"The Woman at the Well" on John 4: 1-42 by Tara Corneau - Nov 30, 2025

Before we begin unpacking this encounter with Jesus, I’d like to share a little bit about me. I am, and have always been, a curious person. I am deeply invested in learning, which is perhaps why I chose education as a career. Amongst friends, I have been teased relentlessly about starting many conversations with the phrases “I just read an interesting article” or “listened to an interesting podcast.” I voraciously sponge as much knowledge and understanding as I can.

However, this morning, rather than only sharing about my new learning about this passage, I will also be sharing some of my unlearning. There are also things I learned that I just don’t have time to unpack this morning...but if you want a good rabbit trail later today, check out the contrasting imagery between Nicodemus in John 3 and this story in John 4; as an English teacher, it made me excited by the author of John’s literary prowess. When I chose the Woman at the Well as my story for this sermon series, I had a pretty good idea of the direction this passage would take me, and yet through study, I have written a much different lesson than I thought I would.

So let’s dive in.

When we first meet Jesus in this story, he is traveling through Samaria on his way to Galilee, and while traveling he ends up in Sychar which is the home of Jacob’s Well. The author of John makes a literary parallel here that connects this story with several stories in the Old Testament, as the well is the meeting place for Isaac and Rebekah, for Jacob and Rachel, and for Moses and Zipporah. In an article by Carissa Quinn for The Bible Project, she points out that all three of these Old Testament stories follow a similar pattern, connecting “one another by the same historical and theological thread”:

• Someone journeys to a foreign country

• The man encounters a woman at a well

• Someone draws water from the well

• The woman hurries home to bring news of the visitor

• The visitor stays with the woman’s family and there is mention of a meal

• The two parties are joined as one.

And of course, we see this same pattern followed in this story in John 4: 

• Jesus is traveling to a foreign country, 

• He meets a woman at a well, 

• She draws water for him, 

• She returns home to tell news of the visitor, 

• Jesus stays in the community for two days, 

• And then rather than the story ending in marriage like the OT stories, Jesus invites the Samaritan people into relationship with him, and to recognize him as Messiah. 

This story is incredibly subversive, even though it follows the same narrative arc of stories familiar to Jews at the time. Jesus was bold in his interaction with this Samaritan woman, doing the unexpected, much like he does in other stories we’ve studied over the last several weeks.

As many of you likely know, Jews and Samaritans did not intermix. In fact, according to NT Wright in his commentary on John, “Samaritans were regarded as the worst kind of outcasts.” For Jesus, a Jew, to be interacting with a Samaritan is already incredibly bold, but Jesus is further audacious by interacting with a woman without other people present. At the time, “Many devout Jewish men would not have allowed themselves to be alone with a woman; and definitely would not have engaged her in conversation as

the risk was considered to be too high.” (Wright) 

And yet, Jesus doesn’t just go to a Samaritan well where there is a lone woman present, he also asks her for a drink. Even the woman is surprised by this, and questions him: “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” In my mind, I see her giving Jesus the raised eyebrow side-eye as if to indicate “you sure?” She knows that Jews and Samaritans did not interact, and definitely “would not have shared...a drinking vessel.” 

She is surprised by Jesus, but it seems like she is also intrigued by him, as she stays at the well and continues to have the longest singular conversation with Jesus that can be found in the Gospels. After her question, Jesus offers her living water, which “will become in [her] a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” By offering living water to her, he shows that “anyone at all, no matter...their gender, their geography, their racial or moral background” can access it. Jesus also suggests that “this living water will quench [her] thirst forever and it will change [her] life.” (Wright)

And so she asks for the water without hesitation or reservations from this seemingly random Jewish man who stopped her at the well. To me, her response is quite incredible. Imagine for a moment that you have no idea who Jesus is when you meet him randomly in town somewhere, and then he says this somewhat cryptic message to you. What would your response be? I’m not convinced that I would have the confidence or wherewithal the woman has here to believe Jesus.

And then after she asks for this living water, Jesus asks her to get her husband and come back. This is when we find out that she has been married five times, and is currently living with someone who is not her husband. 

At this point in the story, I want us to pause briefly, and think about these few lines of dialogue.

• What assumptions do you make about the woman here? 

• What have you been told about her?

If you’re like me, you would have been told or assumed that Jesus is confronting the woman of sexual sin, and yet, despite having heard this for many years, another narrative has emerged through reading many New Testament scholars about this story.

For example, Nijay Gupta, author of Tell Her Story, suggests that her sexual immorality “is read into the text; nothing like that is ever stated in John.” If we look at the text closely, Jesus never says anything to her about her sin, as is often the assumption here. And if we read through the rest of John, we’ll notice that Jesus has no trouble directly calling many people’s actions sin – so why doesn’t he do that here?

Caryn A. Reeder, New Testament scholar, professor, and author of The Samaritan Woman’s Story suggests that “her marital history was simply the consequence of her time and place.” In this part of the ancient world, women would have been married really young – typically between 12 and 17 – to a significantly older man (in his 20s-30s), partly so that he could shape her into the wife he wanted. Women also would not have had any choice in her partner as marriage was largely considered an alliance between two families that would have been arranged by the families.

This was also true of divorce. A woman’s family or her husband could enforce a divorce because an alliance might be better with another family, and this was not considered atypical or immoral at the time. It also would not have been unusual for a person to have married multiple times due to the death of a spouse. Therefore, the assumptions we’ve made about this woman being sexually immoral are unlikely, or at the very least, much more complicated than they’ve been made out to be. 

When we read this story with this new light, we begin to see the Samaritan woman differently. Instead of a sexually immoral woman, we can see an intelligent woman who “takes initiative...who is a good conversation partner, [and someone who] speaks to the theological disputes and historical arguments that stand between them. [And] By the end of the story, it’s obvious that she’s [also] someone people in the town listen to...”

(Sarah Bessey) In this flipped script, we can see that Jesus’ comment about her husbands can be literarily framed in three ways: 

1. that he is attentive to her hard life – he sees her, 

2. that by sharing details of her life that he shouldn’t know, he is revealing to her that he is who says he is much like he does to Nathanael in John 1; and 

3. that the author is subverting “the possibility of what we typically expect from this well-meeting pattern” which would have been marriage between the man and woman who met at the well. 

And her response? “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” After hearing that Jesus knows her and sees her, she asks him a theological question that highlights “the relational distance between her people and Jesus...[she is wondering if she] or her people are fit to be [his] bride.”

(Quinn, The Bible Project)

And Jesus says yes, that “true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth,” and then reveals himself as the Messiah to her: a Samaritan; a woman. The scandal of this cannot be emphasized enough. Jesus is making way for the radical inclusion of ‘the other.’ He is saying that you “don’t have to be Jewish to be a part of the people of God. [That] God is no longer limited to one space. In Jesus, God is out and about. Anyone gets to be the people of God through the Holy Spirit.” (Reeder, Faithful

Politics podcast) Here we see that “Jesus did not care...about the [customary] ‘who’s in and who’s out’ boundary markers...” Instead he begins a covenant relationship between himself and the other. (Bessey) 

The woman at the well is so moved by Jesus’ response that she leaves her jar at the well to return to her community to share the good news – they are included! They, too, can drink the living water. Jesus, the Messiah, is including them, and is allowing them to belong. “Jesus doesn’t care about her ethnicity, her location, her sex, and perhaps her marital status...and he engages her with respect, with curiosity.” She’s...met with a request for water, offered water in return. And she is invited to become part of this glorious Gospel Story.”

Interestingly, the typical assumptions about the woman at the well have not existed in every Christian tradition. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, for example, the woman at the well is considered a saint, and is given the name Photine. And if you visit Jacob’s Well today, you have to enter through the Church of Photine to access it. Also during the Reformation era, there were a number of “female interpreters... seeing her as a great preacher and using her story to justify their own preaching.” So this narrative is not new, it is simply a challenge to our modern thinking.

For me, this story is deeply personal, as the inclusion of this story in John reveals that women are included and known in the Gospel story; that women are permitted to ask deep theological questions, search for answers, and then share with others what we are learning. The woman at the well becomes the first preacher in the book of John, and because of her testimony, her community is transformed by Jesus.

However, beyond the encouragement I find in this story about my place in the world, this story also makes me wonder who I exclude, or whose story I misinterpret because I’ve been told or assumed things about them that are likely not true or accurate. I wonder if I have assumed a moral failing of those who I might perceive as other – whether they be a political, religious, cultural, socioeconomic, or sexual other. And then I hope that the Holy Spirit will transform my sight so that I can see as Jesus sees people. That I can offer a place of belonging to those who are not sure if they ever will belong.

In closing, let me ask you three questions:

● Who is the woman at the well in your life?

● Who do you assume God can never and will never use to further the kingdom?

● Who do you assume is so far away from Jesus that they don’t have anything to

offer you or the body of Christ? 

And so, in this season of Advent, of waiting for the Messiah alongside the woman at the well, let us be bringers of hope, rather than hoarders of it. Let us see people with the eyes of Jesus, rather than turn a blind eye to those who don’t feel like they belong. And finally, let us celebrate the coming of the king who is the light of the world, not only a light to the pieces of the world we are comfortable with.