The Samaritan Woman

She goes out to the well to draw water for herself and her household. It is the hot part of the day, and no one else is out there. Everyone else had come to draw their water earlier when it was cooler. But she, well she carries so much pain and shame and guilt from her past that she comes when no one else does, just so she won't be stared at and ridiculed. So she won't feel their condemnation. Their scorn. But Jesus comes to her, expecting her to be there and knowing exactly why she is coming when she does. He sees her shame, He knows the choices she's made. But He sees beyond that. He sees one who was created in His image. He sees His daughter. 

She feels less than worthy going out to the well that day, but still Jesus comes and speaks to her. "When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Will you give me a drink?'"John 4: 7 He speaks to her. And not only that, He wants a drink from her water jar. This conversation breaks through centuries of hatred between His people (the Jews) and hers (the Samaritans). Masked by her status and her past, she balks at first. "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" John 4: 9 In other words, you are you and I am me, what could I possibly do for you? And Jesus does what He does best, He speaks the truth to her. They go back and forth a bit until she finally sees, fully understands. She is talking to Christ, the Messiah, the One she has been waiting for! He brings the Living Water that she needs to never feel unworthy or unloved again! She has an experience with Christ that changes her.

Her very identity is transformed, deep down in the sticking kind of way, and then she spreads the message to others. "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 Christ?'" John 4: 28 In leaving her water jar at Jesus' feet, she is leaving her cloak of sin as well. She has been made new. She doesn't hold on to her past. She doesn't hesitate and wonder if He can REALLY save her after all that she's done. She doesn't, "Yeah, God, but..." and list all of the ways that she really isn't worthy of what He's telling her. She just walks forward, free of her shackles. And then she runs in that freedom. And the first thing she does? She immediately leaves to tell her fellow townspeople, the very people she has been hiding from. 

The result is that people come. The town responds to her words and they go to Jesus to see if she is right. And ultimately, they believe. "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed 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." John 4: 39-41 A woman, broken and ashamed and separated from her community, comes face to face with her Savior. And because of her testimony, many others in the town are saved. All because He asked her for a drink and refused to walk away until she was redeemed.