What can we learn from the woman at the well? > 목회자칼럼

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The story of the nameless Samaritan woman at the well, recorded only in the 

Gospel of John, is a revealing one, full of many truths and powerful lessons for 

us today. The story of the woman at the well follows on the heels of the account 

of Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and prominent member of the 

Jewish Sanhedrin (John 3:1–21). In John 4:4–42 we read about Jesus’ conversation 

with a lone Samaritan woman who had come to get water from a well-known as 

Jacob’s well) located about a half mile from the city of Sychar in Samaria.

This was an extraordinary woman. She was a Samaritan, a race of people that 

the Jews utterly despised as having no claim on their God, and she was an 

outcast and looked down upon by her own people. This is evidenced by the fact 

that she came alone to draw water from the community well when, during biblical 

times, drawing water and chatting at the well was the social highpoint of a woman’s 

day. However, this woman was ostracized and marked as immoral, an unmarried 

woman living openly with the sixth in a series of men.

The story of the woman at the well teaches us that God loves us in spite of our 

bankrupt lives. God values us enough to actively seek us, to welcome us to intimacy, 

and to rejoice in our worship. As a result of Jesus’ conversation, only 

a person like the Samaritan woman, an outcast from her own people, 

could understand what this means. To be wanted, to be cared for when no one, 

not even herself, could see anything of value in her—this is grace indeed.