Breaking Barriers At The Well - Beth Brian - 5/10/26

Thank you for taking the time to listen to the well church sabbatons podcast,

we pray that you enjoy this message and that it creates a well of hope in your life today,

so this week has been preparations for mother's day and i thought it was going to be rather simple,

but sometimes they get a little unusual that this week has been like i thought

my biggest thing was gonna have to figure out what gift am i gonna get my mom

and what card but it was an unusual week But that's okay. That's still good.

So for me, when it comes to like a gift, I feel like that's something that I do pretty well in.

I feel like when it's something that you enjoy doing, it's a little easier for you.

So the gift I had down, it helped that my mom gave a list, which is always nice as well.

But a funny story. We were at breakfast yesterday and we was like,

yeah, mom, it didn't come in yet. This is what we got you.

She's like, well, that's not what I wanted. She gave us like this really general thing on the list.

But in her mind she had this like super specific thing

so and then I knew I had to get a card so like when you go to the card store

it can be very overwhelming there is a million cards you know do you pick like

the pretty one that just looks really nice on the outside or you pick the one

you open it and it's blank and you get to be creative whether you want to.

Nice pictures tell your life story you know or are you going to pick the funny

one or are you going to pick the more meaningful one I typically pick the more

meaningful one and then you think what am I going to write it in you know are

you the kind of person that you know the cards are pretty good so all I have

to do is like put happy mother's day in my name and we're good,

or do you think of like what did I write last year it can't be

the same but I'm not that creative so let me just change a

few words or we can use our good old friend chad

gpt if you did if you haven't met

chad gpt you can be really good friends they're

always there for you and uh

so you can say to it you

know i need i need to write a card for like someone's retiring

someone's not feeling well what do i write in it they're 60

years old they're 40 years old they will you

don't tell you anything um it's better than

google so they'll give you this beautiful thing like it

looks like chat gpt is interviewing to be

the next hallmark card writer but it is missing one thing one little thing it's

missing you yeah so for me when i'm you know writing get my card and writing

it i really try not that i haven't used chat gpt for cards because i am guilty.

Definitely not. But I try to think of the relationship that I have with that

person and convey that into words.

And those words are usually full of so much personalization and intention and honesty and love.

And just as a personal card is full of unique and meaningful details,

so is a conversation that Jesus had with the woman in the Bible.

This has been a very popular woman that has come up a couple times lately,

the woman at the well or the Samaritan woman.

And Jesus' approach with her wasn't one-size-fits-all, but it was specifically with her in mind.

And in this interaction, there's lots of unusual details that intersect with

the character of who God is.

So let's take a look at John chapter 4 and see how this conversation unfolds. It's a long one.

John 4 · chapter mention

We're going to read through verse 26.

Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman. Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had

heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John,

although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.

So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria, so he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar,

near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.

It was about noon when a Samaritan woman came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.

How can you ask me for a drink?

For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her,

if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink,

you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.

Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob,

who gave us a well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?

Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling

up to eternal life. This woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that

I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.

He told her, Go call your husband and come back. I have no husband, she replied.

Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband.

The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your

husband. What you have just said is quite true.

Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped

on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.

Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the

Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know,

for salvation is from the Jews.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship

the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.

The woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming.

When he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declared,

I, the one speaking to you, I am he.

And what I love about reading and studying the Bible, especially those stories

that we know well, is we can feel like we know the depth of it.

But then you read it one more time, and God drops a new revelation in your spirit,

and it blows your mind. And that's really what happened with this.

So I kind of just want to share some of the things that God highlighted to me.

So in verse 3, we can see that Jesus is going from Judea, and he's going to Galilee.

And in verse 4, he said he had to go through Samaria.

So if you were a Jew, it would make the most sense to take the direct route.

You would go from Judea is at the bottom. You go north, you got Samaria.

You go north, you got Galilee. Makes sense, right?

But for Jews, it would be very rare that they would do that.

Because typically, what they would do is they would go all the way around the

Jordan River to get to Galilee.

They would completely miss Samaria.

Does that make any sense? Like, why are you going to go the long way when you

could save a lot of time, not like they had cars back then.

So it's going to take you an extra long, long time. And the reason is because

a people group, the Samaritans.

The Samaritans, they had emerged when the Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel.

And when they repopulated, there was a combination of bloodlines of the Assyrians and the Jews.

And these people that came out of the repopulation Thank you.

They were known as half-breeds. They were second-rate. The Jews loathed the

Samaritans. They literally hated everything about them.

They were at odds over everything, practically, and especially when it came to religious doctrine.

And for it to be said here that Jesus had to go through Samaria, that's a big deal.

It's huge, because it would never happen. But Jesus went out of the box,

and it shows us that he didn't entertain another root, but that he was doing this intentionally.

He intentionally made this decision to do that, and it wasn't about geographics,

but it was about human interaction. He was going to break the barrier between

the Jews and the Samaritans.

He was going to take the wall down when it came to divisions for culture, gender.

Religion, everything, and he was going there specifically for one woman who

does not yet know how valued she is and how precious she is in the eyes of Jesus

and that she is his had to reason.

And just as this woman is his had to reason, so are we.

For the love of God is so powerful and it's so strong that he individually seeks

each of us out and it can never run dry.

And some of the other unusual details that I want to go over is verse 6.

You know, it says here that she was going to the well and Jesus was sitting

here. And it was about noon.

Noon. That's an interesting time. So think about when it's really hot, like in the summer.

Like when I loathe, I literally hate the summer. Like I don't like it.

I like my birthdays in the summer and that's okay.

But I really, except for this year. But I really just don't like the summer

unless I'm at Tiffany's pool because it's like super hot.

So if I, I also don't like yard work, which we've talked about before.

So, but if I have to do yard work and it's like going to be 90, I'm not doing it at noon.

I'm going to get my butt out of my bed and get up early and I'm going to do

it. Maybe not happy about it, but I'm going to do it.

And literally noon for them was the hottest time of the day.

Because typically the women they would go together in a big group and they would go in the morning,

so why is she going all alone at

noon makes no sense what makes sense if you're known as the outcast in the society

which is what she was because she was there hoping to be alone because she wanted

to be free of shame and we're going to look a little a little later to see how

she really felt about all of this but that's what she was hoping for and it was also very rare,

that Jesus would ask her for a drink.

Because first of all, we've talked about it. He's a Jew and she's a Samaritan.

They would never talk. And also the gender roles here.

He's a man, she's a woman. You wouldn't talk to someone that's not your family member.

But all of these things are happening and they're happening intentionally because

Jesus wants to go out in the box.

And another thing is that I think is very interesting is the posture.

We see that Jesus is sitting there. He could have been standing,

towering over her, but he chose to be in a non-threatening position.

Because she's thinking she's going to be alone, and then all of a sudden,

she sees someone there. And it's a man, and it's a Jew.

She had to be so surprised and so shocked.

So that's what he chose to be in that, just sitting there in that non-threatening

position, not to scare her.

And when they're talking about him asking him for water, I believe that that's

Jesus' way of finding common ground with her.

Because she knew the pain that she felt. He knew everything about her,

which we will discuss a little later.

And he's trying to ease that way into that conversation and

to connect with her and sometimes when we're struggling with things and thank

you when we're struggling with things in our own lives jesus interacts with

each of us differently so the way he goes to me may be different than he goes

to you but he's about finding an individual connection with each of us.

How to connect with our heart just like he did with this woman so let's and

then we get a little more into the conversation.

And we see that he says her a little later in the chapter that he says that

he has living water for her.

And it's a living water that she will never be thirsty again.

And she thinks he's actually talking about real water, but he wants to make

it clear to her that that's not what he's talking about.

So he says, go get your husband and come back.

And she says, I don't have a husband.

He says, you're right, you don't, because you've had five husbands,

and the man that you're with now is not even your husband.

Jesus discloses this information to show that he knows her and everything about her.

He wants to show that he's not talking about water, but he's talking about your heart.

She may have been an outcast in society, but Jesus is doing the opposite,

and he's coming to her in a different way.

And Jesus is saying that she felt shame and she felt the pain of the impacts

of the decisions that she had made, but he's showing that he has a better way to live.

And he's not taking her past and laughing at her and showing judgment and shame,

but he did it in a loving way because he wants to show that he has a better way for her to live.

And later in the conversation, and she says, I know that the Messiah is coming.

And when he comes, he's going to explain everything to us.

And at that point, I find this really interesting.

Jesus had never exposed himself publicly as the Messiah to anyone.

However, he responded to her statement by saying, I am he.

The same woman that was full of so much shame for her mistakes,

who was known as an outcast. He is a specific one that he chose to reveal himself to first.

Again, it's another way that Jesus is completely going out of the box for her.

To show how much he loves her. And he doesn't hold her past against her,

but he shows her how much that he has specifically chosen and loved her.

He shows her another way to live. And with that, he gives her so much hope in

this, that she doesn't have to stay as she is.

But his love for her is greater than any of the decisions that she made.

And even though she didn't want to be seen, Jesus intentionally went after her

and showed her that he sees her and he loves her as she is.

And probably my favorite part of the whole chapter is what happened next,

because it shows us, because of what Jesus did, what was the impact.

So we're going to read John 4, 28 to 30.

So it says, Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and

said to the people, Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.

Could this be the Messiah?

They came out of the town and they made their way toward him.

The thing that brings the most attention to me is that she left her water jar behind. It's big.

Because the entire reason that she was coming was to get water.

But by leaving her jar behind, she was also leaving behind how she came to the

well, including the shame that she felt.

She was going there to be alone.

But then the inner action that Jesus had with her caused her not to be alone

and to take action and go into the city and tell all the people.

The same woman that carried the burden of shame.

She was now transformed to a woman that was boldly proclaiming who God was.

This shows us how contagious the love of God is.

It's so contagious that she couldn't keep it to herself. Amen.

And that she had everything literally changed about this woman.

She didn't want to be alone anymore. She wanted to go out and go forth.

And the impact of her interaction with Jesus, it didn't just stay with her.

It didn't end with her. She was the beginning, as it tells us,

that many people came to Jesus because of this.

Because Jesus chose to see her.

The woman that no one else wanted to see, he individually saw her.

And Jesus, he can see us at our lowest.

He can see us in the in-between and in the highest of our lives.

And even when we do not make the best choices, even when we're not following

his best, his love can cover it all.

Just as he did for this woman. Just as he revealed himself first to her.

That special truth that was just for her and him. But she was glad.

He was glad that she shared it, of course.

God wants us to have that unique, intimate relationship with him that he can

just have secrets with us.

Because that's how he sees us. He sees us like he saw this woman.

So there's so many things that we can learn from this chapter.

But for me, what really pops out is how fiercely the love of God is for us.

He could have just did what a typical Jew would do. But that's not what he chose to do.

He let love go first. he went out of his way to have a conversation because

he knew the pain and shame that he felt and he knew that he had a better way

for her to live and he wanted to show her that and because of the love and grace that he gave them,

it changed her life and it changed those around her.

And that's the same love and grace that we have access to. His love is so passionate

and it's so powerful that it can change everything.

When we get the love of God and what it truly means, it changes everything about

us just like it changed her.

He sees the best in us just like he did with her.

So as we go about this week, let us focus on how much that God loves us and

that he wants that individual special relationship.

There's something that Peggy Jones said when she was here that really rang with

me when she said that we're each God's favorite.

And that really spoke to my heart because sometimes I may not feel that way.

But it's so true. And it's a simple thing, but there's so much power.

We are all God's favorite.

And when we do something, He's not mad at us. He loves us. He wants to bring

us closer and show us a better way.

So let's focus on that this week and just

know that God's love is so powerful that it

can change all things all right so dear heavenly father

I'm just so thankful that we can just gather here together in your name God

I just pray for those who aren't here that you would just bless them and touch

them I pray a special blessing over the mothers that you would just refresh

them that you would just grant them peace right now God encouragement I just

pray as we go about this week,

that we would just walk in your love, God,

that we would just know how intentional

you are with us, that you will always go out of your way for us.

And you always long for us to have that intimacy with you, God.

Thank you for all things we pray in your name. Amen. Have a great week.

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