Why Jesus Meets You in Your Mess: The Woman at the Well and the Power of Honest Conversations
What if the very thing you’re most ashamed of is the place where Jesus wants to meet you? This was true for the woman at the well.
John 4:1-26
When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), he left Judea and went again to Galilee. He had to travel through Samaria; so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
“Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.
“How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”
“Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”
Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”
“Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”
“Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.”
“I don’t have a husband,” she answered.
“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”
he woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”
Let’s step into the context of this conversation. This woman had a past. There is no denying that. She came to the well at the hottest hour of the day to avoid people, but instead, she found someone who truly saw her for the first time. Jesus was not ashamed of her. When Jesus stopped to talk with the woman at the well, He wasn’t just breaking social rules—He was showing us how far grace will go to meet us. See, it was unusual for a Jewish man to initiate conversation with an unknown woman. But a Jewish teacher was not expected to converse with a woman. Jesus was violating the social norms.
In a world that demands perfection, Jesus chooses to show up in the messiest corners of our lives—just like He did for the Samaritan woman. In this piece of scripture, we see Jesus doing two simple things:
Jesus provided a space for the woman to be safe, honest, and unashamed.
Jesus was honest about His identity–with a woman–a Samaritan woman.
This helps us to feel safe as well. What is that thing you are ashamed of? What is that secret you hide from everyone? What does it look like to be honest with God about this?
Here at The Ravens Collective, we want to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We want to provide a space for all to be honest and unashamed. We want to be honest about Jesus’ identity and who He is to you.
Jesus is not ashamed of our past, our secrets, or our messes. He does want us to feel safe enough to be honest with ourselves and with Him. He wants us to trust Him. He want us to open our hearts. Not because He is nosy. But because He loves us and has more than we imagine set out for us.
Where can we be honest with the Lord and let Him in?
