The Samaritan Women of the Well

The Samaritan Women of the Well

Stop! Men stop! Listen to me! Come see a man who told me everything I ever did, surely he can’t be the Messiah, can He? I need to know. Please come with me to see Him at the well.
I went to Jacob’s well today, as I must everyday to get the water I need to live. I went at noon, the heat of the day to avoid anybody being there. I can’t bring myself to go in the cool of the morning when everybody else does for then I would have to face them. You see I have been married and divorced five times. Is it not enough that five men have promised to love and care for me, then rejected me, and left me with nothing but broken dreams and shame? Most I also bear the looks of the other women who gossip about me wanting to steal their husbands. How worthless I must be that even among the Samaritan heathens I am outcast? It is not as if I don’t have enough fears and doubt on my own, wondering why I am unlovable. It is too much for me to face the others in the light of day.
I met a man there today, a strange man unlike any other. You could tell by his dress that he was Jew. He spoke to me, and asked me for a cup of water. He seemed to be unaware of common knowledge and I did not understand him. First. the Jews hate Samaritans and called us half breeds. Most will cross the Jordan River twice and walk two day around the city of Sychar just to avoid setting foot on our ground. Jews considered vessel of the Samarian unholy and would not touch them. Second, he spoke to me. Granted being a traveler he would not know my shame, but decent men did not speak to any woman in public, and with respect. Women are something to be used and discarded in the wee hours of the night.
I asked him how he a Jew could ask me for water, and he said, that it should be I asking him for living water that never runs dry. Can you imagine not having to go to the well everyday to get water? Water that permanently quenches one’s thirst. I asked him how could this be? He said he had a source that I did not know. I asked him how I could get some of this water. I wanted it.
He told me to go and get my husband. I did not want to get into my lives story so I told him I had none. He said I spoke true that I had had 5 and the one I was with was not mine. I was amazed. I had never seen this man, he could not have known. Even more, there was compassion in his voice not contemp. Then he went on and told me everything I had ever done. He told me ever lie I had ever told, ever indiscretion I had ever had, everything I had ever stolen and more. I saw how guilty I was before God.
I said that He must be a prophet. He said his name was Christ. I was ignorant and asked if we should worship on Mt. Gerizim at the Samaria believed or in Jerusalem as the Jew believe. His answer was not what I expected for he said neither, but the place was not important but the way was. One can only come to God as the Bible says through the Messiah.
I said yes, I know that Messiah is coming. He said that Messiah is here. He could not be the Messiah, could he? We had been looking for the Messiah all our lives. Could it be that He would come to me, who is the lowest of sinner? Could it be that He would not condemn me, but would show me love? No one else has loved me, how could me? I have to find out, I have to know if this Jesus Christ could be Messiah.
This man has changed my life forever. Please come and listen to him. He will change your life too. Can you accept him as Savior? I know that he is mine.

Kathy Barnes
Copyright 6-08-09