The Woman At The Well

Believe it or not there are many cultural things happening during the encounter between the woman and the Lord. John 4:1  Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4 Now he had to go through Samaria.

As you can see from the map below the most direct route from Judea to Galilee is through Samaria. Not everything Jesus did was revelation he also used common sense.

5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

The word translated by the well can and should be translated upon, Jesus sat down on the well. Mainly because he was tired you try tromping around Israel you might get tired to.

Now why does it mention that it was noon you may wonder? It was also lunch time that is why the 12 weren’t there. They went and found the nearest deli. Probably had Reuben sandwiches. 😄

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

It was common practice for the women to go with a pot to the well to get water for the day. Remember they had no indoor plumbing so there was a well that anyone could draw from. This was one of the jobs women did. I would suppose that makes it women's work in that culture. Remember we are studying that culture. The thing that is a bit unusual is that it was noon time. The women normally did this before the sun came up. Before it got to the heat of the day. So why did this woman come in the heat of day at noon time? We are not told directly but I believe the answer is in the context and we will get to it when we get to it.

8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

Well it’s noon time, time for lunch. Bring on the Ruben sandwich. If they had waited with Jesus they would have seen it, the whole encounter between this woman and Jesus.

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. )

There is a note in the NIV For Jews do not associate with Samaritans it says:

Or do not use dishes Samaritans have used

The Samaritans were considered half Jews by those from Israel. Back at the time of Jeremiah the prophet there was a carrying away of 10 of the tribes of Israel. The idea was to cause a country you had conquered to disappear you could either kill everyone or you could try to erase an country by moving the population to someplace else which they did they would also bring people from other countries to the place they had conquered thus wiping out that culture. Well it worked for awhile but as often happened the people who got moved in converted to that country's religion. Don’t forget we are dealing with a different mind set. People believed all gods were local or tied to a location. So the people who moved in would take the god that was thought to rule that section as their own because they didn’t want the local god mad at them. So those from the two tribes that didn’t get carried away didn’t think those from this area of Israel to be as good as they were. Now I am not saying Jesus subscribed to this point of view but as he said he was sent to Israel not anyone else.

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

Jesus may have be referring to:

Jeremiah 2:13

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

   11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Wow what a promise. Oh also in their culture men and women who did not know each other did not mingle. This is still practiced in the middle east today. The one exception was he could ask her for a drink. In any case cultural taboos never meant much to Jesus he was concerned with the word.

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Ahh the reason she was there in the middle of the day.  This woman would have been an outcast from snooty people in their society. They would have ridiculed her made fun of her, maybe even became violent with her.  Today having more than one husband is almost common place so no one thinks anything about it but that was not the case here. Remember Joseph could have had Mary stoned because she was found to be with a child before they came together. He could, as nowadays would probably happen just divorce her which was his plan originally till the angel told him it was cool just go ahead and marry her. So how did Jesus know all this it is called a word of knowledge and a word of wisdom. God gave him the info and told him what to say. He got her attention.

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

One of the foundational verses in the Greek scriptures.

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

This one of the places where Jesus states this. Most times when asked he said nothing about it.

27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don't you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

While Jesus was saying this there was a crowd of people coming, The way they dressed it would look similar to a field of wheat moving towards them.

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

That is the end of the women by the well there is some more in that chapter but we will leave that for another day.