The woman at the well had many secrets.
Just like me.
Maybe just like you.
Little did she know that when she met Jesus, everything would change.
He would not only look at her, but He would also see through her, into her very soul, and He would tell her “everything she ever did.”
John 4 makes a point of saying, twice, that Jesus “told her everything she did,” yet she believed in Him. Not only did she believe, but she went back to her hometown and told others about Him.
But before she went, John 4:28 states that “leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town…”
She had brought that jar to the well in the middle of the day, when others would not be present, because she was an outcast, looked down on by so many, due to being immoral, having had five husbands and now living with a man who was not her husband.
I can relate. Not because I have had five husbands (I have had two), but because I have lived immorally, both before coming to Christ and after coming to Christ. And I have lived with the shame. I have kept secrets, forgetting that my Lord knows it all, knew it all, before He chose me.
What did that jar represent in her life? Was it simply a vessel that held water? Or was it a reminder of the shame that she carried with her each and every day to that well, not in the morning or the evening when other women were there. But in the heat of the day. Alone.
I never thought of this until today while studying John. I’ve read this passage dozens of times, I’ve heard it preached in many sermons. John was the first book of the Bible I ever read. It has a special place in my heart. But today is the first time I really thought about what the jar represented in her life and how willingly she let it go for something better. Someone better.
Not only did she shed the shame, but the water she had gone to draw was suddenly less important. She had met “the living water,” the long-awaited Messiah. The one who should not even be speaking to a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman. Jesus was — and is — in the business of breaking down barriers and shaking things up.
While he did not sugarcoat her sin, he did not dwell there because He knew her heart. Today as I studied there was a question in the study guide asking how it feels to know that God can see inside me to my innermost being? I answered that I am grateful because he sees it all; he knows my intentions, my motives and my heart. A lot of the time, this is good. It is especially good because I need Him to be my defender. He is the only One who can judge, the only One who is all-knowing.
I am a person who has lived with loads of regret. But God has been freeing me, one pile at a time. His grace is wasted if I refuse to grab hold of it, his death in vain if I am unwilling to accept forgiveness and forgive myself.
What about you? What are you holding onto that Jesus already set you free from?
Maybe you, like me, need to put your jar down. And run to tell others of the One who has told us everything we ever did.
There is something powerful about the woman at the well. Jesus knew her whole story—the wounds, the failures, the secrets—and He still met her with grace. He didn’t allow her past to have the final word. That speaks deeply to me because I’ve learned that our scars can become part of the story God uses to bring hope to someone else. Thank you for sharing this so honestly.
I love how you coupled her leaving her shame behind as she left her jar. What a powerful picture! Often times I think we convince ourselves that we have to approach God in a certain way. Put our best foot forward. But He wants all of us, all the time…especially our messes. As you said, He knows it all (makes me think of Psalm 139), and pursues us so we can have freedom in Him. Thank you for as sharing this, Erin. God is so good. 🫶