The untold story

I'm a very proud grandmother. I love my grandchildren more than I can even express. They bring a joy into my life that is beyond measure. And the thought of anything happening to them is just not within my grasp of comprehension.

But I know raising a child is much different now than it used to be. Our world is a different place. Rules have changed. Opinions have changed. Some I agree with, some I don't. For instance, when my girls were infants, we laid them on their tummies to sleep. We now know that is not the correct thing to do, and my grandbabies are laid on their backs at night until they're old enough to roll over. We didn't have the SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) research back then to give us the knowledge we needed. Immediately after that research study was done in the mid to late 90's, SIDS deaths dropped by 36%. Knowledge was the key. We needed truth - education.

I would never do anything to knowingly put my children at risk. I was just doing what seemed right, with the information I had at the time. That's what we do... right?

I have been doing this extensive study on the book of John - mainly the woman at the well. I'll admit, I'm kind of obsessed with it. I'm drawn to her. I feel strongly connected to her and I can't let it go. And the more I study and discover, the more I realize how much we DON'T know about her. And like my parenting (without all the knowledge I needed), over the years, I've assumed WAY too much and just took the words at face value, rather than do my homework. Knowledge is the key.

We've been told the same story about the woman at the well repeatedly. Pastors, biblical teachers, bible studies - all of them tell the same story. Jesus meets an unnamed Samaritan woman, of poor reputation, at Jacob's well. He asks her for a drink and He offers her living water so that she may be saved. Jesus reveals to her that He is the Messiah and she, in return, gives witness to her entire village, converting the whole community. A woman who had been shunned for her actions, led them to Christ.

That's what we've been led to believe. But what if that's not correct? What if this conversation didn't have the same tone we've been led to believe it had?

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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.”

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.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he."

We've been told time after time that Jesus was pointing out her multiple husbands so that she would see her happiness should be in the Messiah and not in men. That she was looking for love in all the wrong places - that her thirst for men and relationships were obviously getting her nowhere and Jesus could quench her thirst with the living water.

That sounds all fine and good, BUT what if I told you Jesus wasn't condemning her, He was consoling her?

In that time period, women couldn't even ask for a divorce, only men had that power. Men, meaning husbands and fathers. That means a woman's husband had the power to divorce his wife or in the Samaritan's case, take on more than one wife. Or if a father felt his daughter or her dowry wasn't being treated properly, he had the power to withdraw his daughter from a marriage under certain circumstances. And the dowry played a big roll in the marriage, sometimes bigger than the bride. Men would marry women for their family dowry, and then have to keep brides and fathers happy in order to keep the dowry. On the other hand, if you had little or no dowry to offer, your worth as a bride was less. Women were treated as a commodity. If you were pampered and happy, that meant you came with a substantial dowry. No dowry - no pampering and you weren't worth keeping if someone with a bigger or better dowry came around.

Can you imagine her feelings of self worth? She must have had NONE! And then you have an entire village treat you like dirt for something you have no control over... are you kidding me! No wonder Jesus picked her to reveal Himself to! I want to hug Him! I want to say - Thank you for choosing her! Thank you for going out of your way to tell this hurting, broken woman that she can be loved and saved just like everyone else.

I want to say - Thank you, Jesus, for taking this hurting, broken woman and making her whole. For making me see that I am not the sum of my circumstances. And when He gently asks me, "How are you going to do this?" It's not to condemn me because I'm about to do it wrong, it's because He doesn't want to embarrass me and He knows in my confession - "Lord, I don't know how to do this." - I will turn to Him for help.

I truly believe when He told the Samaritan woman, “Go, call your husband and come back,” He said husband as to not embarrass her. She'd been through enough and He wasn't going to add to it. But He also knew that with her confession would come the opportunity for Him to reveal Himself as the Messiah. God gives us opportunity after opportunity to open our hearts to Him. To let Him in. And His timing is perfect. She needed to know that the Messiah was real and He loved her, no matter how she felt about herself. No matter how the world looked at her or how others treated her. She was worth loving... she was worth HIS love, HIS grace, HIS mercy.

I want so much to hug this woman, to tell her she's not alone. Because the sad truth is, she was probably one of many in the same situation. I think Jesus used this story to teach us MANY things and we can choose what we want to glean from it. I found a kindred spirit, each of you may take away something else, but I will never again be able to read or hear this story in the same light. It pains me deeply that pastors and teachers are so quick to pass judgment on this woman and her reputation. Maybe it shouldn't surprise me. We live in a world where judgment is easily doled out and forgiveness is hard to come by.

We live in a world that needs Jesus.

John 4:13-14 NIV

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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.”