At the beginning of John Chapter 4, Jesus and his disciples are traveling back to Galilee from the province of Judea. In order to do this, they have to travel either around or through the province of Samaria. Jesus apparently makes the decision to take the shortcut through Samaria.
When they reached the town of Sychar, they decided to stop to rest. Jesus sends the disciples into the village for food and he stays at the well outside of town.
What happens next is an encounter of biblical proportions. There was no battle where hundreds died. There was no fire from heaven that consumed cut up meat on an altar. There was no miracle or sign or wonder. Yet, here is this encounter between Jesus and a woman whose life has been spent in abject spiritual misery. A life that has certainly been misspent and, up to this point, wasted. She has no friends, no one that really loves her, and no respect. In fact, she is simply surviving avoiding people and hiding in the shadows because of shame.
This encounter changed the life of one person. Jesus spent time with ONE person because she was important to him. This woman is not just an example. This woman is you and me. This woman shows the depth of attention that God has for us.
Jesus and the Samaritan woman could not have been more different. The Jewish people had deep disdain for the people of Samaria. They were the remnant of the people who were taken into captivity. They had intermarried with their captors and, as far as the people of Judea were concerned were biracial and polluted by Gentiles. They weren't generally allowed to come to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple, so they worshiped at Samaria.
They were a people apart. Apart from the law. Apart from the worship. Apart in just about every category. They were victims of generations of racism and bigotry. They were hated and disrespected by the people just to the south.
Yet, they had the same legacy. The same history. The place where Jesus met the woman was a well, Jacob’s Well, was at Sychar. This well had been given to Jacob’s son Joseph 1700 years before. The Samaritans were well aware of their history and their relation to the people of Judea.
When Jesus decided to talk to this woman, he was going against hundreds of years of culture. Not only was she a Samaritan, she was a woman. Not only was she a woman, she was a divorced woman. Not only was she a divorced woman, she was a woman by herself. Because of that, Jesus should have ran away from her.
Yet, he challenged the cultural conventions of the day and talked to her. He was breaking every rule in the book because she needed to hear what he had to say. He had a deep and truthful conversation with her. He looked genuinely within her and drew out the source of her deepest hurt. He knew what she needed and he gave it to her.
I understand that there are cultural differences. As an American living in Korea, I see them every day. And I know that I make mistakes every day. I know that I offend people sometimes. I also know that people will, to some degree, allow those mistakes because I am different. I appreciate that more than you know. However, I want you to know that I would never offend anyone on purpose. If I have offended you in any way I am so sorry.
So, this meeting on a hot day at lunch time was momentous and life changing. It was one of those divine encounters that seem to happen out of nowhere. It is one of those times that changes everything.
Jesus was tired. It was a long walk. It was about 48 kilometers from Jerusalem to Sychar. This was probably noontime of the second day of walking. I am sure everyone was tired and hungry. John tells us that Jesus was weary from the journey.
He was also thirsty. Even though he was at a well, he didn't have anything to draw water with. He asked a woman who came to the well for a drink. She was surprised on several different levels.
When God speaks to us during one of these encounters, it often seems quite normal. We may sometimes even miss it at first. This woman had no idea what was going to happen when she went out for water that day. She did this every day, probably. She went out in the heat of the day to avoid the stares and disrespect of the other women in the village. It was simply too hot to go out at noon. Most went in the early morning or late evening when it was cooler.
She had to live in counterpoint to others because of her sin and her perception of herself. She had to live in such a way to avoid confronting what was wrong in her life. A life in the shadows. Now, she was in the bright sunlight of the desert face to face with her Savior. She didn’t know it at first. She expected to get her water and take it back to her house and put up with another day of shame.
It was her normalcy. Jesus meets us at our normalcy. He meets us in those places where we least expect it. On the bus, on the highway, in hallway, in an elevator. Anyplace. And mostly, it’s completely unexpected and normal. A word, a conversation, a sign on a building, a blessing. It could be anything.
In this case, it was Jesus asking for a drink of water. When Jesus asked her for a drink, she was surprised but she was probably a little perplexed. What was this Jewish man doing there and why was he talking to her? The question that he asked was a little strange too. He asked for a drink that would give life to his soul. He wasn't just asking for a drink of simple water. She must have thought he was quite strange.
The conversation then became a little strange too. Jesus offered her water that would cause her never to be thirsty. She was perplexed by that too. They Jesus moved directly to the heart of the matter. “Go and get your husband,” he said.
It takes our breath away when something like that happens. What was an already strange conversation just became terrifying. Jesus reached her, stopped her. Right there. I bet her heart almost stopped. “This strange talking Jew knows something.”
“I don’t have a husband,” she said. Her shame was right there, like mold and rot. It came up everywhere. She could have thought, “I can’t even escape this in the heat of noon. My sin follows me like a pack of dogs wanting to devour me at any moment.”
Then Jesus advanced the conversation. He pushed all pretense out of the way. “You’re right! You don’t have a husband—for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”
What would you have done if you were confronted in that way? Being divorced in those days wasn’t something that women could do. She was rejected by 5 men. She had no choice in the matter. There were 5 men who decided she wasn’t worthy of them. The man she was living with at the time didn’t even think she was worth marrying.
The woman at the well was as low as anyone could be. Worse than a prostitute. Worse than a leper. Worse, probably, than a tax collector. Full of shame, ridicule and scorn. Not fit to be in a proper society. There wasn’t anyone in Sychar and in the surrounding area who didn’t know who she was or the kind of person they believed she was. Everyone had made a judgment. Everyone thought they had her figured out.
Yet, Jesus knew something the others didn’t. She wasn’t just a sinning woman who couldn’t get her act together. God had a higher purpose for her life. He didn’t want her live like she was.
This woman knew her people’s history. She understood the division between the Jewish people and the Samaritans. She knew the reasons behind the division and the hundreds of years of animosity. She knew who God was and she desperately wanted to worship him but really didn’t know how.
There was much more to this woman who appeared to be a total failure in her life. But she was stuck. Afraid to venture out into the world because of her shame. She had no skills, no training, and no circumstances that would ever allow her to change until she died. If she continued in the same way she was going, she would eventually be a rejected, starving old woman begging for morsels to survive. That was her fate. And she knew it. No one would take care her. No one cared. She was worthless to them. She would die in the street, hopeless and lost.
But she wasn’t worthless to Jesus. He knew something the woman and the other did not know. He had a plan for her. She could have walked away from that plan by her choice and continued on the tragic trajectory of her life. But she didn’t.
By the time the disciples came back, the conversation was over. They were surprised by what they saw.
The woman did something that I think at least some of the disciples recognized. She left her water jar beside the well and went announcing her presence into the village. Most of the disciples had done the same thing. They left important things behind and followed Jesus. Peter, Andrew, James, and John left their fishing boats, Matthew left his tax collector’s table, and the others simply dropped everything and with Jesus.
The woman left an essential implement of life at the well. It is symbolic of a great change that occurred in her life. Before, she would have never considered leaving that jar anywhere. It was essential to life. No one would have brought water to her. No one cared. Now, she wanted to tell people about Jesus. Nothing else mattered.
Now Jesus mattered. Even though Jesus knew her deepest shame, Jesus cared. I am pretty sure he was the first person that had truly cared for her in many years. “Come and see a man who told me everything I did! Could he be the Messiah?” Jesus knew her and it didn’t matter. He was willing to have a relationship with this half breed, divorced, lowlife woman who came to draw water at noon. He didn’t drive her away. He gave her words of life.
And she was more than happy to share them with others. Jesus encountered a woman who was living life as an outcast. In a very short time, she was preacher of the gospel. Her words were heard by people who rejected her.
Yes, she became a preacher. This outcast, this terrible social deviant who couldn’t do anything right. People responded to her words. She had words of life and people wanted to hear them. Even though they rejected her, she preached to them. Even though they hated her, she didn’t hate them. Even though they may not have listened, she still told them. She had to. Her joy was simple too much. It overflowed.
That’s the impact of a divine encounter.
I would also like to point something else out that I have never really noticed before. What was Jesus’ reaction to this?
The disciples had gone into the village and brought back some food. They encouraged Jesus to eat. Jesus was so excited that he couldn’t eat. “I have a kind of food you know nothing about,” he said. He was so pleased that the woman responded the way she did. “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God.” Jesus desired that the woman respond to the gospel and she did. She was aware of the Law and the Prophets and the history of God’s people.
She had no hope. She needed the Messiah. She needed Jesus. He was there at the right time and it changed everything.
Jesus loves it when you respond to him. An encounter with him is something you will never forget.
Is there a divine encounter for you this week?
