God is In Love with Me… Woman at the Well.
I recently taught a lesson on prayer. When I was praying and asking God if there was any specific scripture he wanted me to add to the teaching, every time I sat down to write notes the story about the woman at the well kept coming to my mind. And I kept asking myself the question- what does the woman at the well have to do with prayer?
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria
John 4:1-29 tells us the story:
“Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings 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 nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 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 now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 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 worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people 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 (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”’
Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
The story of the woman at the well is an interesting one. Up until this point in Jesus’ ministry he was trying to keep his godhood underwraps. He didn’t really want anyone shouting it because it “wasn’t time” but this outcast woman was an exception… that is what you are exceptional. He went to visit a place that most Jews went out of their way to avoid. Which bring us to point number one:
Jesus intentionally pursued her, just like He pursues you.
Second, Jesus went at a time when only one woman would be there. She went at noon to avoid the judgemental eyes (and probably comments) of the other women. Then, Jesus asked her for a drink- which a jew would not have done- the Samaritan were considered unclean and he would have gotten “dirty”. Then on top of that, this particular woman was on husband number 5- something that was “frowned upon” to say the least. She was an ostracized women at the fringes of an ostracized groups. All to say- no matter what the world says about you- to God, you are worth chasing after. Worth pursuing and worth meeting with today- in the middle of your best or worst day, he wants to meet with you. No matter your sin.
Culturally, Jesus would not have spoken to a woman alone so freely. So in verse 16 when Jesus tells her to call her husband, it could have felt like he was saying “bring your husband here so we can make this conversation more appropriate” but instead he called out her dirty little secret and she spoke honestly about not being married but didn’t tell the whole truth but Jesus already knew - she had already had 5 husbands, something she perceives a prophet would know.
Which leads us to point number 2.
2. God already knows all your dirty secrets, he isn’t waiting for you to be perfect- he wants you today.
The woman realizes she is prophetic since she knew about her “sin history” if yo will. So now Jesus has her ear. She realizes this so she changes the subject to worship, off herself and onto a debate between Jews and Samaritans about the proper place to worship God. Maybe she thought she could re-direct Jesus off the sensitive topic of her sin, to the hot-button debate about worship location. But still… Jesus was after her heart.
The leads us to our third point- the reason Jesus ends on- we don’t need a location or a building or a mountain to talk to God.
3. Anyone can prayer anywhere.
When he came he came to solve the problem of needed a location or priest. What he is inviting us into here is to pray and worship “in spirit and truth” which means in my mind anywhere, I can talk to the God of the universe. So Jesus met her where she went to hide, he pointed out her sin that would have made anyone else run and he invited her to pray to God anywhere anytime.
So remember these three points- is there one you struggle to believe? Is there one that holds you back from praying because you don’t believe it?
Jesus intentionally pursued her, just like He pursues you.
God already knows all your dirty secrets, he isn’t waiting for you to be perfect- he wants you today.
Anyone can prayer anywhere.
Spend time this week receiving God’s invitation into a personal, daily relationship WITH YOU!
