The following post is adapted from Lesson 9 in our Bible study, Face to Face.
The gospels record many interactions between Jesus and women. Looking through our own cultural lens, this may seem unremarkable: Jesus just talked to people. But in Jesus’ world, men did not talk to women who were not their family members. The fact that the gospel writers often do not record the names of the women Jesus speaks to attests to their relative standing in society. Women at that time were typically considered to be the property of men—as they continue to be in many parts of the world.
In fact, a Jewish man could divorce his wife for simply speaking to another man on the street. In some countries today, men continue to view female family members as threats to their honor. This is because a woman who behaves badly according to the rules of their culture can bring great shame on the family. However, guarding women and girls so closely makes it difficult for even the most innocent among them to have a normal life or relationships.
This same restrictive culture was typical of the ancient Middle East. Jesus shocked his peers many times when he refused to let cultural attitudes toward women keep him form ministering to them, or inviting them to spread the gospel. In Christ, women have worth that goes beyond their sexual status.
Consider, for example, the unnamed woman whom Jesus encounters at a well in Samaria. His disciples have gone off to find lunch, but Jesus sits at the well, waiting for a divine appointment with someone no one would have expected. Though the Samaritan woman at the well goes unnamed by John, she does not go unnoticed by Jesus.
John 4: 7, 9
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (NRSV) (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. [ESV])
Jews and Samaritans hated each other. The Jews thought that Samaritan women were always ritually unclean and polluted (Massey, 1989.) It was especially important that such women not be allowed to touch drinking cups. But what does Jesus do? He asks the woman for a drink! No wonder the woman was surprised.
Continue with John 4: 16-18, 25-26
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “I know the Messiah is coming….When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
This woman’s “sexual history” would have made any Jewish man, especially a rabbi, flee from her in horror. It’s possible she struggled with shame and regret. Jesus was well aware of this. In fact, he made a point of bringing it up. Did his knowledge of her living conditions affect his willingness to speak with her? What does Jesus reveal to this woman?
Continue with John 4: 27
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman…”
In this culture, men and women did not talk in public, and even in private they had little to do with each other. Some men even ignored their own wives and daughters in public so that no one might suspect his women were behaving improperly. No wonder the disciples were shocked that Jesus freely engaged in conversation with a woman, let alone a Samaritan and one living with a man to whom she was not married. Jesus was and is radically inclusive to women.
The Samaritan woman returned to her village and became the first witness to Christ to the Samaritans. John 4:39-42 tells us that as a result of Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well, many people came to know the Lord.
While we don’t know her name, we know that Jesus saw her as a person of value and worth. She’s the first person to whom he directly revealed that he was the Messiah, and her conversation with Jesus turned her into an enthusiastic (and effective) evangelist. Jesus, by way of this conversation, rescues her from shame and gives her an amazing opportunity: to become a speaker of truth that set others free, and by that speaking, find herself set free as well.
Leave a comment: Why do you think Jesus spoke to this woman? Have you ever felt unnoticed? What feelings does the story of Jesus noticing this woman stir in you?