I believed this is how the Holy Spirit leads us at times. So Jesus, knowing his father was up to something, sat at the well, waiting. So she showed up. Oh, she was a woman, a Samaritan woman, coming to the well with her pitcher for water. It’s amazing how God reaches out to people, especially those with a history of abuse, past hurts, and disappointments. People who are stereotyped and left alone by the’self’-righteous’, ‘holier than thou’ religious folks of today. The purpose of God choosing Israel was to love and reach out to the nations, not to condemn them. Therefore, Jesus came to accomplish that purpose. Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded.
The master waited at the well to meet a woman who had had serious issues all her life.
She had gone through five marriages, had five men, and now had a live-in boyfriend. Of course, that doesn’t sound like a big deal today, but it was in the days of Jesus. She was like the worst of the worst. Remember the woman who committed adultery in John 8:4? This one had a terrible situation compared to that one. Yet Jesus had the longest conversation in the New Testament with her, and the first word He said to her was one of request and not of rebuke. ‘Give me to drink’ (John 4:7). Does she have something Jesus needs? No, he had what she needed but still made her feel honored, accepted, and loved. Jesus gave back to her what society had taken away from her. He gave her honor back to her.
… And what was it that Jesus was chatting with her about? He was revealing to her one of the greatest principles of the Kingdom of God: worship!
Jesus was conversing with a woman, shunned by society but marked out for greatness. A woman marked out for divine assignment.
He never perceived her as evil, but rather as a lost individual. He did not see her past, but rather her future. Jesus saw a woman with God’s call. Someone with the potential to shake up the whole city of Samaria with good news “And many of the Samaritans believe in Him for the testimony of that woman” (John 4:39), and they even compelled Jesus to stay in their city’… What an amazing woman she turned out to be!
The big difference between Jesus and the world today is that he has his eyes on you, even in your shortcomings. Just like this woman, he knows about the rejection and depression that hang around your life; he knows all the abuse and pain of many years. Yet he could still hang around for you, sharing with you his presence and inviting you to say, “Give me to drink.” Why will He make a demand of you? Because there is a hidden treasure in you, and heaven will place its demand on it whether you or the enemy like it or not. There is an assignment for you; your enrollment in the end-time army is still intact. What are you going to do, woman? Are you going to allow him into your life or go back and live low in Samaria?
He didn’t dwell on her lost past. He focused on her new life now that he had found her. For as long as you can still come to Him to draw strength and hope, as the Samaritan woman did at the well of Jacob (a symbol of God’s everlasting covenant to Israel), He can still entrust you with the divine ability to accomplish the impossible.
Woman! It’s time for you to shape up; it’s time to see beyond your mistakes and your weaknesses. It’s time to see what heaven has in store for you. It’s time to obey the new man who found you. It is time to take your city. It’s a call to duty. It’s a woman’s call.
“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourself for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money” Isaiah 52:1–3 [KJV].