Contemplations on the Divine

The Woman of Samaria

In the Gospel according to John chapter 4 we find the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. The story is reminiscent of all of us when confronted with Jesus. When we read it we often focus on the ultimate transformation, from an outcast to an evangelist. Sometimes we focus on Christ and his way of choosing the unworthy for the task of the Kingdom. But the very moment we deem her previous life as unworthy of receiving the Kingdom we are judging her and in that we bring judgment upon ourselves. We often forget to focus on the stages in which the transformation occurred or the process through which it occurred. That is important.

Let us take an unbiased view of this woman and let us find this woman inside each of us. Here was a lonely woman fetching water from a well at noon. It must have been quite warm at that time of the day for the well to be nearly deserted. That was the only reason the woman was there at that point of time, probably to avoid people from interfering in her life. As we later come to know her life isn't the ideal one. Being divorced or widowed five times and living with a man in sin isn't something that makes you very popular in regular crowds. She was avoiding those crowds even though it was difficult.

How often do we avoid a group of people or old friends and acquaintances because we do not wish to be judged by them for or situations. There are times when we get ourselves into situations we regret and then there are times that we are simply so miserable that we do not have the energy to stand and listen to other people analyzing our situations. In case of Job a similar thing happened. While he lay in suffering his friends simply tried to analyze his situation without providing any resolution. We are no different. When faced with a tricky situation we tend to avoid certain crowds that make us uncomfortable. When we don't fit-in with a crowd we try to avoid it. The fact that we have to hide from some people makes us even more miserable.

I have overprotective parents who don't like my staying out at night. So on Christmas eve when my friends are either out partying or sitting at Church on night vigil I sit at home. I try to put my phone on silent or turn it off altogether and watch God TV or sit with the Bible. I am happy that my Savior's birth is celebrated all over the world but I am also sad that I cannot be a part of it. I turn off y phone because I am ashamed that I cannot be a part of it and I don't want to answer why and how to those who do not understand. This has made me lose quite some friends over the years, friends who do not even understand the spirit of Christmas other than an excuse to party hard. I am the better for it. But I know that if I see any one of them any day soon I would probably tiptoe around them and scamper out of sight because I do not wish to explain to them my life in Christ. I know that I should witness to them but not fitting-in with their lifestyle and their mindset creates in me a stumbling block that prevents me from reaching out to them. But what would happen if someone reaches out to us.

That is exactly what happened to the Samaritan woman. Jesus reached out to her and asked for a drink of water. The Samaritan woman knew that Jews and Samaritans did not even share the same vessels. It was an integral part of their culture. She expected Jesus to also know it. But she could see that he was asking her for water despite that foreknowledge. It was something completely unexpected for her and she was forced to reply in hostility. 'How can you even ask for such a thing?' But Jesus did ask.

Despite being a social outcast the woman was a Samaritan and that meant that the mutual resentment with Jews had been bred in her since a very early age. What Jesus's question did was that it brought out her resentment and anger, first in the form of rudeness and and then in the form of ridicule.

We often lash out in our resentment through rudeness and ridicule. It is easy to offend others or belittle others. We feel that by doing so we are actually defending our own feeling, our own pride. But what we are doing is that we are fanning the resentment not only in our own hearts but also in the hearts of the others.

Here Jesus sets up an example. If we read His words we see that his tone of speaking never changes. It is patient and gentle. As the everlasting Father He explains to His child who He is. Though the Samaritan woman is a social outcast, a woman of disrepute and misfortune we see that she is being treated as a child and made to understand things beyond her own knowledge. That gentleness and patience ultimately breaks through the resentment of Jews and the Samaritan woman surrenders her immediate concerns to Jesus.

When we come to Jesus the first thing that brings us to Him isn't eternal life or Kingdom's work. It is generally an emptiness within us arising out of either loneliness, some disease, poverty, misery or the conviction of some sin. That is always the immediate concern. As we then experience the discipleship of Jesus out thirst for Him grows and we submit to Him to a greater extent. The immediate concern of the Samaritan woman was the drawing of water. Water is a basic necessity of life. But it wasn't the water that she was merely asking for. She was asking for the freedom from having to travel at mid-day, in the full glare of the sun, to avoid the humiliation of the life that was hers. She herself did not realize what it was that she desired freedom from.

When we are deeply disturbed by something our thoughts align themselves in such a way as to tiptoe around it. It is our natural tendency to not think about the thing that troubles us the most. It becomes a taboo in our mind that we avoid even in our wildest imagination. Marriage was such a thing for the Samaritan woman. However Jesus knew her problem. So there he was bringing it up. Like quickly taking off the band-aid, or waxing strip if you prefer, the Samaritan woman confessed that she did not have a husband. The answer seems extremely curt. It was intentionally curt because it was a topic she did not want to be brought up. It was a matter of shame for her. Also her receiving the living water relied on the condition of her marriage, the thing that she already knew she lacked and it only aggravated her suffering. When I read her answer I often imagine her eyes glazing over and a her voice choking a bit as she says, "I have no husband." (I may be wrong or I am simply seeing myself in her place). Perhaps that is why Jesus continued the explanation. 

Jesus's explanation revealed Him to her. Jesus is King, Prophet and Priest rolled in one and the Samaritan Woman receives as Prophet and asks for the true worship. As a Samaritan she is not ignorant of the concept of atonement. She knew that atonement could be made at the temple of Jerusalem and her shame, her spiritual deprivation could lessen at that. However as a Samaritan she wasn't allowed to atone for her sins. As Jesus pointed the spotlight on her real problem she needed a solution to her real problem. A way of fetching water wasn't enough.

Jesus explains the truth about worship and it builds her hope and we find out why Jesus actually made the effort to reach out to a Samaritan when he had forbidden his disciples from preaching to Samaritans. The Samaritan woman had been waiting for the Messiah. She was not a godless adulteress after all. She was a repentant sinner and it was time for her to be saved.

Inwardly we all wait to be saved. We wait to be saved from a family crisis, a health crisis, a family crisis, a moral crisis, and we have this imaginary idea of a savior who would step up when we can't take it any more. Often we spend our lifetime waiting. Here was this woman in an impossible situation. Her life was the antithesis of the law and ways of her forefathers. She lived in guilt, regret and shame all her days and then suddenly she finds her answers in the form of the Messiah.

The question is now that did Jesus save her by revealing Himself to her. Jesus did not say anything like 'Your sin is forgiven', 'Go now and sin no more'. But the Samaritan woman was saved by Jesus choosing to reach out to her. She suddenly knew that she was not an outcast to God and that is what mattered the most. The same thing happened for me at my Baptism. I was set right with God and it no longer mattered to me whether the world thought well of me. However the Samaritan woman was not just assured of her forgiveness. She was assured of her place in God's Kingdom and she set out to do her part, becoming the first female evangelist in history.

Jesus had asked her to call her husband. As she did not have a husband to call she calls everyone she can. Her assurance of salvation removes her guilt and shame and she clearly witnesses saying that Jesus had told her everything she ever did. When I imagine her witnessing I do not imagine a hung head but rather a shrugged shoulder for the past ceases to matter when Jesus enters your lives.

The Samaritan woman's salvation was not a result of her actions. She was saved by God choosing her to be saved. However her reaction to that salvation was doing the work of the Kingdom. That salvation erased the guilt and shame of her past and gave her life a new purpose. That salvation went beyond barrier and social prejudices. And yet that salvation arrived and was accepted.