Women, Wells, and the Living Water of Jesus

I have always loved water.  I love everything from splashing it on my face after a hard workout to running through the sprinklers on a hot summer day to floating lazily on my back in a pool.  I even love the feeling of its life-giving essence running over my hands at a sink or the sensation of warm tea running down my throat on a cold winter day.  Water is both warming and cooling, relaxing and necessary.  It is ever-present yet often unnoticed.  So I suppose it is no great surprise that I found myself fascinated with the connection between women and water in the Bible. 

Without water, there is death.  Period. 

Water is an important symbol throughout the Bible.  There are references to fountains and living water in so many places.  It is a favorite theme of the prophets, with references found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, as well as water passages being found in the book of John.  The Psalms also refer to water often, including the famous picture in Psalm 23 of God leading us beside the still waters.  It is no wonder, either.  Without water, there is death.  Period.  It is water that Jesus chose to use in referring to Himself.  There was no more stark or descriptive picture of spiritual death outside of relationship with Jesus than for Him to call Himself the living water.  Without Him, there is spiritual death.  Period. 

Water as a symbol of Jesus makes sense. 

Water as a symbol of Jesus makes sense.  What I had to stop and think about, though, was the importance of wells.  Wells are such important places in the Bible, especially for women.  Jesus meets them there.  They find their spouses there.  Their husbands build altars and worship near them.  Three famous women had God-appointed meetings that sealed their marriages as they were drawing water from wells.  Rebekah met Isaac’s servant at a well. Rachel met Jacob.  And Zipporah met Moses.  All are important figures near the beginning of God’s story of redemption for the human race – the lead-up to the birth of Jesus that would give us all a way to have the living water of eternal life.  Wells, water, and women were all important enough for God to make these meetings so memorable that we still read them and study them thousands of years later. 

Probably the best known meeting of a woman at the well is found in John 4:1-42. 

Even more amazing than how God arranged just the right women at just the right wells at just the right time are the times when Jesus Himself actually met them there.  Probably the best known meeting of a woman at the well is found in John 4:1-42.  Although she is not named, the Samaritan woman at the well is a crucial moment in the ministry of Jesus.  He chooses to reveal Himself as the Messiah to her.  He  ministers to her when He only ministered to a select number of Gentiles.  And more importantly for us, He teaches her how to have a relationship with Him. 

She was an outcast from a nation of outcasts.

Let’s take a look at this woman.  She had every disadvantage.  She was a Samaritan.  Samaritans were the descendants of Jews who had intermarried with Gentiles after the return from exile.  They had some of the teachings of the Jews, but it was limited to the first five books of the Bible.  They didn’t have the prophets or the histories or the wisdom books that the Orthodox Jews had.  They worshipped God but did not have access to the Temple, so they went up on a mountain where Abraham had lived instead.  Since they were partly Jewish and partly Gentile, they didn’t really fit in with either culture.  And they were even more hated by the Jews than the full Gentiles were.  They were not just ignorant and unchosen – they were corrupted and blasphemous.  No self-respecting Jew would have had anything to do with this woman or even have walked through her country, let alone talking to her.  On top of that, she was rejected by her own people.  She had been married multiple times and was living with a man she was not married to.  The Bible tells us she was at the well drawing water at the heat of the day, alone.  Women drew water from the well together.  It was their chance to talk and share news.  It was their connection to their community and to each other.  Yet she had to draw water alone.  She was an outcast from a nation of outcasts.  Yes, she had access to water that kept her body alive from the well.  But can you imagine how thirsty she was socially, emotionally, and spiritually?  She must have felt dead to the center of her heart and soul.

The infinite, all-powerful God of creation chose the most outcast, sinful, hungry, hurting, demeaned person He could find to announce His redemption to. 

Enter Jesus, the living water.  He defied so many rules of social interaction to connect with this woman!  First of all, He should never have entered Samaria.  Second, He sent His disciples to go and buy food from the Samaritans, which was not allowed.  Third, He talked to this woman, which was forbidden not only because she was a Samaritan, but also because He, as a rabbi, should not have talked to any woman living in a sinful relationship.  Yet He detoured out of His way, sent off His disciples to a forbidden task, and shocked her by spending some time sitting and talking with her.  The beauty and great love of Jesus is that as He talked, He was honoring this rejected, sinful woman with one of the biggest firsts of His ministry.  She was the first person to whom He chose to publicly reveal Himself as the Messiah in the Gospel of John. The infinite, all-powerful God of creation chose the most outcast, sinful, hungry, hurting, demeaned person He could find to announce His redemption to.  How much more love for us even as we are still in our sin natures can He show than this example of the woman at the well?

She was not the first woman that He visited at a well.  That honor belongs to Hagar.

But while she was the first one to whom He announced He was the Messiah, she was not the first woman that He visited at a well.  That honor belongs to Hagar.  As I was studying Hagar, I was amazed at the similarities between the encounters.  Hagar actually gets two visits from Jesus (referred to in Genesis as an angel of the Lord).  The first is when she has run away from the cruel treatment by Sarah.  Jesus meets her, alone and pregnant, and tells her He hears her but that she is going to have to go back to that bad situation for a while.  The second time is when Sarah has cast her out.  This time she and her son Ishmael are dying from lack of water in the desert when Jesus appears and points out that she is near a well.   Her life is saved and her teenage son is promised many, many descendants.  What got my attention was how very similar the encounters were to the meeting that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman.

Jesus sees them, He hears them, and He answers their questions and concerns.

The first similarity is that both women are social outcasts. Hagar is also a Gentile – an Egyptian.  She is treated badly by Sarah and is eventually kicked out.  Hagar has also had relations with Abraham while not actually being his wife.  She was given to him in her role as slave for the sole purpose of having a child with him.  Another similarity is in how Jesus talks with them.  He is honest yet nonjudgmental.  He asks the Samaritan woman about her husband, knowing her situation.  When she honestly tells Him about her sinful life, He just agrees to the facts without judgment or criticism.  He does the same thing with Hagar, asking her what is going on with her and allowing her to explain her situation with Sarah without judgment.  One thing that caught my notice is how honest and open they are with Him, in spite of their situations in life.  How often do we get closed off and cynical after we have been hurt by people?  The last thing we want to do at those times is to be open and vulnerable.  Yet these rejected women are so honest and comfortable talking with Jesus!  He sees them, He hears them, and He answers their questions and concerns.  In fact, His conversation with the woman at the well is the longest conversation He has with anyone in the entire book of John.

He gives them both water. 

My favorite similarity is in what Jesus does for them and how they respond.  He gives them both water.  Hagar gets the actual water she and Ishamel need to survive, as well as living water in the promise Jesus gives her that her son will live to produce a multitude of nations.  The Samaritan woman gets the living water of seeing and knowing Him as her Messiah.  Both women rejoice and worship Him.  Hagar, when Jesus sends her back to the abusive treatment of Sarah, worships Him as the God who sees because He listened to her and talked with her and assured her He was there.  The Samaritan woman goes even further.  She goes back to the abusive situation too.  She goes back to the people who have cast her out and starts preaching Jesus to them.  Her praise of Him brings most of her town into the salvation of relationship with Jesus.  She received His living water and poured it right back out to everyone else.

Jesus is my water.

So what can I take away from this?  Jesus is my water.  No matter the pain I feel when I am alone or rejected or hurt, He cools me with His Spirit and refreshes me with His love.  When the burdens of the world get too much and it looks hopeless, I can just open myself up to Him, lie back, and float in the weightlessness of His peace and care.  When I am thirsty because the things of this world have disappointed me or left me empty and cold, I can drink in His truth and His salvation and feel the warmth of His promise.  His is my life – without Him I am dead.  Period.  But Jesus did not save me just to have me be an oasis in a dead world.  He saved me to spread the living water of His salvation to other thirsty people.  He, like with the Samaritan woman and Hagar, wants me to go back out to the very world where I was hurt and outcast and offer His living water to them as well.  And He wants me to do it while praising Him and trusting in His ability to see, hear, and know me without judgment and with patience.  Like Hagar and the Samaritan, it is hard.  Sometimes I want to run away and just sit and talk with Jesus.  But if no one is willing to go out there and share, if no one is willing to pass on the love, the listening, and the hope, the world stays a desert.  Let’s commit to sharing a little more of Jesus and His living water with the world and making the oasis He has given us grow.

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.