In the 4th Chapter of John, we find [an obviously] very broken woman who turned out to be the first Evangelical, who led many people to Christ as the story goes on.
You know this story as the “Woman at the Well” and I believe Christ designed the interaction with her as it shows us hope as to how we can reach other people with Christ.
We can see many things going on as we read the Story. This woman was likely shunned by her fellow city-dwellers in Samaria. As the verses say, it was about the 6th hour, in the heat of the day and since it was at that time she was likely avoiding the other woman who came to draw water from the well. And, as we know from further study of the text, that she had failed at 5 marriages and was living with a man now, as a man could simply write a certificate of divorce in those days. She had failed in her past relationships---hardly one who would be someone to proclaim Christ as the Promised Messiah.
Yet, Christ asked her for a drink of water, and she responds thusly:
John 4:9
9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
You can almost feel the low station in life that she has accepted. But then, she was sufficiently humbled, as Christ knew her heart.
And then Christ gets her curiosity aroused as He of course talks about the living water that He gives. She then answers:
John 4:15
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw
And then He gets to the truth about her with this question:
John 4:16
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.
She tell Him “she has no husband” and Jesus goes on to say this:
John 4:17-18
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
She perceived He is a prophet and Jesus corrects her and directs the conversation to the Promised Messiah and then He simple says this:
John 4:26
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
The disciples come back and “they marveled that He talked to a woman” while she rushes off to proclaim to the men of her city, with the question “Could this be the Christ?”
I can imagine the excitement in her words as the text goes on to say after they followed her to meet Him
John 4:39
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”
From this woman’s example we can see the effective witnessing that she did. Her sins of the past were an open book and because of them she was sufficiently humbled to receive the True Christ and then Proclaim Him.
We should do no differently when we Proclaim the Christ, Who we have our Faith in,
You know this story as the “Woman at the Well” and I believe Christ designed the interaction with her as it shows us hope as to how we can reach other people with Christ.
We can see many things going on as we read the Story. This woman was likely shunned by her fellow city-dwellers in Samaria. As the verses say, it was about the 6th hour, in the heat of the day and since it was at that time she was likely avoiding the other woman who came to draw water from the well. And, as we know from further study of the text, that she had failed at 5 marriages and was living with a man now, as a man could simply write a certificate of divorce in those days. She had failed in her past relationships---hardly one who would be someone to proclaim Christ as the Promised Messiah.
Yet, Christ asked her for a drink of water, and she responds thusly:
John 4:9
9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
You can almost feel the low station in life that she has accepted. But then, she was sufficiently humbled, as Christ knew her heart.
And then Christ gets her curiosity aroused as He of course talks about the living water that He gives. She then answers:
John 4:15
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw
And then He gets to the truth about her with this question:
John 4:16
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.
She tell Him “she has no husband” and Jesus goes on to say this:
John 4:17-18
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
She perceived He is a prophet and Jesus corrects her and directs the conversation to the Promised Messiah and then He simple says this:
John 4:26
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
The disciples come back and “they marveled that He talked to a woman” while she rushes off to proclaim to the men of her city, with the question “Could this be the Christ?”
I can imagine the excitement in her words as the text goes on to say after they followed her to meet Him
John 4:39
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”
From this woman’s example we can see the effective witnessing that she did. Her sins of the past were an open book and because of them she was sufficiently humbled to receive the True Christ and then Proclaim Him.
We should do no differently when we Proclaim the Christ, Who we have our Faith in,
