There have many times in my life when I felt like an outcast. I wasn’t doing what everyone else was doing. I wasn’t wearing what everyone else was wearing. I wasn’t watching what everyone else was watching. Sometimes, I’ve been glad for this. I’ve been happy to stand out and stand up for my principles and beliefs. Other times, I’ve resented this. I just wanted to fit in with my friends and peers, and I felt judged and excluded for being different. Whether I felt my outcast identity was good or bad in the moment, it pretty much always has left me feeling lonely. Life is hard, and it’s even harder when you’re doing it alone, without the help and encouragement of someone else who’s been in the same boat.
If we’re being honest, we’ve probably all felt like outcasts at some point or another, each of us experiencing varying degrees of loneliness, judgment, and exclusion. But in the book of John, Jesus comes upon a woman who was likely far more alone, far more judged, and far more excluded than we could ever imagine. And He met her in a city of Samaria.
Jesus had been journeying with His disciples from Judea to Galilee. The journey was long, and Jesus grew weary. Around noon (the hottest time of the day), the disciples went into the city to buy food while Jesus sat next to a well. While He was sitting there, a woman came out from her home to draw water at the well, and Jesus asked her for a drink (John 4:3-7).
“The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)” John 4:8, ESV
In this verse, we can already see two reasons why this woman was seen as an outcast in her society. First, she was a woman. In this culture, women were often looked down upon. This is made obvious later in the chapter when the disciples marvel at the fact that Jesus was speaking to a woman (John 4:27). Women then didn’t have the same rights and privileges that we have in the western world today. They couldn’t work or provide for themselves. They weren’t seen as reliable witnesses. And God forbid they be unable to conceive! It would have been shocking for Jesus, a man, to speak to her, a woman. But He drew near.
Second, this woman was a Samaritan. As we saw in the verse above, Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Why was this? Samaritans were the descendants of Jews who had intermarried with pagan Gentiles around the time of the Assyrian exile. Because of this intermarriage, the people in Samaria mixed Jewish religious practices with pagan idolatry. This essentially became a new religion, and it led the Jews to view Samaritans as unclean half-breeds. Jews often went out of their way to avoid Samaria and the people living there. But Jesus, a Jew, didn’t avoid the woman, a Samaritan. He drew near.
As Jesus converses with the woman, we find out a third reason why she was an outcast. Jesus was dropping hints about His identity as the Messiah and Savior of the world, but the woman just wasn’t getting it. During their conversation, Jesus asked her to call her husband.
“The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.’” John 4:17-18
Jesus shows off His divine omniscience by revealing that He knew the woman had been married five different times and was now living with a man she was not married to. We don’t know if her marriages ended in death or divorce, but they did all end, and she was now living with another man, probably out of necessity. Like I mentioned earlier, women in these times didn’t have the means to provide for themselves. This would have been a major source of shame for the woman. She couldn’t keep a husband. It’s possible she had no children. So, in an effort to avoid the contemptuous stares and pitiful looks of her neighbors, she avoided fetching water when the other woman did in the cool mornings and evenings and instead went out in the heat of the day.
But Jesus did not show any contempt for this woman. Neither did He pity her. Even though others may have stayed away from her, He drew near. And He graciously offered her the greatest gift possible—new life.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’” John 4:13-14
We all have a spiritual longing, a desire for satisfaction that can only be met in God. Jesus draws near to us to satisfy our longings, no matter who we are or what we’ve done. He does not condemn us. He does not exclude us from His kingdom. Instead, He gives us His Holy Spirit, so that we will never be alone again. He frees us from our sin and shame and gives us new eternal life.
All we have to do to receive this is believe in Him. That’s what the Samaritan woman did. She ran all over town, exclaiming,
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” John 4:29
And many others believed and were saved because of this outcast woman’s testimony (John 4:39-42).
Do you feel like an outcast? Do you feel judged because of the choices you’ve made in life? Do you feel excluded for things that are completely out of your control? Do you feel lonely and desperate for satisfaction? Jesus loves you, and cares for you, and draws near to you. He knows your sin, your struggles, your shame, and He still wants a relationship with you. He can and will use you—yes, you the outcast—to spread the gospel and expand His kingdom. All you need to do is believe and trust in Him—the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the World. And you will never be thirsty again.
