It does not matter that she is a woman and a Samaritan. Gender and nationality are not important. No one is excluded from the Christian community. The Samaritan woman was a foreigner from a despised religious group, but her story made a clear statement about the role of women in the early Christian communities.
Exquisite gold mosaic, German, , showing the Samaritan in a practical if not modest position for drawing water. The Samaritan woman meets Jesus at the well, John Southall. Normally, Jewish travelers made a detour around Samaria to avoid contact with Samaritans, but Jesus took the direct route.
There had once been a great city there. Nearby on the peak of Mount Gerizim had been a temple that rivaled the Temple of Jerusalem. The Samaritan Woman approaches Jesus who is sitting at the well. Here Jesus stopped, tired and thirsty in the midday heat. His friends had gone to the town to buy food. Only a Samaritan woman was there, drawing water from the well. It was about noon. His disciples had gone to the city to buy food. Scholars presume she knew Jesus was Jewish by the way he spoke.
His accent was Galilean. Possibly Jesus was wearing a fringed shawl when he met the woman at the well, and it was this that showed he was Jewish. Or it may be that people from particular regions wore particular designs and colours in their woven clothes — like peasants used to do in France, Belgium, Italy, etc. Jesus may have been wearing a patterned weave that identified him as a Jew from Galilee.
Every drop of water used in a household had to be carried from the local well. So every day women walked to the bottom of steps cut into the rock, filled their heavy earthenware jars, returned up the steps, and carried the water home. The strong younger women of the household normally did this task, but this is not happening here.
The Samaritan woman is no longer young, and since she is carrying her own water, it seems she did not have younger women in her household to do this heavy task. He knows our desires, and yet He still pursues us and loves us Romans He is not surprised by our evil desires, but rather He seeks to reconcile us to the Father in spite of them Hebrews Colossians says:.
Jesus saw our sin and was willing to shed His blood and endure immense suffering for the sake of our satisfaction and eternal life. Just as the Samaritan woman did not fully understand who Jesus was at first, we also need Jesus to open our eyes to the reality of who He is Psalm , Ephesians It is only in Jesus that we will be saved from our sins and made new in Christ Titus , Galatians Jesus puts our sin and shame to death on the cross and calls us to walk in His light John , 1 John , Psalm He gives us new desires and a new purpose, that will not be found in any earthly thing, but only in His kingdom Colossians , Matthew , Romans When Jesus is our Messiah, He becomes the Lord of our life.
We are called to daily take up our cross and follow Him Matthew We submit our desires, gifts, talents, time, and money to Him James Philippians says:.
Because of His magnificent sacrifice, our life should exalt His name Matthew The living water that is given to us so freely in Christ becomes the well-spring of our life John We come to Christ to be filled, to be forgiven; and the void that is filled by Christ in our life overflows so that we desire to proclaim His excellencies 1 Peter and make disciples of all nations Matthew We no longer need the next best thing, because Jesus is the greatest thing that will ever happen to us.
Photo credit: Guercino [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons , original image cropped. Plus Toggle navigation. Password Assistance. AG 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests AH a crop for eternal life, AI so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor. AO 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him.
They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, AP for they also had been there. AQ And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. The man took Jesus at his word and departed. All rights reserved worldwide. The best value in digital Bible study. Jesus offers living water — eternal life. This water is not like regular water but rather comes from God Almighty and lasts forever. Third, it shows the importance of offering our testimony.
When the woman believed, she immediately ran off to tell others. Her words made an impact. Fourth, it underscores how Jesus is the Messiah. And fifth, it reveals yet again how Jesus was rejected by His own people. That the woman was a Samaritan yet believed is probably not an extraneous fact but rather the point. Yet Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council and likely an expert on his faith, did not understand the significance of what Jesus was saying.
But this town of so-called enemies, we are told, believed. He wants us all in His holy kingdom — if only we, too, believe. Jessica Brodie is an award-winning Christian novelist, journalist, editor, blogger, and writing coach and the recipient of the American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis Award for her novel, The Memory Garden.
Learn more about her fiction and read her faith blog at jessicabrodie. She has a weekly YouTube devotional, too.
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