What Did Jesus See and Not See in the Samaritan Woman?
6 Life Changing Observations
How do you see people? What do you pay attention to as you interact with others? In what ways do you respond to either the story of others or your perceived sense of their story? In recent days, issues of compassion, sympathy, and empathy have all been part of the larger conversation among those who seek to care for others. In this regard, Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman helps us. In today’s blog, we answer the question, “What did Jesus see and not see in the Samaritan woman?” Here we find six life changing observations.
What Jesus Did Not See
When Jesus interacted with the Samaritan woman, he did not see several things.
Jesus did not see her race.
Jews hated Samaritans. A Samaritan was a descendant from interracial marriage between the Assyrians and Jews during the captivity. As such, hatred grew between the Samaritans and the Jews. Literally, Jews hated Samaritans; Samaritans hated Jews. In the John 4 story, the disciples were shocked to see Jesus talking to this lady. She was shocked as well.
Yet, Jesus purposefully chose to walk through Samaria. On his journey from Judea after his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus told the disciples, He needed to go through Samaria. At Jacob’s well outside Sychar, the disciples went into the town to get food. Jesus sat down at Jacob’s well. While sitting there at noon, this Samaritan woman walks us to get water.
Jesus asked her for water and her response demonstrates the interracial issue: “’How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9).
Yet, Jesus did not allow her race or prejudice or racism to affect His gospel engagment.
Jesus did not see her gender.
In that day, women were seen as barely much more than a slave. Men did not respect them in any way. A woman did not have any voting rights, ownership rights, or hardly any rights at all. You can see what people thought when the disciples returned.
And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” (John 4:27)
Instead, Jesus looked passed the common, cultural way of viewing a woman. Instead, Jesus began a conversation with the lady related to the gospel. Although the culture would not have anything to do with a woman, Jesus spoke to her and compassionately engaged her in conversation – much like He did women throughout His public ministry.
Yet, Jesus did not allow the cultural view of a woman to affect His gospel engagment.
Jesus did not see her sin.
This woman came to the well at noon. In that day, women came as a group in the morning and in the evening. The fact she was there to draw water in the hottest part of the day and was alone suggests that she was an outcast. When reading the story, we do not know why she is an outcast, but Jesus knew.
Jesus told her she needed to get living water from Him. Notice this part of the conversation:
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” (John 4:15-18)
Jesus knew that she had had five husbands and was cohabitating with a sixth. This lady functionally, if not literally, was a prostitute.
Yet, Jesus did not allow her sin to affect His gospel engagement.
Jesus did not see her heresy.
As a Samaritan, this woman rejected all but the Pentateuch, in fact they would often refer to it as the Samaritan Pentateuch. They rejected all of the prophets. Instead, they believed that Mount Gerizim was the holy mountain – even the original Garden of Eden.
Jesus chose to introduce her to something greater than simply her own religion or the Jewish take on worship at the time. Jesus explained that God was calling all people to worship Him in Spirit and truth.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21-24)
Understanding her incorrect and inaccurate theology, Jesus pointed her a different way.
Yet, again, Jesus did not allow her heretical view of worship to affect His gospel engagment.
What Jesus Did See
Although Jesus did not see several things, He did see something noteworthy.
Jesus saw she was in the image of God.
Jesus simply saw a person in the image of God who needed the Living Water that He had to offer. She was on a collision course with hell through her own self-condemnation of having not believed in Jesus. Therefore, He offered her His living water. He gave her the best He had to offer. As an fallen image bearer, who was also a sinner, heretic, Samaritan woman, Jesus shared the hope of eternity.
Jesus saw her as part of the fields ripe unto harvest.
When the disciples returned from buying food, they wondered why Jesus was talking to this woman. Even when they offered Him food, He turned them down because He was not hungry. Notice how He interacts with His disciples:
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” (John 4:34-38)
Jesus understood she was part of a spiritual field that was ripe unto harvest. Jesus saw the situation for what it truly was.
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