Friend,
One of the most famous stories in Jesus' ministry is the story of the woman at the well. I'm sure you're familiar with that by now - in fact, I've preached on it before, as I'm sure most ministers have.
However, in my recent studies, I have found some additional context that may shed some light on this scripture and provide additional insight into our reading of it.
I don't want to spend this entire space recapping this chapter, but this story is found in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel.
For the sake of time, I'll summarize. Jesus is walking along, and He stops in a city in Samaria by a well built by Jacob. The Samaritans were known by the Israelites as half breeds who intermarried with pagan worshippers and did not keep the Law as Moses commanded.
While Jesus is sitting by this well, a Samaritan woman came by in the middle of the day. Now, in Israel, this was an odd occurrence. You'd typically go to the well and get water in the beginning of the day, before it got hot. This tells us for the first time that this woman was likely an outcast.
Next, we Jesus breaking social mores of the time and asking her to give Him a drink, a no no because she was not only a woman, but also, a Samaritan.
Jesus begins to press her here, and says that if she knew who He was, she'd ask Him for living water.
They discuss back and forth for a minute, and she finally comes to Jesus, as she is, asking for living water.
His response is an odd one. John 4:16-18
"Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
Now, when this verse is read, we often see it as Jesus calling this woman out on her sin, and thereby calling her to live a life pleasing to Him. However, this is applying our western understanding to an eastern mindset and culture.
Recall that Jesus got into discussions with the Pharisees over what Moses permitted - a writ of divorce - whereby a man could write up a note and divorce his wife (it had been stretched to mean for any reason by this time). In this culture, a woman could be divorced for something as simple as not doing the laundry the way her husband desired or burning dinner, so long as the note was written up properly. We see Jesus chastises them for this, noting that this was only granted by virtue of the hardness of their hearts.
But when we take this understanding back to John 4, it changes how we see this woman. Now, instead of someone who has cheated and slept around, she could be a woman down on her luck.
Imagine, if you will, being a woman in this society. Your only form of support once you are of adult age is to be married to a husband, but your first husband died in the war, your second didn't like the way you cooked the chicken, the third hated how you did the laundry, and the fourth and fifth both decided to come up with something egregious they could write down so that they could trade you in for a younger model.
You've been hurt and burned so many times by these men, and why would another want anything to do with you, the product of five divorces? You scrape by as best as you can, but when you happen to run across a man who is interested in you, you tell him that you've been burned for the last time. You can't take another divorce. "We can live together in secret," you say, "but no one can find out."
No wonder the woman changed the subject in verse 19, telling Jesus that she perceives He is a prophet. After some more discussion, she comes to the conclusion that He is their long awaited Messiah, and then goes out to evangelize to the city, telling them that they all need to hear a Man who told her everything about her life, and many Samaritans believed on Jesus after these events.
When read in this light, the story becomes far more clear. We don't see Jesus telling her to go and sin no more, we don't see Jesus saying anything negative about her, but factually pointing out where she stood in the course of her life.
What it ultimately clears up is how Jesus ministered to the marginalized around Him. Notice, He didn't hold her at fault for the divorces, as so many were (and are to this day) wont to do. Instead, He showed her love and compassion. He manifested grace to this hurting woman, and in turn, she received it. She recognized in that moment that she had received grace from the Messiah, and it was all she could do to stop herself from going and telling everyone else about what He had done in her life.
It was His love and compassion that changed her forever. It was His grace and mercy that made all the impact in her life. And when Jesus had the opportunity to condemn her for her sin, He chose instead to show her grace and simply make a factual statement, as led by the Spirit, and trust that the Holy Spirit would continue to work in her heart.
What a pattern for us to follow as we minister to the world around us.
By Grace,
Dave