The Samaritan Woman is a story packed with undetected meaning (John 4). What we don’t get is her real plight. Through modern lenses, we see her as a mere five-time divorcee. We see her as very promiscuous and now in a “live-in relationship” with another man. For that day, her plight was one of male domination, banished without recourse by five husbands, living with a man who now provides for her in some limited way. She lives with being used, the social stigma of rejection, a literal outcast. So she goes to the well at noon when no one else is there to gaze and gossip. A large percentage of the world’s women are battered, used as house slaves, sex servants, beaten, put-down, rejected with no status nor standing. Jesus truly understands their plight and offers liberating Living Water!
“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.’” John 4:13-14 (NLT)
