A little while ago I was praying with the scripture passage about the woman at the well. It has always been one of my favorites, but I never really thought about why. So when we learned about lectio divina in our Women’s Ministry meeting, I decided this was as good an opportunity as any to really dive into this passage and see what about it struck me so positively.
I had read a commentary once on this passage that explains that the Samaritan woman was ostracized from the rest of the women in her town. All the other women go to the well together in the mornings. This is one of the great duties and honors in being a woman. They create a community together of support and intimacy. They converse over the latest gossip in the town. However, the Samaritan woman is shamed because of her sins - 5 husbands? and currently living with a man who is not her husband? I can only imagine the things being whispered about her throughout the town. I’m sure much of the shallow gossip being talked about among the other town wives was about the samaritan woman.
How well she must have understood how it felt to be excluded. Should she attempt to go to the well while the other women were there, what do you expect she’d find? I imagine there is great chatter that ceases when she approaches. Those looks of being “caught-in-the-act” plastered over the women’s faces. All eyes look at her and then quickly avert their gaze. The silence speaks volumes.
Then as she draws water there are hushed whispers and dirty looks. She leaves, realizing she isn’t welcome, and as she walks away, the chatter grows louder. Most likely she hears a few thrown out insults that the speaker hasn’t cared to keep low enough to go unheard.
It’s no wonder she goes to the well alone after all the other women have left. But! If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have encountered Christ in such a beautiful and unique way! This thought brings me so much hope! It is exactly by and through our sufferings and our trials that we are brought to meet Christ face to face. Without them, we might live our whole lives in ignorance to His presence. He could wait at the well forever, and we wouldn’t notice He was there.
One thing that really struck me was what Christ was asking the woman. He says to her, "Give me some water." Rather than a demand, which I had always pictured it, I realized it is actually an invitation - an invitation to perform those very acts of womanhood that she has been denied. Providing life-sustaining nourishment (water) is a great honor to women, especially at this historical time.
This nourishing spirit and maternal heart are constant in every woman - yes they are manifested in different ways, yet every woman has these dispositions within her. By being denied the task of drawing water from the well with the other women and providing nourishment for her home, the samaritan woman’s very dignity and identity as a woman is denied as well.
Christ’s invites her to re-establish her feminine role, and in doing so, he gives attention to the dignity and worth she has as a woman - He is implying that she is worthy of providing nourishment to Him. This is why the woman becomes confused as to why He, a Jew, is asking her, a samaritan, for water. If this was simply a task to satisfy His own needs, Christ’s request of her drawing water would be almost degrading - treating her like a servant sent to do His bidding, but that’s not what He is saying at all. He is honoring her by asking her the favor of living out her femininity and giving nourishment to His life.
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Despite her sins and shortcomings, Christ shows her that she still possesses this innate value of being woman, because that is how He created her. She does not make her own worth, He has given it to her as a gift, just as He does with each of us. What a comfort this Truth is.
Carrie
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