Woman at the Well

*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. 

John chapter 4 vs 3-4

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 6^th 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.