Woman at the Well

Woman at the Well How many of you have ever felt like people are looking down at you? Maybe in a social setting or maybe at work. Some people that I know would say they have felt looked down upon at Church. I know that may surprise some of you. I can relate to those that feel like they have been looked down upon by the Religious community. I myself have felt that feeling. I guess my first experience happened when I was 7-8 years old I went to a private school and was told daily that I was going to Hell because I went to Church on Sunday. Then when I was a teenager I had hair down to my shoulder blades. I had a friend invite me to Church with them. I grew up in a Lutheran Church where nobody seemed to care about my long hair, but when I went to a Baptist Church with her, I got more attention than the Pastor. Maybe I should have given the Sermon. Then I had a family member who was an Ordained Minister tell me that I was going to hell just because I had long hair. After being Judged by all of this and having to adhere to so many rules or go to hell I simply gave up. Who could ever live up to all of these rules? It seemed like no matter what I did I was not good enough. Why bother. I feel like this may be how the woman at the well may have felt. So who is the woman at the well? John 4:7-26 ESV — A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The

woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” Looked down on: So for a little history around 722BC the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. They exiled almost all of the Jewish nation. Only leaving behind the lower classes. Then 136 years later the Babylonians conquered the southern region of Israel and followed the same policy. The Jewish people that were left behind started intermarrying with non Jewish people and the Samaritans emerged both as an ethnic and religious group. As you can guess this group was looked down on. They were considered “half-breeds” and looked at as disgusting. The Samaritans had a historical connection to the people of Israel and their faith was a combination of rituals from the laws of Moses, along with various superstitions. So the Samaritans built an altar to Yahweh on Mount Gerizim, but the Jews hated them so much that they burnt it down in 128 BC. This understandably made tensions worse. So looking into the history you can see how the Jews looked down on the Samaritans and judged them harshly simply because they weren’t exactly like them. They were different and didn’t follow the laws exactly as the Jewish people. They were so disgusted with the Samaritans that they would avoid Samaria altogether. So with all of this back ground you can see why the woman at the well is probably thinking great here is another Jewish prophet coming to tell me everything that I am doing wrong and how He is right. Little did she know He was much more than that. This sounds familiar to me. Because I was told that If you don’t go to Church on Saturday you can’t go to Heaven. If your hair is too long you can’t go to Heaven.

I talk to people all the time and ask them why they don’t go to Church? The most common answer is because they are looked down on. They aren’t wearing the right clothes. They may drink alcohol, they may do drugs, they have skeletons in their closet and feel ashamed. The last thing they need is people shaming them even more or telling them what they are doing wrong and how we are doing right. This is the type of person that Jesus showed us needed help. He said the sick need a physician. And commanded us to go into the World and spread His word to all the people, not just a chosen few. Distrust There was a lot of distrust and hatred between these two groups of people. Even though they both came from the same beginnings and observed the Laws of Moses. There was no longer common ground. How can so many people that supposedly worship the same God be so far apart? We could also look at the Churches today and say how can so many people that worship the same God be so far apart? The Jewish people were so disgusted by the Samaritans that the woman asked Jesus why would he take a drink from her since Jews would have to perform a cleaning ritual before drinking from the cup. When Jesus tried to tell her by using a metaphor that He was here to bring salvation she was a bit sarcastic with Him about it. That is how most people see the Church today. How can we bring the message of salvation when we are fighting within ourselves. People outside of the Church just see a bunch of people that look down on them, are judgmental, and are hypocritical. Just like the Jews looked at the Samaritans as a lower class of people but were imperfect themselves. Jesus even told the Jewish community in Matthew 7:1-5 ESV — “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Jesus did not come into this World to Judge it but to save it. Jesus took the time to bring Hope to the Hopeless. We need to be more like Jesus, maybe we could volunteer, drop off clothes at homeless shelter, or bring food to a food pantry. These are just examples of a good start but in order to worship God. Today we say that people have to wear the right clothes, sing the right songs, or already be perfect in order to enter into the Church. They can’t worship correctly if they are looked at as a lower class of people or if different than the standard norm. People today just like in Jesus day still need to hear the Gospel.

Conclusion So today how do we look at people in our Churches, In our communities, Or in our daily lives? Do we see them as Jesus saw them? Do we see them as sick people needing a doctor or do we see a lower class of people? I saw a sign at the exit of a Church parking lot that said you are entering the mission field. But would any of the members walk across the street in order to make a disciple? Jesus said that we are to go and make disciples, not that we should overlook them. Sometimes we need to believe that people can belong before they believe. We need to make our Churches look more like hospitals. We need to welcome the sick into Gods house even the ones that don’t know that they are sick. We have been sent to make disciples that make disciples. The Church may look like a hospital but us Christians need to look like EMT’s. We should be walking across that street, giving a helping hand, and showing God’s love by being the hands and feet of Jesus. We should not be looking down at anybody acting like they are Samaritans and we are the Jewish people. I bet it wasn’t that long ago that most here were in the same shoes. I know I have been. For the ones here that are in need of a hospital, do not let imperfect people drive you away from God’s love. You are not too far that Jesus will not seek you out at the well that you are at. Just know that even though we may fall short He is still ready to FORGIVE.