"Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."
John 21:25
We need to understand this fact and we must also be aware of WHY the story lines of the Gospels may not perfectly align. In other words, one author may have the story of the lost sheep in a different location of the story line than another author. The reason for this is to paint a picture, a picture we will not see if we just look at the up close. If you look at a painting of a house in the mountains but only focus on the house you may miss the context of where it's located or small details of any animals in the scene, etc.
I fear we have done this in the church on many different stories we read about in the Bible, and the woman at the well is one of them.
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 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. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
John 4:1-42
Let's look at the structure of John real quick so we can get a better understanding of what we are seeing in this portion of his writing.
John is divided into four parts:
1. Prologue (1:1-18)
2. Book of Signs (1:19-12:50)
3. Book of Glory (13:1 - 20:31)
4. Epilogue (21)
The signs are in an order as well:
1. Water into wine
2. Woman at the well (Not noticeably a sign)
3. Healing of the royal officers son
4. Healing of the man at Bethesda
5. Feeding the 5000
6. Walking on Water
7. Healing the man born blind
8. Raising Lazarus from the dead.
In this pattern, John is trying to show two things: Christ's divinity and Christ's compassion.
In His divinity we see:
1. Christ power to create (water to wine). While the wording is TURNED water into wine what was actually done was a creation. Grapes, apples, and many other things can be turned into wine but not water. The wine was as much a creation from water as man was from dust (John 1:3)
2. Christ power over knowledge (knew everything she did),
3. Christ power over space (healed the rulers boy in a different town),
4. Christ power over sickness (Man at Bethesda),
5. Christ power over needs (fed the 5000 with little earthly food),
6. Christ power over elements (Walked on Water),
7. Christ’s power over deformity (John made a big deal over writing about the man BORN blind),
8. Christ’s power over death (raised Lazarus - actually the climax of His power and the Gospel message),
In his picture of Christ divinity, John is also painting a picture of His compassion.
1. Jesus cleansed the temple for what the Pharisees were doing (John 2:13-25) but he had compassion for the one with questions (Nicodemus) (John 3:1-15)
2. Jesus has compassion for the world (John 3:16-21)
3. Jesus has compassion for the samaritan (John 4:1-26)
4. Jesus has compassion for the gentile (John 4:46-54)
5. Jesus has compassion for the sick (John 5:1-17)
6. Jesus has compassion for the multitude and hungry (John 6:1-13)
7. Jesus has compassion for those in natural trouble (John 6:16-21)
8. Jesus has compassion for the sinner (John 8:1-11)
9. Jesus has compassion for the deformed (John 9:1-12)
10. Jesus has compassion for the hurting (John 11:1-44)
The story of the woman at the well shows a compassion for the samaritan woman but the church is painting a picture in contrast to what John is trying to tell us. Let's look closer at this woman.
The church is painting a picture of her adulterous life and how she was a loose woman, but was she? John has this picture painting of the compassion of Jesus and he painted the loose harlot in chapter 8. Let's look at some context to learn more about the woman at the well.
From Scripture we see she is a woman from Samaria, a people who were disliked by the Jews. She had been married five times and was now with a man who she was not married to. She was alone at the well.
Based on historical context, I believe this woman was a victim in her day and still a victim today. She was, and is, a victim of her circumstances and falsely labeled within them.
In America we see women filing for divorce from their husbands all the time. But, in that day woman could not divorce their husbands. Only the husband could file for a divorce. Yet, this woman was married five times. This means that five different men left this woman for some reason which we are not told. Maybe she couldn't get pregnant, or maybe she didn't give birth to a son. These were big deals in these days. The fact is, there was a hidden flaw that caused five different men to divorce her. Due to these divorces, she's labeled by the circumstances made by these men.
Having gone through so many men, so much rejection, she likely felt she didn't want to marry again and decided to live a life of adultery by living with a man she was not married to.
Whatever the reason, she took the responsibility (John 4:29), which was also common for the day. For example, continuing with a possible birthing issues, women not producing children or not producing a male child was always, not often or typically but always, blamed on the woman. They did not know the science we know today. When a woman was blamed for whatever thing it was solid and that woman took the blame. We have to remember we are looking at a different time and culture.
We see she was alone at the well and that was uncommon in that day and even is still today in those cultures. Gathering water is a community affair by the women and children, yet this woman was alone. This says something about how the others viewed her in the community; and possibly how she viewed herself. Maybe she was viewed as loose, or maybe shunned for not having a child. Maybe there were jokes about her, talk about her, and people being rude toward her. Either way, they don't want to associate with her.
This woman likely felt shame, humiliated, unwanted, and felt as if she was an outcast. She likely heard people talk how she would never change, she couldn't be what others wanted her to be and couldn't do what others expected her to do.
This portion of Johns painting is Jesus' compassion for the outcast, for the rejected. When we see this, we see a more beautiful picture that is beyond the harlot painting so many churches try to preach. We know Jesus had compassion for the harlots but here we see his compassion for the rejected and outcast.
It's possible you may be able to relate to this woman. Maybe you were molested as a child, or raped as an adult. Maybe your view of love and a relationship is misguided because of it. Maybe you've been used and rejected over and over. Maybe you failed to live up to standards others placed on you. Maybe you've been falsely labeled by events of your past. Maybe you feel like an outcast, rejected, unwanted. Maybe you're satisfied with taking the blame upon yourself.
In the beginning of this painting we see John say, "[Jesus] NEEDED to go through Samaria" This was not the usual path by the Jews but Jesus had a mission and that mission was this rejected and outcast woman.
Like the woman, realize who Jesus is and that He's "need" to go out of His way to show you the compassion you need. Leave your empty worldly vessel behind as John specifically noted in the story. Leave that vessel behind, and proclaim the Messiah.
On the flip side, the church is the operating hands and feet of Christ. If we ignore the rejected and outcast, if we gossip about them and point fingers at them, we are no better than the towns people of this woman; and we are not operating with the heart and spirit of God. Jesus "NEEDED to go through" the land of outcast to pursue the outcast of the outcast and we should be doing the same. We should feel the need to pursue these people as well.