Last week, I was honored to be able to teach at a local church in their women’s ministry. The Lord was very clear in leading me to the story of the Samaritan Woman. But what He taught me in this time of study was so personal and healing, it blessed me beyond belief. I love when He does that. I was preparing to give wisdom to others and He first wanted to impart His wisdom to me! Isn’t He SO sweet? I am humbled and excited to share this with you!
Have you ever heard the story, The Pearl Necklace? It goes like this:
The cheerful girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box.
“Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please!”
Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl’s upturned face.
“A dollar ninety-five. That’s almost $2.00. If you really want them, I’ll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday’s only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma.”
As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked Mrs. Smith if she could pick dandelions for ten cents.
On her birthday, Grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace.
Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere–Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.
Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night when he finished the story, he asked Jenny, “Do you love me?”
“Oh yes, Daddy. You know that I love you.”
“Then give me your pearls.”
“Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess–the white horse from my collection. The one with the pink tail. Remember, Daddy? The one you gave me. She’s my favorite.”
“That’s okay, Honey. Daddy loves you. Good night.” And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.
About a week later, after the story time, Jenny’s daddy asked again, “Do you love me?”
“Daddy, you know I love you.”
“Then give me your pearls.”
“Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my babydoll. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is so beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper.”
“That’s okay. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you.” And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.
A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian-style. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek.
“What is it, Jenny? What’s the matter?”
Jenny didn’t say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace.
With a little quiver, she finally said, “Here, Daddy. It’s for you.”
With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny’s kind daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny.
He had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her a genuine treasure.
I love this story because it reminds me that so often I am attached to the “plastic,” and I hold on to what I know, what I am comfortable with, not even imagining that God would seek to give me what is real and genuine! And God is often asking me to let go of something in order to give me better – which is Himself! It is the perfect story to lead into the study of the Samaritan Woman in John 4.
Verse 1:
“Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria.”
So Jesus is leaving Judea to head to Galilee and scripture says He had to pass through Samaria. Well He didn’t have to geographically. In fact, back in this time, Jews never passed through Samaria even though it was the easier route. They would instead cross over the Jordan River 3 separate times in order to bypass Samaria. They did this because the Jews viewed Samaritans very poorly. The Samaritan race was the result of war: so Jews and Pagans having relations make up the Samaritans. Because of the religious differences, Samaritans only chose to acknowledge the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. And in return, the Samaritans did not like Jews because of their history of being treated as “less than.”
So the fact that Scripture is telling us that Jesus, a Jew, had to go through Samaria – this is telling us that something important is waiting there.
Verse 5:
“So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.”
Now notice that it says the “sixth hour.” This would have been noon. So this was the hottest part of the day for this climate and not a great time to be hanging out outside! This is an important detail to remember as we continue. Make note of that!
Verse 7:
“There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”
So stop with me for a second. Are you wondering what I wondered? How in the world does this woman know that He is a Jew? Most strangers don’t know things like that about each other from just a glance! Well I did some research and Jesus most likely spoke to her in Aramaic and was dressed like a Jew, which would have been very different from a Samaritan lifestyle.
And there are also a few other things going on here culturally. This woman was going to the local well, which was a very common task for women to do, but usually in the cool of the early mornings and in social groups, not in the peak of heat, all alone. And in this culture, if a Samaritan man asked a woman for a drink, it was rude to refuse. But Jesus is a Jew and this woman is a Samaritan so she is shocked he is there at all, let alone speaking to her or asking her for something, which was strictly against their rigid social customs. They are enemies, let’s call it what it is! And being a woman during this time period also meant unfortunately, that you were often treated only just a bit better than an animal. A task master and a child bearer. So she had two strikes against her: she was just a woman and just a Samaritan.
Verse 10:
“Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”
She doesn’t get where He’s going with this! This woman thinks Jesus is still just talking about well water. And she is surprised that Jesus is offering something “better” when the water at Jacob’s Well has always been good enough for the Samaritans. It’s almost an insult in her mind!
But Jesus is speaking of something deeper. He even gave her hints when He said, “if you knew the gift of God,” but she didn’t catch on to that. Or maybe she ignored it? All we know is that she is stuck on what she sees in the physical. The plastic pearls!
And I think that we all do this. We all have our own version of Jacob’s Well. The part of our life that we are logically telling God is “just fine.” Areas of our lives that He keeps nudging at us to address but we push Him aside out of either stubbornness, ignorance, laziness or just downright lack of trust. And it’s not fine. And we know it. Maybe we are too scared to go there. To want better. To let Him in. To imagine better springs. But it’s not only “not fine,” whatever the water is that we have accepted: it won’t last, it won’t satisfy, it isn’t permanent and it isn’t life giving. Because it isn’t Him!
Verse 13:
“Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”
Now she’s intrigued. I imagine her saying to herself, “Ok. I’m in! Whatever this water is or wherever it comes from, it sure sounds better than going to the well, by myself, at the worst part of the day, just to come back tomorrow and do it ALL over again. I’m over it!”
Verse 16:
He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”
Jesus had to go through Samaria.
To THIS well.
At THIS time.
For THIS woman.
She was not only born into a “lesser than” family name, a “lesser than” gender, but she was a woman scorned and rejected by man. The kind of woman who has no girlfriends to join her at the well, a woman that a Rabbi would never speak to. She has been married several times and now just currently lives with a man. Maybe a man she doesn’t even love. Maybe a man that just provides for her financially or a man that she views as no more than a roommate. Either way, even if she does love him, this is not a noble man, for he hasn’t done right by her by marrying her.
And Jesus is being very clear about something else that our culture also needs to address. He is telling her that “living together” and being married is not the same thing. We do not need to feel worried about how people are going to respond to this common conversation about what marriage means. Is it just a piece of paper? No. Jesus is showing us here that He distinguishes living together and being married as very different situations. And He created marriage for our benefit. Doing it His way is best. It has a deeper purpose. And we would do well to not only cling to that truth but to stand behind it, when the world challenges us with this well water. It is not good enough!
And this woman! My heart resonates with hers. She already wears many labels, but I imagine that this relational one stings the most. Maybe these husbands of her past always found a reason to leave. Or maybe they were abusive. Or maybe she had been caught in adultery; maybe her own sin had caused so many failed marriages. We don’t know. We just know that Jesus takes this conversation into a new twist in a powerful yet shocking way, doesn’t He? He speaks to the true matter of her heart. Have you ever had Jesus say something to you, or ask you something that pangs you in your chest when you realize that what is true, is going to be incredibly painful to speak aloud? Secrets you hold in dark places, labels placed upon you that have changed your ability to hope, or to see yourself as worthy of love? Or sins you have committed against yourself?
Our culture has its own version of Jew and Samaritan, doesn’t it? Christians judging others when they should be encouraging them and exhorting them towards Christ. And what is most difficult to understand is that the Jewish people of God in this day, who knew Him in full revelation were the very people treating this woman with such disdain. And we experience this in our culture today, too. Our Pharisee hearts often need fresh encounters with Jesus and His Grace! To give love and live out our faith with those who need it the most! We need to remember that we all have sinned and fall short. I am her, you are her. We are all her in this story. And we need to treat others as though God is big enough to die for their sins, because He was certainly big enough to die for ours.
Do you remember the story of the Good Samaritan? Jews walked right by a wounded and badly beaten Jew and let him lay on the street to die, while a Samaritan stopped, took him in, and helped him to recover. It was a story, an example to us of 1 Corinthians 13:2 that “if we have not love, we have nothing.” Let’s be the kind of women who love other women well! Who hug them and mourn with them as they repent, and who encourage them that freedom is available to them in Jesus!
Ok, I got passionate there…going back to Jesus in this verse, we see that even though He is assertive, Jesus is actually very kind to her. He is not condemning her with this question at all. He is inviting HER to tell the truth of her story. He is literally meeting her where she is at. And He is the only one around. He is speaking to a woman who is very lonely. She has become a shadow of a woman instead of truly living life.
So how does she respond to this charge?
Verse 19:
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
“Ummm. Let’s talk about something else”…that’s what her response was! “Ok, ok, you have some sort of supernatural ability, but if you are some prophet…what do you think of where I worship? Let’s test your theology!”
You see, the biggest disconnect for Samaritans and Jews during this time was their doctrinal view of where to appropriately worship. The Jews believed that worship could only be done in Jerusalem, but the Samaritans felt Jerusalem was too far and so they built a place of worship on Mount Gerizim. She literally changed the subject! “Uhhh…let’s discuss sports! The weather! Anything but this!”
But Jesus would not be distracted. He knew why He came.
Verse 21:
“Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
What He is saying here is that where they both worshipped mattered little. Even Jerusalem’s temple would eventually be destroyed! But He also says to her that “she worships what she does not know” and that is because the Samaritans did not know God like they thought they did. He is essentially telling her here that her Samaritan but ultimately pagan belief in only the law of Moses was not salvific. He is addressing her literal world and creating a longing inside her she doesn’t realize that she has. A spiritual thirst for a triune God that could fulfill her like no man ever could. To have a Father, a Savior and a Spirit.
Verse 25:
“The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Isn’t this funny? This is so like me! Sometimes I am so HER in this very moment. Speaking directly to Jesus about Jesus! Jesus can be standing right in front of my face and I can go on and on about Him and all that I expect Him to do in my life, but my actions and my behaviors do not exemplify a belief that I trust Him to really come through. I take matters into my own hands. Sometimes I am so full of spiritual rhetoric when He is RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! And like me, she is telling Him, “oh well when He comes, I am sure I will know all about it.”
You have to imagine that her example of true humanity and ignorance in this moment made Him smile as He said, “I AM He!” He’s saying, “stop living in your past and finding your refreshment in this water that will never satisfy. Does it give you life? Is this working? No. I am He. I am ALL that you need!”
Those words! “I AM HE.” She is the very first person in the New Testament to hear Jesus say I AM. These words were so appropriately spoken to HER, for as a Samaritan and believer of the law of Moses, she would have first heard these words when she was taught the story of God saying to Moses, I AM, in the burning bush of Exodus 3:14. He is telling her who He is in a way she cannot deny. He is speaking to His daughter in a way that she will best understand and come to faith. Jesus is faithful to speak to His daughter uniquely, in the way that will get her attention! I know this to be true! Don’t you?
Verse 27:
“At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?”
I love that Scripture gives us such details about the disciples and their journey of faith. Even they, men who have spent so much time with Jesus and know His nature, are surprised by the scandalous event before them. Their Messiah is speaking to a Samaritan Woman. Alone. At noon. Out in the open!
And what Jesus spoke to me when I read this part was this:
“She was worth all of it. She was worth every whisper spoken about me and every sweat bead that fell from my forehead in the sun. I had to go THAT way, to THAT well, for THAT woman. And I do that for every one of my daughters. I travelled even when I was weary to let her know that she is no longer “just” a woman, a pagan Samaritan, or a woman of ill reputation. She is my daughter, redeemed, forgiven, created in MY image, worth pursuing, loved, and created for such a time as this.”
And here’s why His timing was so important:
Verse 28:
“So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.”
She left her waterpot. She gave Daddy her pearls! She was no longer attached to the broken clay jug. She had encountered what was real, He had offered Himself as living water. She had hope. She had a new name. No longer would she need to be ashamed. She could start over and be new!
And isn’t it interesting that she was immediately willing to go speak to the men of her town? Had this encounter with Jesus made her brave? She doesn’t go to the women of the town whose testimony would not have been accepted during this time, but the MEN! I just LOVE this! She went to the sources that she knew would seek out the truth for themselves!
Verse 31:
“the disciples were urging Jesus, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
Jesus is telling His disciples: THIS is my food! This is the very essence of why I am here. Nothing satisfies me like showing love to my children and setting them FREE! And this should be an encouragement to us. That Jesus gave of Himself at His most weary. Do we serve others for Him out of our most weak, or do we assume He can only use us when we feel our most strong? Even Jesus Himself shows us in this passage that what is most life-giving, is to give up our lives for others! THIS gives us energy! THIS gives us life!!!
But here is the best part of the story in my opinion!
Verse 39:
“From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Her being the Samaritan Woman was exactly why God could use her story to change an entire village. At first the people are intrigued by her testimony thinking, what in the world has gotten into that woman? This then feeds their curiosity, which drives them to pursue Jesus for themselves! And I can’t think of anything more beautiful! She probably never imagined that her story would go from being one that brought her shame to one that could change the world around her. What I believe made her so likely to be used was that she no longer viewed herself as lower than anyone, she never believed she was better than anyone, instead she was now right where she should be: at eye level with her Savior, Jesus. The woman who used to walk every day to the well with her head down, was now a new woman. Because He cared enough to tell her the truth. To bring her freedom. To meet with her HIMSELF.
This has been a humbling past year for me as Jesus has shown me my own Jacob’s Well and my own waterpot. My husband James and I moved last November for a job opportunity for me in Texas and we were SO excited! We even changed our wedding date by 6 months so that we could move sooner. We bumped everything up – the vendor, the dress, all of it – because we knew the Lord was opening up doors for us to be in Austin. We moved just 3 days after our wedding and thought we were headed for an adventure! And oh, we were, but not quite the adventure we had hoped. Instead, Austin was Jacob’s Well for me.
And when the “dream” job opportunity turned out to be a not-so-good-fit for me and I watched as my marriage grew weary of trying to make Texas “work,” I finally had to relent and let Jesus ask me an important question about my pearls. Oh I tried to change the subject. Like, “maybe we are supposed to persevere here,” and maybe it will get better,” and “if God brought me here then I can’t just quit,” but I knew in my heart that God was asking me to put the waterpot down. To finally acknowledge in my heart that my idols were wrapped up in my sense of identity. That I was trying to prove something that Jesus never asked me to prove. That I allowed my job and relationships to define me. The Lord said to me sweetly, “YOU are my Daughter, and THAT is the only title that will ever matter. Submit to ME, and I will make you FREE.”
So we moved back to Arizona. And gosh, I gotta tell you, I do feel free! I no longer feel my identity is attached to a job, a location, a relationship or a circumstance. I no longer care about what the world defines as success. And I see that God took us to THAT place, at THAT time, during THAT year, for a very real and necessary purpose in my life. People are always quick to think that if something “didn’t work out” that it must not have been from God. Have you noticed this? And I started to realize that this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, I think Billy Graham said it perfectly:
“Mountaintops are for views and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valleys.”
Some of the seasons of my life that have been the most difficult, are the same seasons I saw the most growth in my faith and a stronger reliance on my Father. This last year, He invited me into a fresh and authentic dialogue with Him, a friendship with Him I hadn’t had before. To put it simply, Jesus and I got honest with each other. And it was beautiful. Oh, He has always been honest with me, I just had never let myself BE with Him. I asked Him hard questions. I beat against His chest until I bawled like a toddler after a tantrum. And He met me there. And we hugged. And I held on to Him with everything I had. And He renewed my spirit. And He gave me peace.
You see, I deeply desire to be the kind of woman that God can use to change the world. And Jesus is patiently showing me this most often comes from making a change in ME first. Isn’t is funny that He made my ministry Making Me New? He keeps making me new so that I can tell others how He works! And I am starting to see that we will have several Jacob’s Wells and waterpots in our lives. Sure, we will have our moment of salvation, but we will also have more “faith stretching” appointments with Jesus until we go to be with Him. More divine moments where He meets with us where we are and says, “how’s this working for ya?” and then sweetly grabs our shoulder and says “Put the waterpot down, sweetheart.”
And this is why this story inspires me. This last part of the passage makes my heart long for Jesus to continue changing and growing me, and taking the plastic pearls of my heart in exchange for Himself. So that when I tell others what He has done for me, they are changed too. And this is what we seen in this story. A woman God used in a mighty way when He asked her to let go and trust Him with her heart. And an entire town came to believe in Jesus!
So let’s YOU AND ME let go of our waterpot. So that we can hear Jesus say to us, “now that’s a woman I can use.”
***** Questions for Further Discussion *****
1.) “He told me all the things that I have ever done.” John 4:29. What are these “things” in your life? What is the waterpot that Jesus is asking you to let go of to go where He is leading you?
2.) What labels or titles have you placed on yourself or have been placed on you? Do you believe that Jesus replaced those lies with the truth when you became His, that you are now His Daughter, Redeemed? What are the lies that the enemy uses to confuse this truth? How can we confront those lies?
3.) Do you see your current Samaria? Where has God placed you for such a time as this? A place where your story of meeting Jesus could encourage others and change their hearts for Christ? (family, workplace, friend circle?)
4.) What is YOUR favorite part of the Samaritan Woman story? What speaks to your heart most personally?