The Chosen Ep 8: Woman at the Well
Have you ever been really thirsty? So thirsty that you can’t bring up any moisture into your mouth to be able to wet the scratchiness of the back of your throat? I remember moments like that when I was a teenager plowing in the field. Late autumn could be very dry and running a large tractor with the heat of the engine blowing back at you and the dirt and dust swirling around you, it could make for a strong desire for a simple drink of water.
In this episode of The Chosen Jesus and the disciples are heading for Jerusalem and they have to go through Samaria. Most Jews would walk the extra miles to go around Samaria because of their hatred for Samaritans, but Jesus tells his disciples that they had to go through it. Samaria was located in the wilderness, and it could be a dry, hot, and dusty place. At midday, Jesus and his disciples approach a village and Jesus sends the disciples into town to purchase something to eat. He waits for their return by a well.
I don’t know how long Jesus would have chosen to wait, but instead of lowering the bucket to retreive some water for himself, Jesus waits until a woman comes to ask her if she would draw him a drink. For a man to publically speak to a woman was unusual. It wasn’t proper for a man to address a woman in public without her husband present. It also wasn’t proper for a Jew to address a Samaritan unless they were making some kind of slur. Samaritans were only half Jewish. They were a mixture of the northern Kingdom Jews, those left after the deportation who had intermarried with the heathen people who had been brought in to populate the land after the Jews had been carried off into exile.
What was also strange is that this woman was coming to draw water at a very odd time of day. Most people would draw water in the cool of the morning, or maybe near sunset when the cool evening breeze may have started blowing in. It was just too hot to retrieve water midday. The reason the woman had come midday was to avoid the scorn and shame she carried for having been married five times. We aren’t told why she has five husbands and that the man she was living with at the moment wasn’t her husband. We only know that she did not want to be seen, to be shamed.
Jesus sees her though. He sees the whole of her, the past, the present, and the future. Who she has been. What she years for. How she hurts. All that she might become. He names it all without shaming or condemning her. He does not make her feel judged, but loved. Not exposed, but shielded. Not diminished, but restored. He doesn’t shy away from the painful, ugly, broken stuff in her life. Instead he allows the truth of who she is to come to the surface. I see you for who you are, and I love you. Now see who I am. The Messiah. The one in whom you can find freedom, love, healing, and transformation. Spirit and Truth. Eternal life. Living Water. Drink of me, and live.
Pastor Ken