*Class
taught by Shawn Morgan
A
few years ago, I taught quilt making through lifelong learning at the
University of Utah. In 5 class sessions, we earned to design, plan, draft,
cut, piece—and at the last meeting—quilt and bind. In the last class I
passed out a standardized evaluation for my students. Inevitably and
universally there was a suggestion for one more class. They wanted to meet
one more time. Not that there was more to learn from me, but that they
wanted to go home and try for themselves and then come back and share what they
had learned for themselves from doing and practicing. They wanted to share
their discoveries, successes, and struggles.
This
is our last class in our series of women of the New Testament. Today we
will discuss the woman at the well found only in John chapter 4. But I
would like to offer a portion of this hour to be the last class. At the
end of our discussion, lets open up the mic to some of you who would like one
more class to tell us of your discoveries—share which women you identified
with. How have you become a witness of the atonement, who are your
Elizabeths, have you felt a pause before a miracle, paid attention to your
abundance, felt and understood that you are “His,” found that good part,
written or thought of a cherished sacred story. Write down your impressions
as they come to you during this class so they are not forgotten.
He left
Judea, and departed again into Galilee. And He must needs go through Samaria.
A little
background on the people and land of Samaria. Geographically, Samaria
is located between Galilee to the North and Judea to the south. Galilee is
the place of Capernaum, the mount of beatitudes along the Sea of Galilee. Judea
is where Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Emmaus are located. To the west is the
Jordan river valley that connects the sea of Galilee on the north and the dead
sea on the south. Judean travelers would almost always go around Samaria through
the Jordan river valley to get to Galilee, adding a full day’s journey rather
than risk any danger or confrontation on the better and more direct roads of
Samaria.
John ch 4
vs 5-7
Kathleen Peterson
"Woman at the Well"
Jesus and
His disciples came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar. Jesus
sent the disciples into town to get some food while he rested at the well. We
read it was about the 6th hour which interpreted is noon.
There
cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water; Jesus saith unto her “Give me to
drink” This
was an unusual request because a religious Jew would never eat anything touched
by someone ritually “unclean,” especially a Samaritan and a woman. The whole
trip would have been repulsive to a devout Jew from Jerusalem: walking on a
Samaritan road, going into a Samaritan town, eating Samaritan food, and
drinking Samaritan water.
The Samaritans are a religious splinter group of the
Jews. Forced into separation by conquering Assyrians and taken captive
into Babylonia, their intermarrying and mixing of faiths and cultures made
them an impure race and they were denied participation in the temple at
Jerusalem. They then built their own temple on Mount Gerizim (which is
right by Sychar where this story takes place). The Samaritan temple
was later destroyed by Jewish rulers and at the meridian of time only remnants
remained). It is akin to the white and black segregation in US history.
The
woman responds,”How is it that thou, being a Jew, asked drink of me which am a
woman of Samaria? for
the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
Please
note: She calls him Jew.
And then
the teaching, the gentle learning begins.
Vs 10 Jesus answered and
said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to
thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have
given thee living water.
Vs 11 The
woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? . . . Art thou greater than
our father Jacob. . .
13 Jesus
answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that
I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
Please
note: She calls him Sir
And she is
very interested in water that would ease her burden of coming to the well every
day alone and avoiding the other women.
What is the
gift of God He refers to?
What is
living water?
Vs 16 Jesus asks her to go and
call her husband and they will talk about this together. Here he is really
inviting her to make a self evaluation. Like the question to Adam hiding in the
garden- “Adam, where art thou?” Not a question that HE doesn’t know the answer
to but a question He offers to her to consider her shortcomings and see her
need to repent, to strip her of her layer of pride, guilt, shame, her self-deprication,
her disappointment.
Vs 17-19 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto
her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now
hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith
unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
With her admission
to his revealing statement, she now calls Him Prophet
This spoke
so clearly to me. I recalled last week when Leslie had us take a moment and write
one of our own sacred stories and as I began to write, I felt exposed, with my
honesty on paper and it was then and only then that I felt a glimpse of my need
for the grace the Savior offers through his atonement. I understood for a
moment, how necessary repentance is. Without the acknowledgment of weakness and
sin and incompleteness, there is a layer of pride and a barrier to receiving
the workings of the atonement. Without repentance, the atonement is
ineffective. He already knows who I really am, not that I am uninterested
in housework and an exuberant outdoorsman that doesn’t matter to Him, but he
truly knows my heart. Where it will lead me and how committed (or not!) to
discipleship. . .
And now we
know a bit more about the Woman at the Well. Ah! She comes to
Jacob’s Well, ½ mile away from where she lives. Even though (as
historians and archaeologists report) there are 2 wells very near Sychar.
And she comes at noon, the hottest part of the day instead of the cooler parts of the
day like early morning or evening. She has set herself apart from others,
or she is outcast from them because of her past. And though we don’t know
the details of her circumstance, no doubt she carries pain, sorrow, regret, loneliness,
and a battered self-esteem. She seeks comfort at the well.
What wells do we return to
frequently to draw from that thing we think we need? What other wells do we
avoid?
She now
considers this man. If he is a prophet who with what Talmage calls “superhuman
powers of discernment,” he can answer the cultural and religious question
that she has. She confronts Him with this question in the form of a statement.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and
ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet
at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we
worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Here we see the parallel
between the Woman not seeing clearly the difference between the life-sustaining
and precious physical resource of water and the well spring of living water
that sustains one’s spirit and nourishes them to eternal life. She “knows not
what. But He, a Jew knows and asks her to “Believe me”! for it is through Him,
a Jew that Salvation comes to all of us.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for
the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 *God is a Spirit: and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
*Please note the
JST “For unto such has God promised His Spirit.”
What is he referencing
here?
In the final verses of
this amazing encounter with the Savior, The woman declares her testimony of the
Messiah of her Samaritan tradition. That very Christ that her people have
been waiting for. To which Jesus declares himself to
her by saying “I that speak unto thee am he.” Scholars
of the New testament suggest that this statement may be translated to
read “I Am speaketh unto thee.” The Savior declaring himself as the
creator of heaven and Earth, without beginning or end, the great I AM.
28 The woman then
left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29 Come,
see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
39 ¶And
many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the
woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
40 So
when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry
with them: and he abode there two days.
41 And
many more believed because of his own word;
42 And
said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have
heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ,
the Savior of the world.
She left her water pot—the
very vessel that she had come to fill was now at the feet of the
Savior. She had carried it with her full of sadness and self pity and
despair and whatever else made her weary and when she learned and recognized
the Savior and spent time with Him and knew him, she left that water pot of the
world and ran to declare Him to those she had earlier avoided.
What is in our water pots? What
is heavy and burdensome?
We have sat with this
woman through her journey of discovery and witnessed her time-lapsed spiritual
development. She stood alone with the Savior and did not know
him. He offered her eternal life and salvation. He helped her
to see what hindered the way of her receiving and understanding. He gently
explained and through he aid of the Holy Ghost His identity and presence was
revealed to her.
The Savior waited at the
well for the woman as she performed her daily menial chore. She conversed
with him and did not see who he was.
We have sat with this woman through her
journey of discovery and witnessed her time-lapsed spiritual development. She
stood alone with the Savior and did not know him. He offered her eternal
life and salvation. He helped her to see what hindered the way of her
receiving and understanding. He gently explained and through he aid of the
Holy Ghost His identity and presence was revealed to her.
The Savior waited at the
well for the woman as she performed her daily menial chore. She conversed
with him and did not see who He was.
What keeps us from
recognizing the Savior when He is right before us?
Remember He is there
beside us in our everyday living.
And now I ask you this –
Was the woman who left
the well the same woman who came? Why? What changes did you see? Are
you different every time you take the sacrament? Attend the temple? Stand up
from your prayer? Serve your family? What healing takes place? Where is the
well that you go to find Jesus the Christ? What changes will you allow to be made in you?
You matter to Him! WE
are reminded of his love for each one of us when we read of his appearance to
the Nephites:
“And
it came to pass that the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his
side, and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and
this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone
forth” (3 Ne. 11:15;
emphasis added).
We
also read of the special blessing given to the precious children in chapter 17
verse 21: “And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare
record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and
blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them” (3 Ne. 17:21;
emphasis added).
You,
perhaps, have heard of this marvelous piece of art created 2 summers ago at our
stake girls camp, camp Joy. This was painted by the Young Women and the
leaders of our stake. Each sat down to paint a paint-by-number square. Each
square was obviously different and unrecognizable on its own.
We are all
women at the well. Seeking, sometimes, we "know not what."
Sometimes we must pass several wells to get to the "right" well! The
steps of our spiritual development are unique and personal yet clearly
universal. The Savior knows and loves us each of us. He will be by us in
our daily chores, in our alone and almost abandoned moments. In our
wilderness and in our homes. He wants us to know who He is and what His
living water can provide for us. He wants so much for us to understand.
He
offers us His love, His understanding, His assistance to feel our burdens
lightened that we may leave our heavy, worldly water pots at His feet and
joyously declare Him. He wants us to see and reveal our sins that they nay
be removed from us through His grand and powerful atonement and we may be
sanctified and exalted.
I know He is
there at our wells. May we see Him more clearly each day, until we too,
may call Him, Messiah!
2Ne 32:3-5 for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all
things what ye should do.
4 Wherefore,
now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be
because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not
brought into the light, but must perish in the dark.
5 For
behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive
the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.
6 Behold,
this is the doctrine of Christ,
D&C
50;24 24 That
which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light,
and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light
groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
