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Woman of Samaria
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Alone, this nameless woman trudged from the village of Sychar to the ancient well dug in a field that had once belonged to Jacob. The high noon sun beat down upon her, and as she glanced toward Mount Gerizim in one direction and Mount Ebal in another, she saw but a few wandering shadows cross the Plain of Shechem. Even the well-watered vineyards looked lifeless to her in the glare of the midsummer Judaean sun.
She had felt famished in body and soul as she had set forth with a water jug on her shoulder. It was strange that this woman who had lived for carnal pleasures should feel this way, for she had not thought too much about her soul.
Her sandals, we can imagine, pounded heavily upon the ancient cobblestones that were burning like hot coals from the heat of the midday sun. They fitted loosely and were dirty and worn. Her cotton dress, probably of faded blue crash, was carelessly draped about her, and her loose, flowing headdress, of another drab color, outlined a face once pretty, but now sad and hard. Her figure, once voluptuous, now showed age and weariness.
This woman had chosen the noontime to go to the well, probably to avoid the gossipy women who usually gathered there in the early morning, while it was cool, and at twilight, when the shadows from the mountains folded in over the plains.
Today her feet pounded more heavily than usual. Her loose way of life had brought disillusionments and heartaches. She longed to find a new way to live, but it was too late, she probably thought to herself.
As she neared the well, she remembered how often she had come there for water; but today, for the first time, she sensed a new weariness of spirit. It was unlike anything she had experienced before. Her heavy footsteps broke the silence and intruded upon the solitude of a gentle-faced man, who sat by the well refreshing Himself.
This man, Jesus, had come down only a little while before from the brown hills of Ephraim into the hot valley of Shechem. He was on His way to Galilee from Judaea and most probably was weary, for He had trudged over hot sands and rough stones for several hours. The sound of approaching footsteps had aroused Him from His quiet meditation.
Having deliberately chosen the Samaritan Road, an unpopular road for a Jew like himself to travel. He probably now sat pondering the hatred that existed between the Jews and Samaritans and wondering why all men could not love one another. This hate. He remembered, dated back to the Assyrian conquest when some of the Israelites, left behind when the ten tribes were deported, had intermarried with Assyrian invaders and colonists of other nationalities. The racially mixed population of Samaria had set up on Mount Gerizim a rival temple to the one in Jerusalem, and this had antagonized the Jews. At a time when the old hate still smoldered, this wretched, worldly woman of Samaria came upon this godly man of the Jews.
As he sat quietly on a hard stone step beside the well, He saw the woman drawing water, and He spoke somewhat quickly to her, saying, "Give me to drink.'' The request came as a surprise to the woman. With an incredulous smile she answered, "How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.''
Jesus answered her, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee. Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.'' The woman of Samaria was puzzled. Turning, she said to Jesus, "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?'' Then she questioned Him further, "Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well?''
The only living water this woman knew was the water which flowed freely from the springs. Like a miracle, as she stood in the presence of this man of God, a change came over her. She began to drink into her inner being His words: "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.''
So uplifting were Jesus' words that the woman of Samaria was suddenly transported to a new level of life. For the first time she received a glimpse of what the living water this great man talked about so confidently could mean.
With a great longing in her heart to know more about it, she said to Jesus, "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.'' The prophetic insight of Jesus was revealed when He spoke: "Go, call thy husband, and come hither.''
If their conversation was to continue, Jesus realized that it was best for the woman's husband to be present, because it was not customary for a rabbi to hold a long conversation with a strange woman. He had desired to awaken the sleeping conscience of this woman, and He had. She was forced to answer that she had no husband, and Jesus said to her, "Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.''
No one had ever reprimanded this woman in such an honest manner before. She, who evidently had been the subject of so much gossip, was bewildered. Here sat a man she had never seen before, but He was revealing her past. Had He sensed her innermost heartaches? She did not know, but she was certain His presence inspired her reverence.
She must have known that great things often come at unexpected moments. But she was stunned when she realized how much this moment would change her own life. The spell of Jesus' spirit had made her forget entirely how parched had been her lips and how tired her feet. As she stood contemplating the significance of this meeting, these words flowed freely from Him, as freely as the water had flowed from the well into her jug:
"God is a Spirit,'' He said to her, "and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.'' To her He had spoken that tremendous truth, the foundation of our knowledge of God. Now she could glimpse the spirituality of all true worship, for gently the Master had raised her up. He had asked for water, which was temporal, but He had in turn given her the eternal gift of spiritual fountains for the soul.
So revived was she that she said to Him, ''I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.'' Then it was He revealed to her that long-awaited message: "I that speak unto thee am he.'' And because she received this message, she has an immortal place in the Bible.
After this revelation, Jesus' disciples, who had come to meet Him, interrupted the conversation and bade their Master eat, but He told them that He had partaken of the food of the spirit.
The remarkable conclusion to the story of the woman of Samaria, as told by John, is that she left her water pot and on winged feet went forth to say to others in Samaria, "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?''
In the face of this repentant, careworn woman the Samaritans must have seen a new, piercing light. She could make even the unbelievers know that she had drunk from spiritual fountains of water. The people, longing to receive the same gift, now streamed out toward Jesus, and He and His disciples stayed with them for two days. Many of the Samaritans believed in Him, but they said it was not because of what the woman had heard but because of what they also had seen and heard. For the first time they called him Christ, the Savior of the world.
Many conversions followed. The disciples who were with Jesus now understood what He had meant when He said, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest."
The story of the conversion of the woman of Samaria has a universal meaning. She is the prototype of women everywhere who live for carnal pleasures. Comforting it is to know that today, as in the time of Jesus, there is a fountain to refresh eternally all these who are parched by sin and suffering.
That fountain is God Himself, who must be worshiped in spirit and truth, by saint and sinner alike. In fact the sinner, like the woman of Samaria, may draw closer to Him and more quickly than the self-satisfied, righteous person who has a tendency to look down on those he considers less righteous than himself.
This woman's story confirms the belief that God is no respecter of persons and that Christ came to show the inner meaning of worship. His profound teaching had quickened, enlightened, and illumined the spirit of this worldly woman. She could now know what it meant to take of the water of life freely-not the water in the well as Sychar, near which she had stood, but the spiritual refreshment which had come into her own soul after her encounter with Jesus.
Paradoxical it is that this woman of very common clay in the sight of the world had been chosen to receive Christ's teaching that ''God is a spirit.'' (John 4:7-42) Edith Dean
