Receiving and Sharing God’s Love

Lately I’ve been captured by the story of the woman at the well from John’s gospel (John 4:1–30, 39–42). You may know her as a shameful, fallen woman—the woman of many husbands now living in adultery who visits the well in the heat of the day to avoid the villagers’ looks of judgement and stifled whispers. But the interpretation of respected theologian Elaine Storkey has opened my heart and given me a different view to ponder.* She shares how in a culture where only husbands could divorce their wives (and not the other way around), this woman was likely cast off from one husband after another, perhaps from within even the same family. Maybe this Samaritan hadn’t been able to produce a male heir and was therefore seen as worthless. In a culture that depended on families for social care, she would be vulnerable and at risk of exploitation. 

A Woman of Value

Jesus, in contrast, sees her worth and values her; He doesn’t want her to feel discarded, alone, and in danger. Nor does He want her to be ostracized for what might not have been her fault. 

When she first spots Jesus there at the well perhaps she wants to turn around immediately and return home. But He poses a question to her, surprising her, speaking before she can flee. And what He asks is even more outrageous than Him talking to a woman: “Will you give me a drink?” (v. 7) 

At that time, Jewish men simply wouldn’t converse with women who were strangers, much less with a despised race of people. But Jesus moves beyond the conventions in posing His vulnerable question to her, one that if she responds and He drinks, will render Him unclean.  (Jewish teachers saw Samaritan women as unclean from birth, and thus many would have decreed that sharing water with her would have rendered Jesus ceremonially unclean as well.)

What follows includes their conversation about His identity—the Messiah, the Christ. With His revelation, she becomes one of the few people He affirms this world-changing truth to, she a so-called fallen woman. In doing so He acknowledges and affirms her dignity and worth not because of what has happened to her, or how she’s responded, but because she’s beloved of God. 

Truly Seen

My heart never fails to leap at the next part of the story, when she drops her water jar, thirst forgotten, and runs back to the village as one who now knows she’s loved: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (v. 29). No longer does shame cling to her, defining her. Instead she freely and loudly proclaims her story—here’s a man who knows me and doesn’t condemn me! Surely He’s the anointed One of God!

Her testimony compels many of her people, the Samaritans, to join her: “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did’” (v. 39). At their urging Jesus stays with them for two more days, with many more also believing: “Now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world” (v. 42).

Truly Known

As I ponder this amazing story, what resides in my heart and mind, shaping my thoughts and emotions, is the truth that after the Samaritan woman receives God’s love through Jesus—after she’s seen and known—then she shares God’s love with others. Her biggest regrets and her shameful status—all that sent her into hiding—no longer define her after she’s conversed with Jesus. He sets her free from old labels and ways of being.

So too with me. I might look at the blackness in my heart and want to hide—the selfishness that rises up when a family member asks me to serve them, or how I sometimes wonder if I have enough energy to truly listen to someone, or the shame I feel when I don’t follow through on a promise, or the feeling of not being good enough when I’m passed over for something I desired. But then my gaze lifts to the not-far-off distance and I see Jesus there waiting for me, wanting to rejig my conceptions of who I am. To remind me that I’m loved.

In my daily life, in my times of praying and conversing with Jesus, I receive the life-altering truths that I’m made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) and that God loves me (Isaiah 43:4). With the knowledge of those truths seeping into not only my head but into my heart, soul, and body, I can then proclaim to those around me, “Come and check out Jesus, who knows everything about me and who loves me still!” I too can share His freeing love with others, hoping that they will also lay down their water jar as they receive the life-changing love that will satisfy them and slake their thirst. 

* See “The Samaritan woman who broke the stereotypes,” Elaine Storkey, Women in a Patriarchal World: Twenty-Five Empowering Stories from the Bible (SPCK, 2020), 91–96.

—Written by Amy Boucher Pye. Used by permission from the author. Click here to connect with Amy.