How He Met Them
- Nicodemus (1)
- The Woman At The Well (2)
John chapter 4
I must admit that I am a habitual list-maker, everything from shopping, chores, yet more books to buy, and articles to write! Lists are boring, but in my world, essential. The Bible is full of lists, and a lot of them are lists of people; some are named, such as in the genealogies or the Hebrews 11 Hall of Fame, others are unnamed, but these lists are fascinating.
Take Matthew’s genealogy, for example (Matt. 1:1-17). It is not a list of the spiritual glitterati of Bible times. It is a mix of villains, heroes and heroines, princesses and street women, religious and devout people and those who are non-religious. They are non-white, non-western and include foreigners (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Uriah). Just as Jesus included these people in his ancestry, so they give us a blueprint for who Jesus welcomes into his family and kingdom today, and therefore, those we will meet along the way. Just as the people in Jesus’ day were in for some surprises in the people whom he encountered, so we should expect, and perhaps be on the lookout, for the unexpected people Jesus sends our way. After all, everyone needs the gospel.
A despised woman
One hot and dusty day, Jesus had an encounter with someone, a Samaritan woman, who would have been completely despised by the Jewish leaders of his day. They would have looked down on her, big time. In our own encounters with folks in our communities and on the edge of society, let’s be wary of patronising or avoiding those who are scorned by others.
Everything was stacked against this woman: she was a Samaritan. There was history here; the religion of the Samaritans was seen to be tainted, and their place of worship was considered alternative. It didn’t help that she was a woman in the days of a Rabbinic prayer, ‘Thank God you didn’t make me a woman or a Gentile.’ According to Jewish law, she would have been viewed as ‘unclean’, one of the untouchables. To share a dish of water with such a person was unthinkable. Are there people who, in our minds, are ‘untouchable’ or pariahs?
Did the fact that this woman came to draw water at the hottest part of the day, when most people wouldn’t venture out, mean that she was also a social outcast? She certainly wasn’t in the ‘in crowd’ of her day. In our evangelistic activities, do we welcome those who are marginalised in our society?
Then we find a reference to her morality, her current cohabiting situation. Interestingly, Jesus does not get into much of a discussion about the Samaritan woman’s marital history and status; he just shows that he knows all about it. Jesus touches her sin, but he doesn’t berate her endlessly for it. His knowledge is enough to shock her into a realisation of it. We could conjecture about her background in a society where women were dependent upon men for their financial support, and where men could divorce their wives by sending them away with a certificate. This was not the time to debate moral questions. Both Jesus and the woman herself knew this. Morality wasn’t the nub of the issue; her soul was at stake. When we welcome others into our lives or our churches, do we see the sin or the person?
There was plenty in Rabbinic tradition that condemned this unnamed woman, but Jesus doesn’t dwell there. Jesus knew all about failed marriages, after all, that was a theme in the Old Testament; God’s covenant people forsaking the bride of their youth, and they kept failing. The perfect marriage, that of Christ and his church, is still in the future. It is too easy to try to sort out the messes in people’s lives without first tending to their souls. This is justification before sanctification.
Jesus gives her value
Jesus was no respecter of persons in terms of who he discoursed with, whether it be a local Jewish leader like Nicodemus or a despised Samaritan woman. Jesus was not afraid to challenge the social and religious taboos of his time for the sake of the gospel. Do we leave this to those organisations that minister to the poor, the needy and the disabled, or are we welcoming and accessible in our church cultures?
Jesus treats this woman, who was despised and rejected by the society of her day, as a person of infinite value. He gives her time and attention. He engages her in theology, drawing out what she knows of the Torah, correcting her false beliefs and misunderstandings. I heard of a man who turned up one Sunday at a church known to me. This man had found out about the Bible on the internet, bought one and started reading it. When he got confused in the book of Joshua, he went to his local church to ask questions. Are we prepared for people to just turn up at church? Are we ready to engage with folks in their misunderstandings?
The one who would be broken reaches out to the Samaritan woman in her brokenness. Jesus didn’t wait for her to sort her life out before he taught her theology.
Jesus draws her deeper
Jesus begins a conversation about water, drawing on what was common between them, the need for good water in a hot and weary place. Yet Jesus, ever the master of debate, soon moves from the familiar to the spiritual, drawing on the references in Old Testament prophecy to living water flowing out from Jerusalem and to Isaiah, who promised that one day God’s people would draw water from the well of salvation.
Jesus is patient with the woman, following through her argument and sticking to where she is at in her understanding. He moves from ‘a’ prophet to ‘the’ prophet. Jesus is not afraid to draw this woman into deeper theological knowledge and even eschatology. He declares his messiahship.
Let’s not be so ‘user-friendly’ that we are afraid to introduce people to the depths of meaning that the Bible has to offer.
The results of this conversation are transformative: the woman rushes to declare the truth to the very people who had shunned her. Her personal testimony has a saving impact on the town as the townsfolk want to know more and to hear for themselves. They understand that ‘this man really is the Saviour of the world’.
Jesus was the first cross-cultural evangelist. He put into practice what he would charge his disciples to do, to go to all the world with the gospel, beginning in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
If you are reading this article and recognise that you have a secret mental list of the folks you don’t think Jesus can reach, let the passage challenge you. If you recognise things in your background in common with the woman at the well, let the passage bring you great hope. Jesus can change you.
