Waiting at the Well

I find the story of the woman at the well in John 4 to be one of the most touching stories of the entire Bible. Jesus had told His disciples that they needed to go to Galilee. The way He chose to get there was through Samaria. Samaria in that time was dangerous for Jews. The Samaritans and the Jews did not like each other. This dated way back to Old Testament times.

Yet there Jesus sits. He’d told His apostles to go into the town to find food and He sat down alone at Jacob’s Well. And He waited. Soon a lone woman approached the well, water jar in her arms, to draw water. It was later in the day and she’d chosen this time deliberately. The other women of the town usually gathered at the well earlier in the day, all together, drawing up water, talking and gossiping and interacting. She did not belong with these other women – she knew it and they knew it. They gossiped about her, stared at her, probably laughed at her. She was an immoral woman, a scourge, not to be associated with. Rather than endure this misery she chose to go to the well after the other women had left.

This time she saw she was not alone. To her surprise the Man sitting at the well began speaking to her, asking for water, although He clearly had nothing to put the water into. Jesus continued to talk to her, drawing her out. He spoke to her of things He’s speaking to us about today – hope, freedom, love, God. He caught her attention.

This woman was broken – hurt by others, isolated by her choices, empty and lonely. She’d been seeking love for many years in the wrong people. She’d been married five times and was currently living with a man not her husband. She lived her life in hiding from the others who talked about her. She was settling for an inferior form of love, never considering she’d ever deserve anything better.

When Jesus offered to give her water that would last forever so she’d never thirst again, she mistakenly believed He was offering to change her circumstances, provide her a lasting source of water so she’d never have to go to that well again, never have to choose between hiding from others’ cruelty, or going when the others went, enduring their open mockery. To her, this was the best Jesus could offer – a change in her circumstances so she’d never again have to see those who hurt her. Jesus wasn’t offering this. He was offering much, much more.

When He told her about her own life, her fruitless search for love, her sin, He wasn’t being cruel. He was showing her who He was – the Messiah who knew her long before she’d met Him, the El Roi who saw her every moment of her life, the Christ who saw and knew and loved anyway.

This immoral, broken woman actually became an evangelist for Jesus. She was also the first person He chose to reveal His identity to. And this conversation changed her so much she actually ran into town, to the very people she’d spent her time and efforts avoiding, to spread the news of this Messiah.

Jesus’ priority with this woman, as with us, was NOT changing her circumstances. In fact, what He wanted had nothing to do with anyone else, not even His apostles were welcomed into this conversation. It was only Jesus and the woman. His goal had nothing to do with scheduling well time. He wanted to change HER, heal HER, transform HER. By changing her first, giving her love she’d never had, freedom she’d never had, and hope she’d never had, He changed her circumstances. Our inner change leads to outer change.

When we’re going through trials, in situations that hurt us, with broken relationships cutting us with their sharp edges, we want Jesus to change it all. We want our pain to end, our prodigals to return, our days and nights to stop being so lonely. When this doesn’t happen, we assume He doesn’t want to help us, either because He doesn’t care or doesn’t want us to have whatever we’re praying for. Then we begin the process of giving up. And all the time what Jesus is trying to do is meet us at our well, at our place of pain, drawing us to Himself, just Him and us, to talk to us, to offer us better than what we’re praying for, transform us, to reveal Himself to us. If we allow Him to make those changes in us, we’ll see our circumstances start to change. Our focus becomes Him, not our circumstances and THEN the circumstances begin to change.

Had Jesus only changed her circumstances, only offering her what she thought He was offering, her life would’ve stayed the same. She still would’ve lived in sin, she still would’ve been an outcast, she still would’ve sought love in unloving people, she still would’ve had her hopelessness and emptiness. She just wouldn’t have had to face the women at the well anymore. She would’ve been satisfied with that. But Jesus was NOT satisfied with offering only surface change, He wanted to change EVERYTHING for her. And if He were to only change OUR circumstances – bring our prodigals home, heal those relationships, fix those money problems, stop the pain – we’d still be the same person dealing with the same issues and probably end up responding in the same ways again. Jesus doesn’t want that for us. He wants to change US, inside. THAT change will then lead to other changes.

We must let our moments at the well change us, transform us, mature us, steady us, strengthen us. The well represented this woman’s pain. Jesus made it into a place of miraculous transformation. Let Him do that for you at your place of pain. Then watch the changes come.

God bless,

Andrea in Arizona