The Story of The Samaritan Woman at The Well from The Gospel of John and The Lessons It Portrayed

The story of the Samaritan woman at the well has been told for ages. People who read this passage can perceive it in many different ways however, the moral of the story is always the same and the lessons that can be learned from it are everlasting.

The story of the Samaritan woman at the well comes from the Gospel according to John. The Gospel of John was written by the elderly apostle John, son of Zebedee. As the last of the four Gospel’s to be written, it is an eyewitness account that tells the story of Jesus and also records much about Jesus’ ministry in Judea and Jerusalem. According to ancient sources John was called upon by the elders of Asia to write this Gospel in order to substantiate that Jesus is the son of God and for all those who believe they will have eternal life. John clearly states this in chapter 20 verse 31 when he says; “That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. John wrote this Gospel in hopes of strengthening people’s foundation of faith, so that the believers could go on believing in spite of the false teachings that they may come upon in society. Although many scholars have debated when John would have recorded these events in Jesus’ life, it has however been established that it was after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and before he was exiled to the island of Patmos; making the exact date to be around A.D. 85 – 90.

When John wrote his Gospel he intended it to be for everyone not just the people who already believed but also for those who were still lost. He wanted his Gospel to influence the nonbelievers to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved; while at the same time he also wrote as a means of strengthening the foundation of faith so that the people who did believe would go on believing in spite of what they may encounter in everyday society. Jesus was an expert teacher, he did not teach in one specific way. He adapted his teachings to make it suitable for either multitudes of people or just one person; Jesus didn’t care if he had thousands of people around to listen to his teachings. He also spent a considerable amount of time teaching in one-on-one situations. John recorded one of Jesus’ one-on-one teachings in his Gospel, this event is Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. John’s recording reveals Jesus’ desire to bring the Samaritan woman to eternal life and wash all her sins away despite the sins she may have committed in her life. The Samaritan woman was no saint; she was a poor woman that had been shunned by her community. She had been married multiple times and was currently living in sin with a man she was not married to. Her story shows Christians and non-Christians today, that despite the sins you have made or the ones that are currently in your life you can still seek the forgiveness of God. Jesus offers divine mercy in the living water of grace, which washes away sins and cleanses souls. The Samaritan woman left her home that day to get a jug of water; instead she got so much more.

In this passage Jesus didn’t have to perform some big miracle to show the Samaritan woman who he was or to help lead her to live a life without sin. He was able to do that by just showing and telling her about her past. Whether we want to tell ourselves that Jesus did not did not see the sin we may have committed the reality is that he sees and hears everything not just what we want him to hear and see. Although this story happened many, many years ago this passage is still relevant today. In today’s society it is not uncommon to see men and woman have been married and divorced multiple times or even men and women who are living together and are not married. Those circumstances however does not make it right for Christians to judge, we were not put on Earth to judge or shun one another that is not our job. We can only be judged by God himself.