The Woman at the Well's Story

In the late 90’s, Rosaria Butterfield was a tenured English professor at Syracuse University, a skeptic of all things Christianity, and in a committed lesbian relationship. Her academic specialty was Queer Theory, a postmodern form of gay and lesbian studies.

She had rejected her Catholic upbringing and had spoken out against conservative evangelicalism.

After one particular letter to the editor in the local news paper, Rosaria received quite a bit of mail both in support of and in opposition to her observations and conclusions.

But one letter stood out among the rest. It was from a local Presbyterian pastor who, in a kind and inquiring way, challenged her with some quite unsettling questions about her beliefs.

She through the letter away, not knowing how to respond to it. But later the same night, she dug it out of the trash.

After a few weeks, Rosaria contacted pastor Ken Smith, whom in turn invited her to dinner at his house with his wife Floy.

Initially going only for the purpose of research, likely assuming she would listen with a skeptical, inward eye roll throughout the conversation, what happened instead, was her and the Smiths became friends.

That one dinner turned into more dinners as the Smiths began to share life with Rosaria as they dove into deep and, even controversial topics.

Ken and Floy’s friendship caused Rosaria to begin to ask questions about her previous conclusions about the Christian faith, so she started to read the bible (for research purposes, of course).

The more she read, the more she began to question.

A trans-gendered friend and ex-pastor came up to her at a party and said “"This Bible reading is changing you, Rosaria.” To which she said “J, what if it is true? What if Jesus is a real and risen Lord? What if we are all in trouble?"

I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might. Then, one Sunday morning, I rose from the bed of my lesbian lover, and an hour later sat in a pew at the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. Conspicuous with my butch haircut, I reminded myself that I came to meet God, not fit in. The image that came in like waves, of me and everyone I loved suffering in hell, vomited into my consciousness and gripped me in its teeth.

I fought with everything I had.

I did not want this.

I did not ask for this.

I counted the costs. And I did not like the math on the other side of the equal sign.

I was thinking, do I want to be changed? No. I like my life, I like my girlfriend, I like my house thank you very much, I even like my wonderful career.

Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, openhanded and naked. In this war of worldviews, Ken was there. Floy was there. The church that had been praying for me for years was there. Jesus triumphed.

This is obviously a powerful story, but don’t get caught up too much in the lesbianism of the story.

You might not have the struggles and sins Rosaria had, but the roots are the same.

She met Jesus in the middle of her search for something to quench her thirst, something to satisfy.

In some ways she thought she had found it, but meeting Jesus exposed that the well she was drinking from was only making her more thirsty.

Perhaps this is your story? We are going to look at a woman who, like Rosaria, met Jesus in the middle of her search to quench her thirst.

Jesus INTERRUPTED her story. (4:1-8)

This was a providential event, not unlike any of our stories of meeting Jesus.

We see Jesus’s side here:

The heat from the Pharisees was getting too hot so Jesus saw fit to leave Judea and head north to Samaria, about a 3 day long journey.

Along the way, He and the disciples are tired, thirsty, and hungry so they stop around the town of Sychar and He sends the disciples for food.

Jesus sits down at Jacobs well and here comes a woman, from Samaria, to get some water for the day.

We don’t know a great deal about this woman.

She is Samarian, which is is not the most attractive thing for Jewish people since the Samarian are a mixture of Jewish and non-Jewish heritage.

The northern Kingdom after Solomon was based in Bethel, the capitol city of Samaria.

If you read the books of 1 and 2 Kings you will know that the Northern Kingdom never had a good King from Jeroboam on after Solomon died and the Kingdom was split.

In the 700s, because of their unfaithfulness to Him, God allowed the Assyrians to take over the Northern Kingdom and the non-Jews, the Galileans, begin to intermarry with them.

By Jesus’s time, the Samarians were outcasts at best. No good Jew would ever associate with them.

But this woman wasn’t the tip top Samaria either.

She was coming to the well in the middle of the day, likely trying to avoid the rush and avoid people.

Most believe she was rejected by her fellow Samaritans because of her lifestyle.

She came alone and at an usual time.

She woke of thirsty, just like every morning. She needed water, but she didn’t want the stares and the judgement that seemed to go with her.

When she gets to the well, a tired and sweaty Jewish man asks her to get him a drink.

She didn’t expect that, men didn’t talk to women like that unless it was their wife.

Plus, Jewish people didn’t talk to Samaritans, especially not requesting a cup of water.

Who was this guy.

When she woke up that morning, she did not expect her life to be transformed.

She didn’t expect to meet someone who would redefine her existence.

When you walked in here today or click this video, you might not have expected to be confronted with a message that challenges you to rethink the motives and desires that drive your life. That call into question the hopes and plans you really think are eventually going to satisfy the thirst you have every day.

The woman at the well didn’t plan to meet Jesus that day, but, praise be to God that Jesus did plan to meet her.

Jesus BREAKS down BARRIERS to belief. (4:9-15)

The first barrier to her understanding who Jesus is was the divide between the Jews and Samaritans.

She is taken back by the fact that Jesus is even talking to her, let alone asking her to get Him water.

Who is this guy? He is different than any other Jew I have ever met.

Jesus’s answer pushes against her barrier.

“If you really knew who I was, you wouldn’ be asking that question, you would be asking for living water.”

If she really knew her bible, if she just knew the promises from God that are in there for her and anyone else who trusts in Christ, then she would be asking for water that would totally satisfy her thirsts.

The second barrier is her rational/analytical understanding of the world.

Jesus doesn’t have a bucket first off. How are you going to give me water if you don’t have a bucket.

Secondly though, Jacob’s Well was known to have the best water around, and here you are offering some kind of better water. Who do you think you are dude?

Jesus’s answer pushes against her rational arguments.

John 4:13–14 ESV

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.”

He isn’t talking about H2O anymore lady, He is talking about the thirst you feel in your soul.

She knew she was thirsty, just like everyone of us know when we are thirsty.

She went to the well because she was thirsty.

But her thirst shows up in more than her desire for water.

Actually, her desire for water only points to the physical side of a much deeper reality.

We are all thirsty for something that will satisfy us fully and completely.

It is why we work so hard to get more money in our bank accounts.

It is why we buy toys and stuff that we can’t afford because we really think this new thing is really going to be THE thing that satisfies us.

It is why we leave our wives or husbands because we have found someone new who will satisfy us more than our spouse.

It is why we look at those websites, drink more whisky, buy more drugs, binge more shows, play more games, and look for ways to escape, because we are THIRSTY!!

She was thirsty and she knew it, but she didn’t know what she was really thirsty for.

He had to break down the barriers that kept her from believing.

God is breaking down you barriers too.

Jesus EXPOSES her TRUE THIRST. (4:16-18)

“Give me this water so I don’t have to come everyday to draw water!”

Maybe she is getting it? Nah...

John 4:16 ESV

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

I don’t know how Jesus knew this about her, but he exposes not only her sin, but the thirst behind her sin.

She was going from one man to another to satisfy her thirst for love, for acceptance, for sex, for affirmation, or whatever the reason was.

“If you want to quench your REAL thirst, then let’s look at the thing you keep going back to that keeps leaving you more and more and more thirsty.”

She asks for water and Jesus says “go get your husband, then we can talk.” For you maybe He is saying...

let’s look at your internet search history, then we can talk.

let’s look at your message thread with that person who isn’t your wife/husband, then we can talk.

let’s look at your bank account, then we can talk.

let’s look at your work hours, then we can talk.

Where are you going over and over to quench your thirst? Maybe it is one thing after another.

Are you tired? Have you realized that those things just are not ever going to satisfy you?

Jesus OFFERS her ETERNAL SATISFACTION. (4:19-26)

The woman’s response can be seen as either dodging/changing the subject or it can be seen as a legitimate question.

She was a Samaritan who believed the right place to worship God was in Gerizim where their temple had been. The Jews believed it was in Jerusalem. Who was right?

Jesus tells her “the hour is coming when it won’t matter which mountain or valley you are in, don’t get sidetracked by location.”

Jesus is calling her to rethink her life.

She has built her life thinking God is mostly concerned with your attendance in a certain building where you do certain things that make Him happy.

If you do those things, then life will be easier, if you don’t then life might get harder because God might be mad at you.

Jesus has just pointed out an area of her life where she likely feels a great deal of shame.

Her question is legit in the sense that she is asking, “Ok, you are a prophet, I get that God is probably not happy with me, but how am I supposed to fix this? Where do a go? Do we have it right over here or do you guys?”

John 4:23 ESV

23 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.

To worship in “Spirit and in truth” simply means to worship God with the depth of our emotions and the confidence of our minds.

To love God genuinely with our hearts out of the overflow of our knowledge of who He is.

It means to be satisfied by our knowledge of Him and by His presence in us through His Spirit.

It isn’t about a place, it is about a posture.

The posture is submission and rest.

The posture of someone who has drank deep from the well that satisfying the thirsty soul for eternity.

John 4:25 ESV

25 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.”

This seems to be a request more than a statement.

She is thirsty and she knows it.

The Messiah, he is the one who will quench my thirst right Jesus?

John 4:26 ESV

26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Yes, my dear, and I am the one your soul thirsts for.

And just like that the disciples show up, abruptly ending the conversation.

But something was different.

John 4:28–29 ESV

28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

She left the jar…why?

Because she had found the water of life, the one “who told me all that i ever did.”

She had found Jesus and He had changed her.

Are you thirsty?

Is this your story?

If it is someone needs to hear it.

God uses us to interrupt the lives of those around us.

Who has God put in your path that He intends to use you to introduce Him to them?