Re-imagining John 4: Jesus and Women
I continually hear people questioning the validity of women serving in ministry positions. Some comment that Jesus did not appoint women as disciples. Mainly, they quote a couple of verses from Paul that are out of context. If Jesus had considered women as ineligible and unworthy of positions of ministry, we should expect that to show through in his practice of ministry. We should expect the gospels to describe Jesus interacting with people in a manner consistent with God's design for the church. Let's start with a review of what John 4 should have looked like according to many perspectives on women across the centuries of human and church history....
4:5 In Samaria Jesus came to the town called Sychar, which is near the field Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his long trip, so he sat down beside the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water, Jesus was thirsty, so before she could taint the water with a jar she had touched, he removed his outer clothing and lowered it into the well to bring it up wet and drink from it. 8(This happened while Jesus’ followers were in town buying some food.)
9 The woman said nothing, as men and women did not speak to one another in public, any more than Jews and Samaritans spoke to one another.
10 Jesus said to himself, “If only this were a man, I might explain God's willingness to grant life, but she is doubly unworthy to hear, since she is a woman and also a Samaritan. I would be wasting my breath, as she is unfit to carry God's message of grace to others.”
[No conversation about living water.]
16 Jesus did not speak to her, though he knew what she was thinking.
[No conversation about Jews versus Samaritans or the woman's background.]
27 His followers came back from town and found him near the woman. They said nothing, for the woman was not worthy of their notice.
[No conversation about the woman calling the town out to meet Jesus.]
31 His followers were begging him, “Teacher, eat something.”
32 Jesus answered, “Thank you, I am famished.”
33 So the followers broke bread with him.
34 Jesus said, “My food is to do what the One who sent me wants me to do and to finish his work. 35 You have a saying, ‘Four more months till harvest.’ But I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields ready for harvest now, but they are filled with weeds. 36 Already, the one who harvests is being paid and is gathering crops for eternal life. We must hurry and find those who are worthy of the message of redemption and prepare them for the day of the harvest. Only then may the one who plants and the one who harvests celebrate at the same time. 37 Here the saying is true, ‘One person plants, and another harvests.’ 38 I sent you to harvest a crop that you did not work on. Others did the work, and you get to finish up their work.”
39 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Did you find any worthy males who would believe the message of God's redemption?” 40 They responded, saying, “There were only Samaritans in the town. 41 And Jesus and his disciples hurried on that they might reach others among the Jews.
[Nothing about Jesus staying in Sychar to teach the people.](1)
This is hardly John's well-known regarding Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well. It might as well have been, if we were to accept how so many look upon women today. We but fail to see how far Jesus went in breaking social taboos regarding women in his midst.
A Jew would never have spoken to a woman in Jesus' day. Jesus broke that taboo wide open. John records his disciples being uncomfortable with Jesus' encounter with this Samaritan woman. They were too out of sorts to ask him about it, so they spoke of food. Jesus took the initiative to address what he considered more important.
As a result of Jesus' conversation with the woman, here is what did happen. They discussed other taboos Jesus was breaking. He broke through barriers of men speaking with women. He broke barriers of Jews speaking with Samaritans. He broke barriers of considering classes of people unworthy of God's grace and access to the gospel. He broke barriers of who was worthy to carry the message of the gospel to others.
The disciples had gone into town seeking food. As disciples, they had a higher mission to accomplish. That mission had been neglected due to the social taboos regarding interactions between Jews and Samaritans. While they reduced their current mission to buy food, Jesus considered their more important mission was to share the grace of God with others. While the disciples failed in their mission, Jesus commissioned this woman with the essence of the gospel.
In her unworthiness, in her lack of standing as a woman, in her status as a Samaritan, as a woman of ill repute, she ran back into town, leaving behind her water jar. She became Jesus' emissary, disciple, evangelist, who bore the message of Messiah, bringing the whole town out to meet Jesus. She accomplished what the disciples never considered. She accepted that Jesus' gospel could reach past social taboos to offer grace to one such as her. Not only that, but she accepted that if grace were for her it also commissioned her with that same message for others.
She did not ask permission. She did not request special anointing from Jesus. She did not ask if she were allowed to tell the town what Jesus had just communicated to her. She simply ran to share her story.
Jesus did not stop her. Jesus did not reprimand her upon her return. Jesus placed no impediment in her path. He well knew where she was going and what she was about to do. He did not hinder her in the least. On the other hand, her actions were a direct affront to the disciples. It had been their responsibility to think of more than their hunger upon entering Sychar. They had allowed cultural and social taboos to dictate their actions, rather than the message Jesus had been teaching them.
John chapter 4 is about so much more than living water. It is about so much more than Jews and Samaritans before the gospel of grace. It is also about breaking social taboos and placing them in subjection to the good news that under Christ Jesus we are all equal--we are all loved. There is no distinction to be made in Christ between Jew and Samaritan, male and female, worthy and unworthy, clean and unclean, slave and free, ordained and non-ordained, commissioned and non-commissioned. Social distinctions as these fall by the wayside under the gospel of Christ Jesus.
The gospel is not about our special standing before God. It declares God looking upon us without the social distinctions and taboos we so consistently bring to the table. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Communist, white, black, yellow, red, documented, undocumented, felon, miscreant, white collar, blue collar, educated, uneducated, literate, illiterate, tattooed, native, immigrant, bearded, shaven, homeless, unkempt, criminal, addicted, gender identity, sexual orientation, rich, or poor make absolutely no difference before the gospel of God in Christ Jesus.
Jesus came to share grace with us all. In the process of granting us grace, we are likewise commissioned to share grace with others. We are all under the same commission, to make disciples of all we encounter.
—Christopher B. Harbin
1 Based off the text of John 4:1-42 in The Everyday Bible: New Century Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2005, grossly and imaginatively edited.
© Copyright 2015, 2023 Christopher B. Harbin
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