I came across these notes today that I wrote about 5 years ago and wanted to share it. Living in a shame/honor culture for the past several months have also helped me understand this story even more. It is lengthy but may be worth the read. These are some of my thoughts on one of my favorite stories, the women at the well.
Jesus broke cultural boundaries to reach people: Jesus was a Jew and Jews did not interact with Samaritan’s. Most Jews walked around Samaria, avoided them, but Jesus chose to walk through it, pursued them. (Nothing in Jesus’s life was a coincidence. In this story he chose to do the opposite of what his culture did. His people despised Smaritan’s and Jesus chose to tell a story of “the good Samaritan” in which he gave them a new name and called them GOOD. I find this fascinating and this is much like what happens to all who have an encounter with Jesus. He gives them a new purpose.)
Not only did he walk in land that was not permitted, he also spoke to a women who was rejected by her own people. She would go to the well in mid-day when it was the hottest because that was the time that she could avoid all of the other women. The other women would go in the morning or in the evening when the heat was less intense. She was a prostitute and she was looked at as a piece of dirt by other women, they would gossip and call her names. This led to avoiding them completely. Jesus intentionally sat at the well waiting for this women.
Let’s pause there for a moment. Do you ever find yourself judging other people to feel better about yourself? I know I have.
Have you ever felt like you have been judged by others because of your sin? I know I have experienced that as well.
Most likely, if you are human, you answered yes to one if not both of these questions.
It is MUCH easier to look down on others than it is to look up. When we look down we feel superior when we look up we feel inferior. Makes sense right? But listen to what happens next…
He gave the women value:
Vs 7 “Jesus said to her, ‘give me a drink.’” He LET her, the women everyone looked down on, have something that HE needed. In that moment he gave her a purpose. He gave her value. He let her see him when he was in need.
I know for me it is difficult to ask people for help. I’m not entirely sure why but I know it has a lot to do with my pride more than anything else. But Jesus, the son of the creator of this world, asked a women that everyone hated for help. What in the world was he thinking right? If any of you are like me and you sometimes find yourself judging others which is ultimately buffing yourself up at their expense, just know it is NOT okay to stay that way. See, I see this story as if the well represents the church. The church should be the place that is the closest reality to what Jesus is like but it has become close to the complete opposite for western Churches. If you are a Christian than you are the church so instead of thinking of other people in your mind that need to be hearing this just evaluate yourself first, them second. The church should be where people feel the most welcomed but guys, research it, or just talk to people who have turned away. The most common denominator is that they feel rejected.
I was researching the top reasons why people leave the church and this is what I found the number one reason is according to Patheos,
They do not find Jesus.
“This sounds silly on the surface, but it’s not. Church should be a place where people are busy loving the unlovable, embracing the outcast, serving the widow, immigrant and fatherless. It should be a place where power is rejected, gender and race irrelevant, and where the most coveted position is the position of a servant. I think we need to just start being honest with ourselves and admit that a lot of people reject our churches because they’re too interested in Jesus to accept a counterfeit version. When I look at the story of Jesus, I am consistently moved by the way people were attracted to his personality. With the exception of religious leaders, everyone longed to be around Jesus and went to great lengths and great risks to spend time with him. I am convinced that if we built loving communities of faith that were raw and authentic, that embraced the excluded, and were known by how well they loved others, there wouldn’t be an empty chairs in the sanctuary. Because if a church were to really look like Jesus, people wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. “
He saw people’s sin and yet saw them as a person regardless of their sin:
Vs 16-18, “go and get your husband.’ Jesus told her. ‘I don’t have a husband,’ the woman replied. Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband- for you have five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth.”
He was opening her up, Jesus fully knew her AND in spite of her mess loved her anyways. He wanted her to know that he saw all of her problems and he still saw her as valuable.
He picked her, an adulterous woman, to be the first person to know who he was, the Messiah. Vs 26 “ I am who you speak of.”
He gives the woman a new memory:
The well was the place where she avoided people because it was a constant reminder of her pain and shame. But he gave her a new memory. Vs 28-29 “the woman forgot her water jar and went away into town and said to people, ‘Come see a man who told me all that I ever did.’” She was truly transformed. She forgot the water jar, the reason she was at the well in the first place, and she told all of the people that hated her, the people she use to avoid, about what Jesus did. He gave her value and she wanted others to experience the same thing.
He encounters her in her most vulnerable place:
The well was where she felt the most insecure because she was always reminded of her problems because of the other women. Jesus could have meet her at her house but he chose to meet her at the well the very core of who she was, and give her a new name, a new memory.
If you skip over all of this post just remember this:
If you see yourself more as the other women at the well that came in the morning and evening remember THIS: To be like Jesus means to genuinely see value in people regardless of their mistakes or status. Words cut deep. And who are we to judge when we are so messed up ourselves that Jesus had to die in order to save us.
I am that women at the well. You are that women at the well. We all are in no position to judge. Jesus is the only one in the position to judge and he chose not to and loved us instead. Can you let go of your pride and see people for their souls?
If you see yourself as that woman at the well remember THIS: Those places in your heart, in your past that you do not want to dig up again may be exactly what you need to do to get you to where you need to be. Are you willing to let Jesus into all of the pain, the memories? Are you willing to bring it all to surface once again and change that shame into a new story? He is waiting on you to invite him into those dark wells in your soul and allow him to transform you. Your level of freedom is directly related to your level of surrender.
