Lavender & Lace

Here’s a Bible trivia question for you that’s fun to pull out at parties;

Who was the first person in the gospels Jesus revealed himself to as the Messiah?

I know you’re not supposed to have favorite Bible stories. It’s kind of like being an artist and trying to choose a favorite color; they really are all my favorites. But sometimes there are certain colors that just jump off a canvas for me and it is the same with these stories. The story of the Samaritan woman in John’s gospel is one of them that I never get tired of reading, of examining its layers and discussing it. It’s a radical story of how God chooses the unlikeliest of people and of the Fathers love for his daughters. Wherever I hear someone say that Jesus was a misogynist I cringe and have to seriously restrain myself from coming unglued, because the truth about Jesus was that he was inclusive of all peoples. Regardless of their social status, level of sinfulness, or gender. And this story probably tops those charts for me. 

“Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” John 4:4

First of all, who are the Samaritans? 

The Samaritans were the remnants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In Jeremiah you’ll read about a civil war that split Israel into the Northern and the Southern. The Northern Kingdom went into exile about 100 years or so before the Southern Kingdom did. And the Northern Kingdom went into exile into Assyria. And what Assyria did was take the best and the brightest and left the not best and not brightest. The poor, the sick…those who for whatever reason could not add to the Assyrian machine. And then they brought in other peoples from around the Assyrian Empire who had been conquered to populate that area. So the Jewish people who were left and the “Gentile, pagan, idolators” who were left began to marry. They produced the Samaritan’s.  

So when the pure blooded Jews came back from their exile they hated those who had inner-married. Why? Because messianic bloodlines mattered! This is why it was, ethnically, so offensive. 

Not only that, but the Samaritans boasted that they were the true inheritors of Moses because they were descendants of Joseph. 

They claimed a different mountain than Jerusalem where they had a temple and worshipped. They only claimed the first part of the Pentateuch, the Torah, and ignored all the traditions of the Jews. 

There was religious hatred and ethnic hatred. So pious Jews who had to go north from Judea to Gallalie would go up the Jordan River valley. They would never go through Samaria. 

But what’s the text say? Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. And he when he arrives he sits down at a well which is very significant because he comes across a woman coming the draw water. 

Importantly, women would only draw water in groups and early in the morning/late in the afternoon. Never in the middle of the afternoon. 

So automatically we know this woman intentionally came here because she didn’t want to meet anybody. We introverts know exactly what this means because we will go out of our way to be at places in odd times specifically to avoid other people. 

But Jesus deliberately places himself at a well, in the heat of the day, without a bucket to draw water. And the number of taboos that he proceeds to break here is staggering. Because first he asks her for a drink, which a pious Jewish man would never ask of a Samaritan. And she is alone, which Jesus points out when he says she has no husband.

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.” John 4:16-17

Something that is really important to clarify here is that women did not divorce men. So to have five husbands meant that she was either very unlucky and they all died. Or, much more likely, there was something about her that husbands would keep “putting her away” which was what divorce was called. And because the stigma of immorality was now attached to her who would marry her again? Either way, she’s a victim in this. 

And in response, she does something that any of us would do, she changes the subject. 

“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.” John 14:19-20

Remember, one of the reasons Jews and Samaritans hated each other was because they couldn’t agree on which mountain was the true mountain for the temple. So she asks, beautifully, which one is right? Which is a phenomenal question when you’ve just been exposed. 

And what’s interesting here is that Jesus takes her question seriously. He dignifies her by giving her the most powerful teaching of worship in the New Testament. This poor, uneducated, outcast, asks a theological question and Jesus takes in seriously as a Rabbi. 

“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.” John 14:22-24

The Samaritans thought that their Messiah would come and would reveal that their mountain was the true mountain. 

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” John 14:25

And then Jesus drops that bomb. 

“Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I AM he.” John 14:26

It’s fascinating because the Greek word that Jesus uses is exactly the Greek word in the Old Testament when God says to Moses; I Am. That Greek word is the word Jesus uses. 

Who is the first person in the Gospel of John to know that Jesus is the Messiah? A Samaritan woman!

There is no more powerful ancient image of Jesus dignifying the most ostracized person than this. 

“Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.” John 14:28-30

What was her testimony? What was the gospel she shared? What was the good news? 

“He told me everything I ever did.”

“Many of the Samaritans from that townbelieved in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.

They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” John 14: 39-42

He went from a Jew, to Sir, to a prophet, to Messiah, to Savior of the World. And that is the entire message of John, right there. And it was delivered by the most unlikely of characters. A poor, outcast, Samaritan, woman. 

Gods definition of who he can use has always been bigger than the churches. I think sometimes it’s good to be reminded of this, and just get out of the way and let the gospel speak. If God is for us, who can be against us?