Loneliness: The Woman at the Well Part 1

00:00:00 Speaker 1: But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John four fourteen. Dear Lord, we are thirsty and in need of refreshment to day. The world's troubles and the anxiety of every day life can take their toll, leaving us needy and parched. Would you refresh us with your spirit? Would you fill us to the brim with life, light, and love. We want to be so filled with your love and truth that others are refreshed by our presence. May our homes, work places, and families be filled with your spirit because we are near. In Jesus name, we pray Amen. Thank you for praying with me today. You're listening to the Jesus Podcast, Cinematic gospel stories that cut straight to the heart and transform our lives. This episode is for anyone who has felt the weight of shame or like an outcast. Listen and be swept away in the emotional story of the Woman at the Well. Follow this podcast on whatever platform you're listening to. Doing so will keep you updated, but also help us get discovered by more people. We want the story of Jesus to be known throughout the world. Thanks for making that possible. Zamaira wiped the sweat off her brow, cursing under her breath as she dragged her feet up the winding path to the well. The rod holding two empty jars ug into her neck as she submitted the hill. The sun's harsh rays were relentless and would only worsened as the day passed. She finally reached the well and leaned against its edge. She ran her hand through some of the water and pressed it against her neck. She sighed in relief and closed her eyes. The afternoons weren't kind to Samirah. Very few parts of life were. A few women from town were leaving with full jars on their heads. They glanced at Zamairah and scowled as they passed. Their eyes were like daggers cutting through Zamayrah's already fragile self esteem. 00:02:49 Speaker 2: Haven't seen you in a while, Zamirah, who's bed are you shedding lately? Does he keep you too busy in the morning to join the rest of us. 00:02:58 Speaker 1: Zamaira said nothing. She kept her head down and dabbed her neck with a wet cloth. These types of interactions were precisely why she avoided the well in the mornings. Usually most of the women were gone by this time of day. The women rolled their eyes and departed down the path, so Mayrah watched them leave. She thought about cursing them, She thought about crying. Instead, she clenched her jaw and buried it all, feeling nothing was better than wallowing and more shame. The heat mocked her. Her back was drenched in sweat and her legs ached from marching all day in the sun. Most women went to the well early in the morning to avoid the heat, but not Samirah. She marched noon, avoiding the judgment declares punishing her for her sins. 00:04:06 Speaker 2: It's what you deserve, she. 00:04:08 Speaker 1: Whispered to herself. Zamayra's self worth had eroded with each passing day. The sins she had committed and the sins committed against her had sanded down her dignity. She drew some water from the well into one of the jars, wishing the sun would melt her like wax so she would never have to return to the well again. Sin is like an infection. If it's not dealt with, it will only continue to grow and consume. Once we let sin in, its natural tendency is to spread. What starts as a small compromise leads to another large one. But the apostle John gives us hope in First John one eight. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our s he is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. The first step to eradicating sin in our lives is confessing it to the one who can heal us of it. 00:05:11 Speaker 3: This is the Jesus Podcast Gospel stories told with cinematic quality and careful reflection. I'm Zach your Hopes from pray dot Com, and I'm excited to be back with another story of how Jesus meets, cares for, and loves the outcast. What we will find in today's story is probably relatable to most of us. The pains of loneliness and the struggle to feel connected will be introduced to Zamira, better known as the Woman at the Well. In the heat of the day, Zumira goes to the city well to draw water for her daily needs. But unlike the other women who go to the well and the morning together, she decides to go alone in the heat of the afternoon. It's clear that while Zumira may have chosen to go alone, she never wanted a life of loneliness. Because of her life trapped in sin. She would rather separate herself from others than endure their mockery and judgment. Rather than fight it, she simply endures the words of hate, knowing that she has no arguments against them. But Samira will find herself quite surprised when Jesus stumbles upon her and strikes up a conversation with a simple request. As it often is with Jesus, there was much more he wanted to accomplish than just getting a drink from the well. 00:06:22 Speaker 4: Jesus, why are we leaving at noon? It's hotter than a camel wearing a wool. 00:06:27 Speaker 1: Coat, John whined. Jesus and the disciples walk the dusty path between Judea and Galilee. The sun's scorching rays chased them around each bend. 00:06:39 Speaker 4: It will take two days to reach Galilee at least. How about we stop in the nearby town and leave in the morning when it's a bit cooler. 00:06:49 Speaker 5: Ah, it won't take that long. John, we're going through Samaria. 00:06:53 Speaker 4: Jesus, no rabbi who cares about his reputation would dare walk through Samaria. 00:06:58 Speaker 5: It's a good thing. I don't care about my reputation. Then the Pharisees care about their reputations more than I do. That's why we're leaving Judea. They can only handle so much of my teachings at once. I'm leaving so they can cool off. Cooling off sounds nice, James teased. 00:07:18 Speaker 1: John fanned his older brother with his hand, smacking him in the face. The brothers shoved each other and laughed. They're concerned about going into Samaria was clouded by their hunger and fatigue. They descended the path into Samaria near a town called Sikar. The Disciples were wary of each merchant and traveler passing. The Jews hated the Samarians. They considered them half breeds, compromising, and untrustworthy. 00:07:51 Speaker 5: Rabbi, maybe we could retreat into town for food before continuing. You go ahead into town on your own. Someone I need to speak to. 00:08:02 Speaker 1: The Disciples departed into town. Each held their belongings close. They didn't trust the Samerians. None of them wanted to be there. They had much to learn about the ministry of grace. Jesus watched the disciples leave and summited a small hill leading to a well. They were too struck in their prejudice to recognize where they were. This wasn't just Samaria. It was a place of great significance. It was Jacob's Well, a sacred space in history where God met with the patriarchs of old. It was where Abraham came into Canaan. It was where God first appeared to Abraham and renewed his promise. It was where Jacob made his covenant with the Lord by building an altar. It was where the bones of Joseph were buried, and where Joshua made a covenant with Israel, renewing their commitment to God. It was a sacred space for sacred meetings. Jesus was eager to add to that list of holy meetings. Yet it wasn't a hero of faith he was after, but a lonely woman caught in a cycle of sin and shame. Jesus marched up the hill to the well. He smiled at the sun and shook his head. Jesus was the creator of the sun, yet scorched by its heat. Even though he was all powerful, he chose to submit himself to the every day hardship of existence. Sweaty and tired, he leaned against the edge of the well to catch his breath. Beside him was a woman drawing water into her play jars. She didn't look up at him or acknowledge his presence. She continued pouring with her head held low. Jesus glanced over at her and smiled. 00:10:18 Speaker 5: Shaloam, Hello, Would you be kind enough to draw me some water? 00:10:23 Speaker 1: The woman glared at him in confusion. The heat of the sun and her inner shame made manners difficult to muster. 00:10:32 Speaker 2: Aren't you a Jew? 00:10:33 Speaker 1: She scanned Jesus up and down. 00:10:35 Speaker 2: And it looks like you're some sort of rabbi. Why would you ask a Samaritan woman like me to give you a drink? Isn't it shameful to speak to a Samaritan woman? 00:10:45 Speaker 1: Zamairo was correct. Many Jewish rabbis of the time instructed their followers not to even help a Samaritan woman if she was giving birth on the side of the road. They boasted in their ambivalence, but not Jesus. Jesus chuckled and nodded his head in acknowledgment. With open palms. He replied, if you knew the gift of God and who you're speaking to, you would be asking me for water, living water. The woman rolled her eyes and looked at Jesus. 00:11:21 Speaker 2: Annoyed, Sir, you have nothing to draw from, and there isn't a river for miles. Where would you even get living water? 00:11:30 Speaker 1: Samirah didn't want to speak to anyone. She didn't know Jesus' angle or if this was all a setup to shame her even more. Her guard was up. She didn't realize she was like the well and Jesus was about to draw something out of her. Perceiving that Jesus was some sort of Rabbi Somyra's spoken terms, she thought would placate him. 00:11:59 Speaker 2: There's no living water here, sir, unless you think you're greater than our father Jacob. He dug this well and drank from it himself. His family and livestock drew water from this well, that. 00:12:11 Speaker 5: Is true, but they all had to come back here again to drink more. Day after day, week after week, month after month, they returned. Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again. They will have to return again and again to fill up their charms. Even in the heat of the day. 00:12:30 Speaker 1: Jesus had caught Somemyra's attention. He was speaking about her lived experience. Zamairah was tired of coming day after day to the well. She was tired of coming alone. She was tired of it all. The well may have been an historic landmark to the Jews, but to Zamirah there was a monument of her loneliness, hardship, and shame. Jesus eyes like a hawk's. 00:13:02 Speaker 5: Whoever drinks from this well will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirsty again. The water I give them will become a spring of water, like the rivers of Eden, bursting forth with eternal life. 00:13:20 Speaker 2: Sir, if this offer is true, give me this water so I won't get thirsty again. I have to come here daily to get water, and I'm sick of it. If I had the water you speak of, I wouldn't have to come here in the scorching heat. 00:13:35 Speaker 5: The offer is true, Go get your husband and return here so I can give it to both of you. 00:13:40 Speaker 1: When Jesus mentioned her husband. Everything changed. Zamira's hope retreated into a cold and dark place in her heart. The brief lightness she allowed to shine through her gaze disappeared, replaced with a calloused and impassive stare. 00:14:01 Speaker 2: I don't have a husband. 00:14:03 Speaker 5: Yes, yes, you're right, you don't have a husband. The fact of the matter is that you've had five husbands, and the man you're currently living with is not your husband at all. At least you've told the truth. 00:14:17 Speaker 1: Zamirah turned her shoulders away from Jesus. His words broke hardened ground, like a plow breaking up rocks to soften the soil. Somehow, this stranger knews Amira's past and present sins. She had a choice to face his statement's head on or ignore them. She chose the latter. 00:14:40 Speaker 2: I can see that you're a prophet. Since you're clearly a man of God, maybe you can settle a debate between you Jews and us Samaritans. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but the Jews claim that the true place of worship is in Jerusalem. Which place is better to worship? 00:14:58 Speaker 1: Zamirah employed attacked as old as time, avoiding the hard conversations of the heart, my engaging in a vapid religious debate. Jesus wouldn't bite. It doesn't matter, jesus response. Surprise, Amrah, Jesus refused to play her game. 00:15:21 Speaker 5: Believe me when I say a time is coming when people will worship the Father. Neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship in ignorance, for salvation comes from the Jews. But I'm telling you a time is coming and has now come, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Those are the worshippers the Father will seek out. It doesn't matter which hill they praise upon. God is spirit and his worshipers. They must worship in spirit and in truth. 00:15:58 Speaker 1: So Myra's throat claim, the thought of being able to worship anywhere, seems so foreign, yet so beautiful. Her connection to God had been severed. As of late. She had been made an outcast among the religious and faithful. She dared not enter the common gates of worship. She was too ashamed, too dirty. 00:16:24 Speaker 2: So you say, I know that the Messiah is coming soon, and when he comes, all these debates will be settled. He'll explain everything. 00:16:33 Speaker 1: To us Jesus looked at Zemirah for a long time. For a brief moment, a gentle breeze whistled through the arid valley. It was a pleasant balm to the sun's scorched faces. Jesus's eyes shone with a wisdom brighter than the sun above them. With the same voice that spoke life and light into the chaotic void, Jesus declared, I the one speaking to you, am. 00:17:06 Speaker 3: He The woman at the well is one of the most well known encounters Jesus has with an outcast. What starts as a seemingly nonchalant moment of Jesus looking for a respite from the day's heat and traveling quickly turns into one of the most pivotal moments in his ministry. When Jesus hears that he's gaining unfavorable notice from the Pharisees in Judea, he and his disciples begin the journey back to Galilee. To his disciple surprise, Jesus chooses to go the most direct route through Samaria. For centuries, the Jews had grown to despise the Samaritans, viewing them as half breeds who had integrated and expanded as a people with yon Jews. Their disdain for Samaritans went so far that when the need to travel through the area rose, they would take the longer route crossing the Jordan River rather than stoop so low to be seen in a Samaritan village and associated with the people. Imagine you're from California going to Texas, and you hate the people from Arizona so much you're willing to go up and through the rocky mountains to avoid them. Suffice it to say it was expected that Jews would avoid any interaction with Samaritans. Yet as the Disciples go into town to find food, here's Jesus intentionally addressing a woman at the well. While it may not seem like much at first, even Jesus's opening request would cause alarm for the people of his day. Not only was he talking to a woman and a Samaritan, he was asking her for a favor a drink of water, because he had nothing to draw from the well and no vessel to drink from. The implication is that he was willing to drink from one of her cups. But it was understood by any good Jew that you wouldn't even share a dish with a Samaritan. But Jesus didn't play by the same rules as others. Jesus knew the heart of the Father and understood that man made religiosity rarely accomplished anything good, almost always impeded the work of the Father. One of the main things it hindered was his determination to reach people, especially the lost and the lonely of the world. So it's not surprising that Jesus would not only be willing to talk with Zamirah, but purposefully put himself in a situation that allowed him to do so. Zamira had found herself deep in her sin, pulling her away from any sense of meaningful help or community. This is the natural inclination many people have when they're faced with their sin. We even see this with the original sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Enion in Genesis three. After they sin against God by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their immediate instinct is to hide from God, to pull away from the community they once shared with him. While they couldn't escape him, they removed themselves from his presence out of shame, and this is the pattern that we can often find ourselves in. We sin, we draw back, we sin again, we draw back some more, and this continues until we find ourselves isolated and alone from everyone. Being stuck in our feelings of worth lessness can be one of the loneliest places we find ourselves in. We can be surrounded by the largest of crowds yet still feel completely unseen and unknown, And oftentimes, when we fall into a deep or long enough pattern of sin, we trick ourselves into thinking we don't deserve a break. We convince ourselves that our consequence should be to be stuck in that place forever, creating an endless cycle to just continue the pattern loneliness. Birds from this place can be a nasty struggle. Once we feel separated from others, it can be both hard to try and build relationships as well as feel like the efforts to connect are actually genuine. We see this with Zamira. She doesn't actually believe Jesus wants to have a conversation with her. For years, she's put up walls around herself to protect herself from the words of others, and as soon as someone genuinely comes along to have a pleasant conversation with her, she puts her guard up. And the gentle words of Jesus hit her ears for the first time, and they more sting than soothe. The time sense, it's easier for us to be lonely than find ways to change our loneliness. Relationships in any form can be difficult to find, grow, and maintain, so we often learn to settle for life on our own. While life alone may be easier in many senses, it certainly isn't better for us. Christ came to break us from cycles of sin and loneliness, and he sets us on a new path down a road of redemption if we allow him to, just as he did for this woman at the well. We were created to be in community, community with God, community with others, but it requires that we take leaps of faith. It requires that we're willing to change. It requires some level of openness. It calls us to trust in Him and confess that we need to be saved from our sins. It demands that we learn to be vulnerable with others and invest in building strong relationships. It sounds complicated at first, but over time we'll find that living and submission to Christ and building community with others is less daunting than we may have thought. Initially. The more or are we invest in these relationships, the easier they tend to become, and the more joy we find in them. My wife and I were once new to the city without any friends and deep relationships. My wife and I were new to the city of Santa Barbara, California, without any friends or deep and meaningful relationships. On top of that, we were new parents in the midst of covid. For a while, it was easier to fold into ourselves and isolate, but eventually we felt a deep need for community. This need sparked action in us. We chose to be vulnerable and reach out to people. We chose to be uncomfortable and hosted others in our home. We decided that the strenuous and awkward effort of building community was actually worth it, because the pain of isolation was worse than the pain of reaching out. It's refreshing to feel known, but it doesn't come without a need for change and effort. Something extraordinary about our relationship with Jesus is that he can relate to us on every human level because he chose to become like us. He entered into humanity to experience life in the say ways we do This means that he can understand our loneliness beyond our intellectual level. He has experienced it just as we have and wants to take those feelings from us, so much so that he calls us to be his friends, people he cares for, people he wants to be around, people he loves with the most profound sense of love. For Zamira, no doubt, all of these marriages and relationships in her life were a result of loneliness, the result of this need for connection, this need for love. But what we look for in the world can only be found in Jesus, truly. The story of the Woman at the Well is a key point in Jesus's ministry, as this is what he does for all of us. We find ourselves caught in cycles of sin and loneliness, but Jesus is going to draw it out, just like water from a well. If you're feeling trapped in sin or loneliness, know that Jesus sees you, he loves you, and he wants you. If you put your faith in him today, you'll belong to him forevermore. Join us in our next episode as we conclude this story of the Woman at the Well and we find that Zamira is empowered for a mission ahead.