This episode of Truth of the Spirit takes a direction from The Chosen and shares some backstories concerning The Woman at the Well Scriptural Companion. You are invited to an Ignatian look at this New Testament character from John’s Gospel. For audio and video links, blog and more please keep reading below.
Audio link:
For more info about Jacob and Rachael see TOS081 Patriarchs of the Old Testament
Link for The Chosen’s episode on the Woman at the Well on TheChosen.TV https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen/watch?vid=S1:E8
or watch on YouTube combination: The Chosen Season One: Episodes 7 & 8 – YouTube
You might also want to see: TOS054 Basics to Reading the Bible for Catholics
I am a fan of the TV show The Chosen. I started following the Chosen when they started their first crowd funding drive. As a fan of Christian scriptural based movies, it’s the best I’ve seen to proclaim the Gospel through media. It is not a word for word translation like some Gospel productions but it centers on the various characters of the Gospel and gives an imaginary backstory of each that fits in nicely with the truth of the Gospel. So much so you wonder if the vision for them is Spirit inspired. All of their episodes enhances the joy and contemplation of the actual scripture in the same vein as Ignatian Spiritual exercises. St. Ignatius would ask his monks to do a four week retreat in which they spent a portion of each day in placing themselves within the passages of scriptures meditating and contemplating an expansion of the story with imagination.
I say all this because it brings me to the story of the Woman at the Well. I truly enjoyed the Chosen’s portrayal of the backstory of the Woman at the Well.
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit and the Woman at the Well Scriptural Companion. I’m your host, Patti Brunner.
In Chapter 4 of John’s Gospel we hear that in Sumaria Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down at Jacob’s well about noon. If you are a fan of The Chosen you are probably a fan of ‘backstories’. Let’s look at the backstory of the well. Jacob, one of the Patriarchs, was also called Israel. In Genesis Chapters 33 & 34 we learn some history about the well. Jacob, as he travelled with his wives Rachael and Leah and his 12 sons, built this well on a piece of land he purchased from “from the descendants of Hamor, the father of Shechem.b” Planning an extended stay, “20Jacob set up an altar there and invoked “El, the God of Israel.”c“ Genesis 33:19-20 Not long after the purchase of the land, Shechem raped the only daughter of Jacob, Dinah, and then married her with her father’s permission after Shechem agreed to follow the God of Israel. Dinah’s brothers killed Shechem, now their own brother-in-law, and the other men of his clan as revenge for the rape. Why would Jesus choose this well? The marriage of Dinah was one of lust, anger, and sorrow. Was this the sort of marriage that the Woman at the Well was used to? The tribe of Jacob left this area but ownership of the piece of land remained as a promise of what could be. After Moses brought the tribes of Jacob out of Egypt they brought the body of Jacob’s son, Joseph, to be buried on this land.
The Gospel of John Chapter 4 tells us that after Jesus decided to rest at the Well of Jacob: “7A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 9* The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”b
You see, the Jews generally felt the Samaritans were inferior. Their faith was a mix of pagan gods and of the true Lord During the earlier conquest of the Holy Land they had not been exiled but had intermarried with others deported by the pagan invaders into Sumaria and so their bloodlines were not pure. Look at the bloodline of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. He has several ‘outsiders’ in his family tree. The Samaritans accepted only the first five books of the Torah, the Scripture, and their temple was on Mount Gerazim instead of on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
“10* Jesus answered and said to her,c “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11[The woman] said to him, “Sir,* you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”d 13Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 14but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”e 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” 17The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ 18For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”f 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.g”
Jesus knew these things through the Holy Spirit’s Word of Knowledge. We have two eyes, two ears but only one mouth. Those who ponder the Word will then speak of eternity with ease. Place yourself as the character of the Woman or beside them at the well. What conclusion would you draw? The well wasn’t the first place the woman listened. She was a good listener. She tells Jesus, “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;* but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”h
“21Jesus said to her, “the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.i 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;* and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 24God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”j 25* The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming,k the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything. 26Jesus said to her, “I am he,* the one who is speaking with you.”l 27At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,*”
And so, this Samaritan woman, who is professed to be a sinner, is the first person whom Jesus reveals publically that he is the Messiah. The woman who went to the well during the heat of the day to hide from the condemnation of others found redemption and quickly shared it with others, even those who condemned her. Her life was changed by God—not because of whom she is but who Jesus is!
Yes, this woman was a listener; but then the Living Water rose up within her and, like a fountain, was shared with the townspeople—she reached out in love, full of the Spirit, and they became listeners to the Word of God, to Jesus. In sharing the Gospel her shame was overcome, the rejection by the town was forgiven—it was not even considered!
The Gospel continues: “28The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, 29“Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30They went out of the town and came to him.” “39Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman* who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” 40When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 42and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”q ”
The woman listened to Jesus, the townspeople listened to the woman, then the townspeople came to see and listen to Jesus. All who listened knew that Jesus is truly the savior of the world.
I have long been interested in the story of this woman. This woman is given no name. There are, however, other women in scripture who are named who also sat by a well as their destiny was changed by God. Rebekah was the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother Nahor. In Genesis 24 we hear how Abraham sent his servant back to Mesopotamia to his brother’s home to find a wife for his son of promise, Isaac. The servant who brought with him ten camels and all sorts of gifts as a bride’s price or dowry, asked God to help him
to choose wisely a bride for Isaac as he approached the Nahor’s city. Genesis 24:11 says: He arrived near evening, “at the time when women go out to draw water.” He was thus inspired with a plan. He spoke prayerfully to God: Genesis 24:13-19 “While I stand here at the spring and the daughters of townsmen are coming out to draw water, if I say to a girl, “Please lower your jug, that I may drink,’ and she answers, ‘Take a drink, and let me give water to your camels, too,’ let her be the one whom you have decided upon for your servant Isaac. In this way I shall know that you have dealt graciously with my master.” He had scarcely finished these words when Rebekah came out with a jug on her shoulder. The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, untouched by man. She went down to the spring and filled her jug. As she came up- the servant ran toward her and said, “Please give me a sip of water from your jug.” “Take a drink, sir,” she replied and quickly lowering the jug onto her hand, she gave him a drink. When she had let him drink his fill, she said, “I will draw water for your camels, too, until they have drunk their fill.” The rest of the story is that she became the bride of Isaac, the son of promise of Abraham. She became the mother of Jacob, at whose well Jesus approached the Samaritan woman.
Moses, too, found his bride at the well. In this story of Exodus Moses had run for his life after killing a man in Egypt. After crossing the desert to Midian, Exodus 2:15-22 reports “* e There he sat down by a well. 16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17But shepherds came and drove them away. So Moses rose up in their defense and watered their flock. 18When they returned to their father Reuel,* he said to them, “How is it you have returned so soon today?” 19They answered, “An Egyptian* delivered us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock!” 20“Where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why did you leave the man there? Invite him to have something to eat.” 21Moses agreed to stay with him, and the man gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage.”
Interestingly, the Woman at the Well, even though she had already been married several times and was unfaithful, she was destined to be a bride—a bride of Christ. Jesus asked her for a drink the same way that Rebekah was asked for a drink. A drink of water is a pretty simple request to ask of someone, yet the reward was amazing! Moses drew the water for Zipporah and her flock and protected her from the cruel shepherds. Jesus spoke of giving living water to the Woman at the Well. The water, which meant livelihood for Zipporah, is a sign of the gift of everlasting life.
The woman who came to the well at noon to draw water runs back to town, without her jar of water, to quickly share the truth with those who have rejected her. The Lord heals the rejection the Woman has felt that caused her to draw water at mid-day.
How often have you been at the well? That is, encountered Jesus? Have you ever thought you would be the last person God would use to proclaim the Gospel or the Kingdom? Have you hidden from others, avoided awkward situations? Have you had multiple partners? Have you been hurt by others? Are you willing to step forward to give? Are you willing to step forward to receive? Has the well of the Way been a source of blessing for you? Sharing the water was in the “yes” of participation. What is Christ asking of you? We invite you to spend some time at Jacob’s Well with Jesus and consider these questions.
In preparation for baptism at Easter, RCIA students are shown this Gospel of John about the Woman at the Well each year—out of the normal ABC liturgical cycle. Each of them are invited by Jesus wherever they are at this moment to receive the Living Water that Jesus talks about to the Woman at the Well. The Woman is not the same after her encounter with the Living God. She becomes an evangelizer. Christ invites you, too.
Christ our Bridegroom invites us to come to the well of living water as his Bride. His faithfulness is clear even when our own is not. This Bridegroom brings the gifts of everlasting life. He invites us to listen and to share the good news with others that He is the fulfilment of the promise.
You’ve been listening to Truth of the Spirit and the Woman at the Well Scriptural Companion. We will be continuing this series and find more companions. There are many situations you can imagine yourself present. Check out our website PatriarchMinistries.com/164. Please subscribe and listen to more. With the Holy Spirit there’s always more. Amen.
