Former American Press staff writer Sunny Brown Farley writes "Naked Faith," a look at faith in its natural form: lived out in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people.

The Preacher at the Well

Posted June 28, 2008 at 7:03 am
Filed Under Faith & Religion | 2 Comments

The story of the woman at the well is found in John 4:1-42. It says:

“Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John’— although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

“A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common 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 no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

“Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ 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 have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you^* say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 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 worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these 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’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he,^* the one who is speaking to you.’

“Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him.

“Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’

“Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’” (NRSV)

The story of the woman at the well “contains the longest conversation on record between Jesus and anyone – and the person so honored is a non-Jew and a woman.”[1] Because of the dedication of space to the story, one might conclude that the author of the Gospel of John perceived the encounter between Jesus and woman at the well as one of some importance. In early Church history, the woman at the well was recognized as a witness to her people. She was cast mainly in a positive light. The Protestant Reformation cast her in a new light with the focus on her as a sinner in need of the grace of God. “With the changing theological currents of Calvinism, more direct condemnation fell on the Samaritan woman.”[2] The words used to describe the Samaritan woman “changed from ‘witness’, ‘apostle’ and ‘missionary’ to ‘harlot’, ‘immoral’ and ‘promiscuous.’”[3] This Reformation-era perspective “persisted as the dominant portrayal of her throughout the era of the hegemony of the historical-critical methodology until the late twentieth century.”[4]

The story of the woman at the well deserves re-examination. After all, what does the text really say? If we look closely at the scriptures, we find that much has been read into them. There are many different ways of presenting the text. Some might read the exchange between Jesus and the woman in a sarcastic or flippant tone of voice. Consider how the scripture sounds if the woman says indignantly: “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” We could also read Jesus’ comments to her in judgmental tone: “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” A reading in this tone of voice is interpretation. When we read them in such a way, we read something into them. That something is an assumption about that story that isn’t made clear simply by the information provided within it.

There are scholars who now argue that the scriptures could also be read in a tone of sincerity. While this is also assumption, it is an assumption based on a few key factors. One indication that the woman’s response to Jesus was a sincere and not defensive or mocking is her use of the word “kurios.” This word may be translated as “sir” and “is a respectful form of address, one that would not be compatible with a disdainful attitude or tone.”[5] In light of this, the woman’s response to Jesus could be read in such a way that the Samaritan woman sounds sincere, though maybe puzzled or perhaps full of wonderment in her discourse. Likewise, there is ample evidence that the words of Jesus should be read to reflect his compassion. Consider:

Based on our knowledge of the social and cultural values of first-century Palestine, why would it be unnatural to surmise that the woman is deserving of our sympathy rather than our opprobrium? Is it not possible that the woman had been married so many times because of economic and social reasons, rather than for lustful ones? By what means, in her culture, could she survive by working for wages? In a society that granted women essentially no social or legal standing apart from a responsible man – father, husband, brother or son – she can legitimately be considered a marginalized figure, subject to economic, social and legal exploitation.[6]

Feminist theologians Linda McKinnish Bridges and Gail O’Day add that these socio-economic conditions point to the woman at the well as a likely victim of circumstances. Bridges says she was a product of “ancient, oppressive patriarchy.”[7] Along similar lines, O’Day notes that women’s rights were severely limited in first-century Palestinian culture. “A woman had very little control over her own life, with both marriage and divorce being the prerogative of men. Her status in community life was more akin to that of slaves and children than to a responsible adult.”[8] Jesus was aware of the circumstances in which the woman at the well lived. In light of this one might consider his tone as one of something other than confrontational when he points out her marital history and status. “What if it is Jesus’ strategy not only for revealing his supernatural knowledge but also for expressing his compassion and concern for the suffering she has endured and the hardships she has experienced?”[9] Besides, nowhere else in the Bible do we find Jesus condemning marginalized people.

The importance of how the Church characterizes the woman at the well – and other women in the Bible – is that these characterizations serve as the basis for how the Church views women and the role of women in general for all times. As the authoritative document of the Christian faith, Christians look to the Bible for guidance and direction. Christians look to the Bible for examples of how humans are to live in relationship to the Triune God. If Christians only see women of the Bible in a certain light, they may only see women in general in a certain light. In the case of the woman at the well, she has been historically characterized as merely a sinner in need of redemption. Indeed, she is in need of salvation but no more or less than the rest of humankind. Christians should consider that she was likely a victim of her time and place who with sincere intrigue encountered a compassionate savior.

It is what she did next that is also important for the Church to recognize. While the earlier passages might be read with some tone of voice that colors the dialogue, the last part of the story contains a few details that are harder to taint. Most significantly, the woman at the well departs Jesus and returns to her village. She then shares her testimony with the people. “She simply drops her jar and begins to preach the evangelion, the ‘good news’ of Jesus. As religious writer Rachel Conrad Wahlberg puts it, ‘Her culturally assigned status gave way to her Jesus-assigned status – one who is worthy to go and tell.’”[10] In other words, she uses her voice to share with others her experience with Christ. Plain and simple, she preached. Just as Peter and Paul and the other disciples spread the good news, the woman at the well spread the good news. The savior had come!

The remarkable outcome of the story is that, as a result of the woman at the well, many were led to Christ. The Samaritans came to Jesus. They received Jesus. They believed in Jesus. All of this happened because the woman at the well preached the Word. It bears mentioning that the woman at the well, who had so many men in her life, returned to her town and told her community about the new man in her life. Her testimony is received with curious interest as the townspeople are persuaded to see for themselves who Jesus is. This is something one might not expect were the woman merely the village slut or a woman of disrepute whose testimony might be less than credible. Instead, they heard her and found Christ for themselves.

The story of the woman at the well shows a depth of compassion on the part of our God. It also shows the inclusiveness of our God. God uses a non-Jewish, female to spread the gospel message to men and women in her village. Who is this woman at the well? She is the preacher at the well who proclaimed the good news of the Preacher at the well.

Next blog: The Apostle Junia.

 [1] Rose Sallberg Kam, Their Stories, Our Stories: Women of the Bible (New York: Continuum, 1995), 212.

 [2] Janeth Norfleete Day, The Woman at the Well: Interpretation of John 4:1-42 in Retrospect and Prospect (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2002), 40.

 [3] Ibid, 178.

 [4] Ibid, 40.

 [5] Ibid, 165.

 [6] Ibid, 169.

 [7] Ibid.

 [8] Ibid.

 [9] Ibid, 171-172.

 [10] Kam, Their Stories, Our Stories, 216.

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