This morning I was thinking about how important it is to understand how the Lord sees us. I was immediately reminded of the Samaritan woman that Jesus met at the well (John 4). I believe that Jesus was on a mission from the Father to meet with her, and it was because of who the Father knew she was inside. I believe that it was Jesus' job was to release her into her true identity.
There are a few things to know before reading these excerpts:
1) The only way the woman could have had 5 husbands was if they died, or divorced her - either of these would have given her a bad reputation.
2) She was likely out to the well at midday, when it was hottest, because she was shunned by the community.
3) The Samaritans followed the Law of the Jews for the most part, so by living with a man who was not her husband, she was considered a sinner.
Here are some select verses:
John 4:4-7, 9-19, 28-30, 39-41 NIV
[4] "Now he had to go through Samaria. [5] So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. [6] Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
[7] When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
[9] The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. )
[10] Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
[11] “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? [12] Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
[13] Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, [14] but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
[15] The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
[16] He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
[17] “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. [18] The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
[19] “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.
[28] Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, [29] “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” [30] They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
[39] Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” [40] So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. [41] And because of his words many more became believers.
Thinking back over this story, seeing who she was before her meeting with Jesus and who she became after meeting Jesus, it is clear this is a great example of someone being released from a wrong perspective of who they are.
She was likely living up to other's beliefs and expectations of who she was, or how they viewed her. Regardless of whether her husbands died or were divorcing her, she was going to be considered an undesirable, maybe even tainted individual, the term "used goods" comes to mind. She was living with a man who wasn't her husband, and knew that was wrong, but what other option did she have, having been married five times?
She was likely living with the only man who would take her, which says much about her state of mind and belief about herself. More than likely she was living under a blanket of shame, and was out at the well in the heat of the day so she could go there in peace, and not feel so bad about herself. Life hadn't turned out the way she thought and she didn't like being reminded of that every day. She hasn't abandoned her faith completely, but certainly couldn't see how her present life connected to God at all, certainly not as a sinner.
Yet when we look at God's perspective, the Father sent Jesus there to meet her. There were no coincidences in Jesus life. He said later in John that everything He did and said was at the direction of the Father (John 12:49 & John 14:10-11). So Jesus was at that well on that day at the specific direction of the Father, and even though verse four is correct from a geographic sense, I believe that this verse was actually speaking about the Father's direction that Jesus must go through Samaria.
Anyway, we come to the interaction of Jesus and the woman, and He starts the conversation, which startles the woman, for as she said Jews and Samaritans did not associate with each other. Jesus starts the conversation because He is trying to draw her out and ultimately set her free. He sues the very thing she seeks, water, to draw here into deeper conversation, and reveal what she really needs. She was desperate for love and acceptance, was willing to live with a man in sin, just so she could feel someone cared for her. She needed to know there was more to life than what she had experienced, and Jesus continues to draw her into that realization.
Finally He reveals Himself to her and by this time she is changed, overflowing already with the living water of salvation. She is so completely changed that she hurries back to town and starts telling me very one about Jesus, encouraging them to meet Him! Gone is the shame, in fact she uses His uncovering of her sins as an example of His ministry. She has been released from all that bound her in the lies and deception of who she was, and instead she steps fully into who The Father saw her as from the beginning. She is one of the most successful early evangelists we see, for on her word alone many had already believed in Jesus (verse 39) and many more came to believe because they encountered Jesus for an themselves, because of her words. Imagine, in one afternoon she went from being the shame of Sychar to being the conduit for its salvation!
This was her true identity, who she was and who the Father created her to be. Her life wasn't wasted, her sins and failures didn't define her, instead she was redeemed and restored by Jesus. The Father has the exact same heart for each of us, desiring to release us from anything that keeps us from being the person He created us to be. He has a plan to encounter us, to draw us and ultimately set us free. Regardless of our sin, our shame, our failures, our disappointments, He accepts us, loves us and offers us freedom and restoration.
Let us experience for ourselves that moment of revelation of Jesus as did the woman - John 4:25-26 NIV:
[25] "The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
[26] Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you---I am he.”
Amen, come Lord Jesus!
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