Five Minute Friday: Remedy

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday, where a group of writers get together and free write about a one word prompt for 5 minutes. Today's word is "remedy." Usually I take the Five Minute Friday word prompt, and expound on a passage of Scripture. But today I decided to do something different and write a story. 

There was no remedy for what her heart felt. She was alone, although she was constantly at a man’s side. She never got a break. Since she was 15 years old, there had always been a man. Some were good, and some were not. The first one was the one she had chosen, but it was only short lived, because she wasn’t good enough for the family. How they talked him into the divorce, she didn’t know. After that, it just became one blur after another, being passed from man to man, like a coin, in exchange for whatever their need was. She wasn’t a prostitute, but the way the men had just married her, then dropped her. These were the thoughts that went over and over her mind each day on her walk to the well. Well, she was alone then. But still no remedy for the ache in her heart. As she approached the well that day, she saw a man sitting there. She could see the tzitzit, the blue tassel that alerted her he was not one of her people, but a Jewish man. “Great,” she thought. Another man to confront. Another man to deal with. Would there ever be a remedy for the aches of her heart?


“Please give me a drink,” Jesus said to her.

*This story is based on the account of Jesus' interaction with the Samaritan woman in John 4. I used the tzitzit as an identifier for Him because the Bible doesn't tell us how she knew He was a Jew and not a Samaritan. After some research, I found out that Samaritans also wear the tzitzit on their garments. I am not sure when they began doing that.

Jesus' Conversations with Women: The Water Jar

I have been thinking about the woman at the well that is found, in John 4. Mainly I have been thinking about her water jar. That water jar represented shame to her. The Bible says it was the sixth hour when Jesus sat down at the well. That would have been about noon. Then comes the woman to draw water.

Coming to the well at this time of the day would have been unusual. The job of drawing water was the job of a slave or women, and they would have done it earlier in the day when it was cooler, so this woman was coming to the well when she could avoid other people.

Her tone seemed a little sharp when she talked to Jesus, and we can tell that she was brave when speaking with Him. But she carried that shame because she avoided those who would shame her.

They have a conversation, she and Jesus, and discuss theological things. He offers her living water They discuss Jacob who built the well. His words tell her he knows her and what has happened to her in her life. And then they come to the most pivotal point.

Jesus tells her He is the Messiah. He reveals His true nature to her, and what He wants to do for her.

And she leaves her water jar.

She leaves the thing that is a representation of her shame. She lets it go, runs away, and tells other people about Him.

I believe, that when we all have a true encounter with the living Jesus, we will do the same. It will cause us to let go and leave our shame. We will leave all those things that have been holding us back, with Him, and we will run and tell others about Him.

He wanted her to come to know Him, That was His purpose in talking to her and still is His purpose with us.

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him.-John 4:25-30 (NKJV) 

My prayer is that we would all continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him,

Beth

Women in the Life of Jesus: The Samaritan Woman at the Well

Scriptures where she is found: John 4:1-42

Setting: Sychar 

Her story:

So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.  Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”  For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?  Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,  but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’  for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.  You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

My thoughts:

I have written about this woman before.  She is kind of amazing. You can read that post here.  I still have so many thoughts about her encounter with Jesus.  It just makes me love Him more.

When she comes to the well, Jesus is already there.  He is alone because his disciples have gone into town to get food.  But Jesus starts up a conversation with her anyway.  Alone.  Did I say that already?  Alone.  

Jesus doesn't appear to be bothered by the fact that she is a woman and they are having a conversation about spiritual things without anybody else around.  In fact, He is teaching her. He takes this moment, this opportunity to teach this woman.  

She seems to already have a knowledge of the things of God.  She is able to converse with Him about spiritual things.  They are dialoguing and Jesus is teaching her!

To me, this is amazing.  She is obviously not living right, but Jesus doesn't seem hindered by that. He is teaching her, trying to draw her into what He has for her, eternal life.  

There are many women in the Body of Christ, who for whatever reason, might not be living for God at the moment.  Jesus wants to draw you back into fellowship with Him.  He has things for you to do.

At the end of the passage above, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman, "I who speak to you am He."  That statement makes me want to jump up and down just reading it.  I can imagine what it did for her. She leaves her waterpot, and goes into the city and starts telling everyone about Jesus!  Woohoo!  Her life was forever changed because He saw the value in her, and demonstrated that by spending time with her, teaching her, loving her, and giving her acceptance.  He gave her what everybody gets who comes to Him, regardless of what they have done, ETERNAL LIFE.

To read more posts in this series, go here to Women in the Life of Jesus.