You are joining in the middle of a series of posts with excerpts from my book, “Who Do You Think You Are?” focusing on Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the water well (John 4:1-30).Read the first post
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"Now consider the Samaritan woman. Today she would be called a loser. She was seen as such by her community because she had been married five times and was considered immoral. To the Jews she was inferior because she was of mixed race, the wrong religion, a female, and to top it off, she was living an immoral life. She was “defective goods.” While she had been married many times, we do not know whether the immorality was her fault. Divorce law weighed heavily in favor of men, and some of her husbands may have just put her out of the house. Or maybe they were killed in battles. We do not know.
Regardless, the culture defined her as an outcast to be ignored and shunned. Consider her self-image. Who did she think she was? She must have felt pretty low. On a scale ranging from one to ten, she possibly felt a zero. She was used, abused, and alienated—just as so many women have been through the ages and still are around the world are today. Perhaps you identify closely with this woman.
The woman came to the well alone in the middle of the day, which was an unusual time to collect water. The well was a gathering place, a social hub. The women of the village would gather there in the mornings to retrieve their water for the day. But this Samaritan likely felt rejected by her peers and was trying to make do with life on the bottom rung of the social ladder by becoming invisible. So she went to the well when she was sure no one else would be there."
Regardless, the culture defined her as an outcast to be ignored and shunned. Consider her self-image. Who did she think she was? She must have felt pretty low. On a scale ranging from one to ten, she possibly felt a zero. She was used, abused, and alienated—just as so many women have been through the ages and still are around the world are today. Perhaps you identify closely with this woman.
The woman came to the well alone in the middle of the day, which was an unusual time to collect water. The well was a gathering place, a social hub. The women of the village would gather there in the mornings to retrieve their water for the day. But this Samaritan likely felt rejected by her peers and was trying to make do with life on the bottom rung of the social ladder by becoming invisible. So she went to the well when she was sure no one else would be there."
Stay tuned for the next post with more from “Who Do You Think You Are?”
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