Week 14 ———  The Samaritan Woman at the Well
John 4:5-42

Several stories in the Bible begin with a man meeting a woman at a well. This setting is where Rebecca is found as a wife for Isaac, where Jacob meets his future wife Rachel, and where Moses meets Zipporah whom he will marry. All of these stories all end in marriage, but today’s story is different.

You have probably heard several sermons on this story.  I have, and they all pretty much go the same way:  The disgraced, sinful woman encounters Jesus, and he reveals her sin, and she comes to believe in him.

Here is a typical rendering, from ‘Got Questions Ministry’ “What we can learn from the woman at the well”:

“…she was an outcast and looked down upon by her own people. This is evidenced by the fact that she came alone to draw water from the community well when, during biblical times, drawing water and chatting at the well was the social highpoint of a woman’s day. However, this woman was ostracized and marked as immoral, an unmarried woman living openly with the sixth in a series of men. The story of the woman at the well teaches us that God loves us in spite of our bankrupt lives.”

And another traditional view from John Piper, in his sermon titled: ‘God Seeks People to Worship Him in Spirit and Truth’:

“If people are spiritually asleep, you have to shock them, startle them, scandalize them, if you want them to hear what you say. Jesus was especially good at this. When he wants to teach us something about worship, he uses a whore.”

That is the traditional interpretation.   Today I want to challenge that interpretation.

Forever this story has been read with the assumption that this woman was of ill repute.  One of my Hebrew teachers, Eli Lizorkin, wrote a book in 2015, on the gospel of John. In the chapter on John 4 he questions that presupposition.  Then this past week, I read a book by Caryn Reeder that focused on the problems with the traditional approach to this woman (and many other women in scripture.)

So, let’s take a new look at this story.

The location is Sycar, a village near Shechem, where Jacob’s well was. This was one of the first pieces of land in Israel owned by the Hebrews, and it is where Joseph’s bones were brought from Egypt to rest. 

Joshua 24:32   As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem.

A divine appointment.

Jesus is waiting for her when she arrives at the well at an unusual time, noon.  Most people would have already made their daily trip for water in the morning. The suggestion is that she is intentionally avoiding others.  This had led pastors for centuries to say that she was a sinful woman, having been married multiple times and now living with a man out of wedlock.  These pastors describe her as shunned by her village.  This is a reasonable conclusion based on our modern culture.  But this story didn’t happen in our culture.  So let’s place the story back into its original setting.

Why all the marriages?   There are two ways marriages can end in Israel in the first-century culture: divorce or death.

In Jesus’ day, divorce was not uncommon, but only men could file for divorce, and they could do it for pretty much any reason.  This was a subject of much debate by the Pharisees of the day, and they questioned Jesus on his opinion in Matthew 19.¹ One of the common reasons for divorce was that the woman could not bear a child.  There was no procedure for women to file for divorce.²  If divorced, a woman did not take anything from the marriage, including anything the husband had given them during the marriage.  They had the right to take the original dowery, but this often didn’t happen.  So many women left with almost nothing and no way to provide for their needs.   

Women in Jesus’ culture typically were married when they were 12 – 15 years old, and husbands were usually 10-15 years older.  With the state of medical care, accidents and illnesses would mean many would not live past their mid-30s.  As in divorce, if her husband died, the wife did not inherit anything from the husband’s estate; it all went to his heirs.  That included the family home.  She again only had the right to her dowery.  Often, this meant she had no place to live.  If she had an adult son, he might be able to care for her. Any younger children belonged to the husband’s family. So frequently, in a divorce or the death of a husband, the wife would lose almost everything, including her home and children.  

“The man you now have is not your husband.”  We jump to the conclusion (based on our prior assumption of her character) that she is living out of wedlock.  If she has had and lost five husbands, no matter the reason, she will unlikely marry again.  A single woman in this culture could not live on her own. Women who cannot marry seek refuge with some male relative who can help support them. She may be living with a relative or another man out of necessity.  We don’t know.³

One other thing has always bothered me about the traditional characterization of this woman.  If she was seen by her community as a ‘horrible non-repentant sinner’, how is it possible that she can run in the village bearing witness to the Messiah, and suddenly everyone follows her back to the well?  That seems unlikely.  If she, instead, was pitied by her community for her misfortune and depression, it is more reasonable that this sudden change of spirits would lead them to take the hike to the well to investigate. 

Given this culture and these uncertainties, you can certainly not jump to the conclusion that she is a sinful woman. How odd is it that sermons on this story seem to always focus on her sin when sin is never mentioned in Jesus’ conversation with the woman?   Jesus doesn’t identify her relationships as sinful, nor does he offer her forgiveness. Jesus does not ask her to repent or change her life. Elsewhere in the Gospel of John, we see Jesus freely discussing sin — the woman caught in adultery is told to “go and sin no more”.  He tells the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven.”  But the omission of any mention of sin here is striking.⁴

Remember, this is a shame/honor culture.  If you have read much of the Old Testament, you understand the shame of a woman who is not married and the even worse shame of a woman who can not bear children.  Whether this Samaritan woman is at fault for her prior relationships or not, her position is the same.  She lives in shame in her community, from either their accusations or their pity.  It seems Jesus doesn’t focus on why she is living as she is.  His concern is not who is at fault.  He looks past the blame and sees a hurting woman he can help.

How unlike Jesus we can be.  We are very quick to decide if we are willing to help people based on how much they deserve our help.  We are much more likely to support an innocent victim than we are someone whose bad behavior got them into a mess.  We have seen this over and over in our homeless ministry.  A father loses his job, and his family with three young children finds themselves homeless.  People rush in to help.  We get more offers for help for them than we can handle.  But a young man comes in the same day who made bad decisions and became involved with drugs and lost his home — that rush of offers never comes.  He sees the response that the churches have to the family with kids while he is ignored.  What does he learn about the church?  Some people deserve grace, and some people do not.  That is a poor reflection of Jesus.

People say, “He got what he deserved.”  That is a very common response.  But is it a Christ-like response?   One of my friends said about the young man, “He made his bed, now he has to sleep in it.”  How ironic. The problem is that right now he doesn’t have a bed to sleep in or a place to put one.  He may be at fault, but he is also in need.

We often reserve our mercy and grace for those we deem worthy. But aren’t we grateful that Jesus dispenses grace and mercy freely, even when we don’t deserve it? None of us can earn God’s grace through our actions. Isn’t it a comfort to know that Jesus offers grace unconditionally? I don’t know anyone who wants to stand in front of God at judgment and ask to be given what they deserve.

As we discussed last week, Jesus went out of his way to meet this woman. He drags his disciples down what they feel is a wrong and dangerous path to have this one encounter. They do not see these Samaritans as worthy of their attention or God’s love. But Jesus comes to bring her hope, healing, and salvation.

But first, he has to break through some problematic barriers.   Remember, the Samaritans and Jews are bitter enemies with a long history of strife.  No Jew would share a meal with a Samaritan or drink from a Samaritan’s vessel.  Remember the quote from the Mishna:

Mishna Shebiith 8:10  “He that eats the bread of the Samaritans is like to one that eats the flesh of swine.”

Jesus starts the conversation by asking her for water, breaking any expectations she might have had about this Jew.   He then turns the conversation to ‘living water’, which he can offer her.  She initially does not understand this concept.⁵  Jesus then reveals himself as a prophet, and she responds by asking him the critical question regarding worship for a Samaritan.  Where is the proper place to worship?  Remember, the Samaritans had been, at times, not allowed to participate in temple worship in Jerusalem.  They had built their temple on Mt Gerizim, which the Jews had destroyed around 130 years before this encounter.  So there is no temple for her to worship in.  And this woman could not go to the Jerusalem temple due to racial strife.  But even if she could, she would have been restricted to the outer court, the “Women’s Court” simply because she was a woman. Women had a lower place in the religious culture of Jesus’ day.  This was not God’s idea.  There is no Biblical command for a court of women in the Tabernacle or the Temple.  It is an invention of the culture of men.  Sadly, some religions still refuse to admit women to certain areas of the church just because they are women.  Further, this woman would have a hard time even going to the local synagogue because of her shame.  

So she asks, where is the proper place to worship?  This is an important question that we still fail to grasp today.  Jesus tells her that salvation comes through the Jews, but now worship can happen anywhere and has no racial restrictions. God is to be worshiped in spirit and truth. Jesus tells her that the day is here, that the location won’t matter, and that she will have full access to God. Can you imagine what this would mean to her?

It is not about where.  Not this mountain or that mountain.  Not this temple or that temple.  Not this church or that church.  It is not about methods.  Not this denomination or that denomination.  Not with this style of music or that.  Worship is our response to the awe and wonder of a mighty God.  The Hebrew word for worship is avad which is also the word for work.  Worship is not simply a state of mind; it is doing the work that God demands. We call the church building a place of worship.  If this is the only place you worship, then you don’t comprehend what Jesus said to this woman.  What Jesus is saying is that place doesn’t matter.  The place of worship is anywhere the spirit is.  Anywhere you go is a place of worship.  Your occupation, your home, your grocery store, your friend’s house – these are all places of worship.  Worship is what we do every day of the week as we walk in obedience to him. We call this a worship service. Do you see that?  Service is the work a servant does. But the community worship we do for one hour on Sunday morning is just a tiny part of our week.  The other 167 hours in the week we worship as we walk with God and do his work.  We do not work to earn salvation. We do the work of God because that is our way to worship every day of our lives.  Jesus said we show our love for him by following his commandments.  Worship is doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.  (Micah 6:8)

This is all too good for her to believe, even coming from a prophet.  ‘That’s nice, Mr. Prophet, but only the Messiah can reveal that truth when he comes.’⁶  And that is when Jesus tells her he is the Messiah.  She is the first person he reveals himself to.  And now she knows what is too good to be true — it has just become true.  She drops her water jars and runs into town.

Then Jesus speaks with his disciples an often quoted verse:

“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”  John 4:35

Do you understand the significance of the placement of this verse right here in this story?   Jesus speaks of a field ready for harvest, and then verse 41 tells us: “And many more believed because of his word.”  The field Jesus is talking about is a field that the disciples would have never considered to be their responsibility to harvest, never considered to be capable of harvest.  This was a field of enemies.  A field full of hated people.  They were people who had polluted their worship and were unclean.  But not to Jesus.  

We can not set limits on God’s view of the harvest.

Do you see the trouble Jesus has gone through to teach the disciples and us this lesson?

God’s original plan was for the Jews to be his kingdom of priests to carry his message to the whole world.  But they were not obedient to this plan.  Their view of God’s kingdom was too small.  Samaritans part of the Kingdom?  No way. We don’t even talk to them, we don’t drink from their water jars, and we don’t allow them to come to our temple.  They are our enemies.  A woman?  Are you serious?  We keep them in the outer courts.⁷  Now a Samaritan woman who is living in shame?  She is probably a horrible sinner.  She has no place in God’s harvest.

But Jesus says, “Yes!”  Samaritan’s? “Yes!”  Enemies? “Yes!”  Women? “Yes!”  Sinners? “Yes!”

How big is your view of God’s kingdom?  Is it for the poor, is it for the prisoner, is it for the Hamas member, is it for your neighbor who is rude or mean, Is it for the people who are public sinners as well as those who we pity?  This woman dropped everything and ran to tell people about the Messiah.  And here we sit, clutching our water pots.

1. Note that Jesus in Matthew 19 is not giving an exhaustive teaching on divorce, but answering a specific question.
2. An exception is that the very wealthy or highly politically connected women could, in certain situations file for divorce.
3. Caryn Reeder notes in her book, The Samaritan Woman’s Story: Reconsidering John 4 After #ChurchToo, “The characterization of the Samaritan woman as an adulterer or prostitute exemplifies the dehumanizing, reductive sexualization of women in the theology and practice of the church. This pattern of interpretation endlessly repeats: Deborah and Jael, Bathsheba, Mary Magdalene, the woman who anoints Jesus in Luke 7: 36-50. These women (among many others) are categorized and defined on the basis of gender and sexuality.”
4. And the centuries of male-dominated church leaders’ insistence on proclaiming the sin of this woman is even more striking.
5. It is interesting to compare this one-on-one conversation with Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in the previous chapter.   Nicodemus is a leader of the Jews, a great teacher, and held in high esteem by the community.  She is of the lowest social status.  She is not even given a name.  She encounters Jesus in the middle of the day while Nicodemus comes at night, and Jesus says a lot to him about the light and the dark. They both initially have trouble understanding Jesus’ symbolism (born again, living water.)  But in a surprising twist, Nicodemus says little in his conversation with Jesus, while this woman holds her own.  And this unnamed Samaritan woman becomes the model for us to believe and witness, not the great Pharisee, Nicodemus.
6. Since the Samaritans only had the first five books of the Bible, their primary prophecy on the Messiah was Deuteronomy 18:18 which refers to a prophet like Moses that will come and speak the very words of God.
7. “It is frighteningly easy for a woman in the church to absorb a message that she is lesser, inferior, and lacking in some way.”  Lucy Peppiatt, in Recovering Scripture’s Vision for Women.