Jesus And The Woman At The Well
John chapter four records one of the most remarkable stories in the Bible. It’s the story of the Samaritan woman and her encounter with the Messiah. And there is quite a lot we can glean from this experience. Here are just a couple of the lessons we can take home from the story of Jesus and the woman at the well.
Accidentally on purpose
The woman at the well had no idea that this day would be a different day. When she went towards the well to fetch water, she had no idea that she would meet a man that would change her life completely. Maybe she thought she would meet some shepherds who were watering their animals. She was completely flabbergasted to find a Jew who was actually interested in her. And not only that, this Jew was actually the Messiah. It sounds like the time Saul went to look for the lost donkeys only to encounter the prophet who had been waiting for him to anoint him as king.
And that is how God often blesses his people. The story about Jesus and the woman at the well is a good example about how you are going about your mundane duties and then almost accidentally, you meet with your miracle. But it is not actually accidentally because God in his foreknowledge had already planned on blessing you all along. So we can call it accidentally on purpose. As Paul put it, all things work together for good.
Don’t judge
During and before the time of Jesus, Samaritans and Jews didn’t hang out. Jews believed they were the chosen ones by God and it was considered a sin to mingle with Samaritans or any other non-Jew for that matter. But on this fateful day, things were about to change for a simple Samaritan woman. Jesus sent away his disciples to look for food because he knew how judgmental they would be. It looks pretty strange that all the 12 of them had to go to fetch a simple meal. This was a job for only 1 or two of them but he needed all of them gone before he began witnessing to the Samaritan. When the disciples returned from their food hunting expedition, scripture says they were surprised to find him talking to the woman (John 4:27).
The story of Jesus and the woman at the well should be a reminder to all of us never to be judgmental about anyone. However sinful we think someone is; God still loves them just as much as he loves you. In fact, he loves sinners so much that he would rather leave the proverbial 99 that are not lost and go find the one that is lost. God may hate sin but he sure loves sinners.
He knows your name
When the Samaritan woman started talking with Jesus, she thought it would be one of the many casual conversations you can have with a stranger. Halfway through the conversation, she figured she was talking to a prophet and by the time they were done talking, she realized he was actually the Messiah. The Samaritan woman had led quite a sinful life – moving from one man to the next and she was now on her sixth. Chances are when she saw Jesus she thought she had found husband number 7. But she knew her life was an open book to him. She knew all about it. That was more than just an eye opener for her. It was her turning point.
God knows us by name. Scripture says he has inscribed us on the palm of his hands (Isaiah 49:16). He knows our hidden thoughts, he sees our unspoken words and he understands our deepest sighs. Nothing we do really takes him by surprise for he knows us better than we know our self. If you think about it, you would probably have very few friends if all your friends really knew everything about you. But even though God knows everything about you, he still loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. There is no greater expression of love than this.
God has no favorites
The Samaritan woman became the first evangelist in Samaria. She went around Samaria telling everyone that would listen to her about her encounter with the Messiah. Humanly speaking, she was the least qualified person for the job. All her neighbors knew the kind of life she lived. But in the eyes of God, she was equal to the task. When he saw her at the well that day, he didn’t see a sinful Samaritan that was beyond redemption. On the contrary, he saw a woman that had a heart for ministry and was just looking for some love and acceptance. She was looking for this love and affection in all the wrong places but finally found it at the well. The scripture remains silent on what happened afterward but we can safely infer that she managed to help most of the Samaritans to believe in the Messiah.
The best part about this story is the way God doesn’t play favorites. In two different scriptures, we are told that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11). Repetition creates emphasis. God repeats this in scripture to show us that he means business with this. He does not play favorites. He can use anyone for the work of ministry. And he doesn’t go picking the ones that look good in the eyes of man – he doesn’t call the qualified but he qualifies the called.
Tomorrow Is A Better Day With Jesus
The reason the Samaritan woman was moving from one husband to the next is that she was looking for something that she wasn’t really finding in her husbands. Although she couldn’t place her finger on it, deep down in her heart, she felt an emptiness that she was desperately trying to fill. And one day, she got an answer to her desire. Her answer was not in men as she had originally thought but in God. As Blaise Pascal put it, “there is a God-shaped vacuum in everyone and no one but God can fill it.”
The story of Jesus and the woman at the well teaches us that even though the Samaritan woman had a bad history, she ended up with a good future. It almost like God was saying, “Your yesterday might have been messed up, but your tomorrow is better.” In the same way, we can continue believing that our tomorrow will be better than our today and our past. And the best part is, God doesn’t reference our past when he wants to bless our future. This is why he encourages us to forget our past and concentrate on our future for he is doing a new thing (Isaiah 43:19)!