No Condemnation for the Woman at the Well!

Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. John 4:5-10.

Jesus loved sinners and had no problem letting them know that He loved them. Take the Samaritan woman at the well, for example. In Jesus’s day, under the Mosaic Law, it would be wrong for a holy, righteous rabbi to have anything to do with a Samaritan. Why? Because Samaritans were outside the Mosaic Covenant and were considered “unclean.”

I had a brief experience with this while living in an Orthodox Jewish area in the UK. My husband and I purchased a double stroller (pushchair) from a Hassidic Jewish man, and he refused to look at me or talk to me – he would only deal with my husband. I thought this strange and was a little baffled by his behavior, since I was the one who would be pushing the stroller most of the time! It was only later that I discovered his position that I was an unclean Gentile woman who could defile him with my sin. My friends and I also experienced these strict Jewish men crossing the street to avoid contact with us. I have to admit at the time I thought it a little silly, but now after studying the Word, I understand what was going on. I’m sure these men meant me no harm and would never intentionally desire to hurt me, but that’s what strict adherence to the law does - its hardness bruises and wounds people and makes them feel unloved.

This Samaritan woman was no stranger to the hardness of the law. She knew Jewish men couldn’t have contact with her, and yet Jesus, a Jewish man, asked for a drink of water. This must have astonished her, especially with Him being a rabbi and willing to break the Law (gasp) by taking a drink of water from her hand. That’s why she responded with dismay, quoting the law back to Him. It was not proper or lawful for Jews to have anything to do with Samaritans.

But Jesus is above the law, since He operates in mercy, compassion, and grace. By simply asking for a cup of water, He did something no other Jewish man would do - He recognized her as a person worthy to serve Him. He desired something from her and did not consider her unworthy to fulfill His request. Isn’t that a wonderful act of love?

After she gave Him the drink, He asked about her husband and she answered truthfully that she had no husband. I love how Jesus praised her for being honest. But then He dug further and revealed a word of knowledge regarding her marital history. The full truth was she had had five husbands and the man she was currently living with was NOT her husband. Ouch! And yet a deeper astonishment at this man; He, being a Jew, KNEW she was a Samaritan and KNEW she was a terrible sinner, and STILL He asked for a drink from her hand! And then on top of that, He gave her something very important: spiritual revelation that He was the Messiah who came to pour out living water!

Jesus was like no other Jewish man of whom she had ever seen or heard. He was a man of mercy, love, and compassion and did not condemn her for her sins. She was so excited that she became the first evangelist and went throughout her entire village telling everyone about this unusual and wonderful man. She wanted more than anything for others to come and meet the one who told her everything about her life and examine for themselves whether He was the promised Messiah. 

Based on her joyful response, I can only assume Jesus discussed more intimate things about her past and ministered emotional healing, but the Holy Spirit has not recorded these details for us in the Word. But we get the picture – this woman felt loved, not condemned. She felt forgiven, not damned to Hell. She had come face to face with Love, Truth and Grace! She had come face to face with Jesus, with the Heavenly Father!

Have you HEARD of Jesus?

And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? Mark 5:25-30.

I love this story of the woman who suffered a female bleeding disorder for twelve years but had the audacity to believe her condition would not disqualify her from being healed. In biblical times, under the Mosaic Law, this woman could have been stoned for pressing into a crowd of supposed righteous people and infecting them with her spiritual and physical uncleanness. And then to make matters worse, she had the nerve to touch a holy rabbi! In their minds, she suffered because of some undisclosed, secret sin or generational curse. Doctors would never be able to heal her, and no amount of money could buy her out of her situation – she was doomed to suffer until she atoned for her obvious sin. What self-righteous Jewish man would ever marry her? She certainly would never be able to bear children. She was a rejected outcast who many feared because her “uncleanness” might be catching. What a horrible fate!

Like the Jews of her day, many of us Christians sitting in denominational churches have been told time and again by many well-meaning pastors and bible study teachers that we, like this woman, must first become “clean” before we can approach a holy God. They say we must confess our myriad sins first and “get right” with God before we could ever approach His holy presence to ask for healing. Just recently, my husband accompanied me to a local healing service, but when he came forward for prayer, he was told he could not be healed because he had unforgiven sin, unconfessed sin, and unforgiveness toward others! If these prayors had lived in this woman’s day, I’m sure they would have strong-armed her to the ground and given her a good lecture on sin before she had a chance to defile the righteous Jesus. When are we Christians going to wake up and reject this kind of teaching?

Answer: like this woman, it will be when we hear about Jesus! But don’t we hear about Jesus every week at church? I don’t know – do you? What do you think this poor woman heard about Jesus? Did she hear that He made everyone confess their sins and go through a long forgiveness list before receiving healing? Did she believe she had to be perfect before approaching Him? She was certainly imperfect for breaking the law by even being in public, much less touching the hem of a holy rabbi’s garment. No, she must have heard about a different Jesus, a Jesus who had mercy and compassion and went about healing all those afflicted by the devil, because God was with Him. (Acts 10:38).

She KNEW He would heal her because of all the good things she had heard about Him – healing the leprous man, the man born blind, casting out a legion of devils out of the mad man who lived in the catacombs of Gadara. In fact, she had so much faith in Jesus’s power to heal that she merely said to herself, “If I can just touch His clothes, I shall be well.” She risked the public scrutiny of her fellow Jews, the chance that she might be kicked and spit upon, that she might be chastised and forever expelled from the synagogue, that they might pick up stones and kill her for making a public profession that what Jesus presented was TRUTH and what she had been taught for years was a lie. Her persistence in pressing through for healing was a public profession of faith that He could and would do what the law could not and never would be able to do.

Fortunately for us, her story has been preserved in the Word as a lesson for us. Jesus warned us not to be deceived in the last days. There will be many false teachings in our midst, telling us that our sins are our problem, when He took all our sins away 2000 years ago on the cross! If this sweet Jewish woman was instantly healed by her dogged faith that enabled her to take from Jesus, how much more should we who are born again IN HIM after the cross and the resurrection press in and likewise take our healing? Selah – think about it!