Hello everyone!
Have you ever read the story in John chapter 4 about the Samaritan
woman at the well? Well my assignment that I had this week was about this
particular story!
This event that John describes is about how Christ instead
of taking the long way from Judea to Galilee decided he would go through the
land of Samaria.
Christ comes upon a well in a city called Sychar and sat at
the well because he was wearied from his journey. As he was sitting there a
woman that was a Samaritan comes to the well to get water and Christ says to
her, “Give me to drink.” You can tell that she is surprised that a Jew was
talking to her of all people because she replies to him saying, “How is it that
thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?”
Why was she surprised that a Jew would be talking to her, a
Samarian?
During this time in history there was a lot of powerful
hatred between the Jews and the Samarians but why was this?
When you look up in the Bible Dictionary what Samaritans are
and whom they were descendants from it tells you that they are mixed descendants
of “foreign colonists placed there by kings of Assyria and Babylonia” and
“Israelites who escaped at the time of the captivity.” It goes on to say that
their religion was also of a “mixed character” and that they claimed they had a
“share in the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem” but their claim was not
allowed and from that the Samaritans became bitter against the Jews. It was the
Samaritans’ claim for recognition as Israelites that the hatred between the
Jews and Samaritans started and at that time Jews thought, “A Samaritan was
more unclean than a Gentile of any other nationality.”
So as you can imagine the woman was surprised that Christ
would talk to her!
If we read in Colossians chapter 3 verse 25 it tells us
that, “he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and
there is no respect of persons.”
When I first read that
verse the last phrase really threw me off. I have read that phrase a few
different times in the scriptures and I never understood the meaning behind
what it says but I only took it as what the words themselves said. Since there
was a footnote with a reference I looked it up in hopes that it would explain
what was meant. It said the same phrase so instead I looked up what the phrase
meant on Google and the answer that I got was,
“It means God doesn't care who you are in relation to
social rankings. It doesn't matter to him if you are a celebrity, a hot woman,
a rich man, a genius, if you own a porche, the president of USA, the person who
cured AIDS, or ended famine.
If you obey his laws, you are
acceptable to him. Humans place importance on the things [of this world] and
the things that I mentioned above. God values obedience to him. Your status
among humans is unimportant to him.”
So in other worlds, they way
that others see you and judge you based on your material possessions is not the
way that Christ looks at you. If you turned to 1st Samuel 16:7 its
says,
“Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his
stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for
man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”
Christ invites all to come
unto him, “he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free,
male and female,” and “all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.” (2nd
Nephi 26:33)
The Lord will judge people by
what is in their heart and what choices they made in their life. He will not
judge someone because others do not like a whole society of people because of
the outward appearance they show but he will judge them for who they are on the
inside like the woman at the well. Yes, she was a Samaritan but Christ did not
care and did not treat her like the Jews did.
By doing what He did in this
chapter was an example to his disciples for what they were to do after Christ
finished his mission on the Earth. He showed them that all people were worth
their time and that they should teach all nations about Christ. He helped them
start towards being able to share the gospel with not only the Jew and Gentile
but also to the Samaritans and to not judge them by their outward place in
life.
As Christ visited with the
woman her attitude towards him began to change. When He told her about the
living water she said to him “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not.” She
believed him to be a prophet and that she believed in the Messiah. After that
she went into the city and said “Come, see a man, which told me things that
ever I did: is not this the Christ?” From the conversation she had with Him and
the fact that He had stopped and spoke to her strengthened her faith in the
Messiah and that it was He.
When he told her to go and get
her husband and she said that she did not have one he told her “Thou hast well
said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou hast
is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly,” that was when she really came
to understand who He was.
Like the Samaritan woman I
have had experiences in my life that helped my testimony of Christ grow. They
were not such profound experiences as talking with Christ in person but it was
through looking back at the challenges and experiences in my life and seeing
how I got through them. That was how I have come to know that Christ is always
there for each one of us and He doesn’t judge our outward appearance but what
is in our heart.
I have used that as an example
in my life with not only those I meet or interact with but also myself. I have
learned that I should appreciate what is in my heart and know there are only
two people who really know what is in my heart and it is only those two
opinions that matter. I shouldn’t judge myself with how I look on the outside
because if I looked how I wanted to on the outside I may feel better around
others but people will still find faults with my appearance. When you come to
love and appreciate who you are on the inside that is when you can look back
and see that you love the person Christ loves most.
My personal testimony about
Christ is something that I should share with others, as should anyone who has a
testimony about Christ or anything else. It is our responsibility to share with
others what we have learned because Christ teaches people through others and
when we share our testimony we are being Christ’s teachers for others.
The Samaritan woman helped her
community to believe in Christ because she shared with them her testimony of
Christ and helped them to be prepared for when Christ taught them.
One of my favorite parts of
this story now that I have studied it more is verse 42 which says, “Now we
believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know
that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”
When Christ was talking to the
woman he said,
“If thou knewest the gift of
God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have
asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”
He also said about the water
that was in the well,
“Whosoever drinketh of this
water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a
well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin the April 1995
General Conference said that,
“The Savior’s promise to that woman extends to all of our
Heavenly Father’s children. By living the gospel of Jesus Christ, we develop within ourselves a
living spring that will quench eternally our thirst for happiness, peace, and
everlasting life. The Lord explains clearly in the Doctrine and Covenants that
only faithful obedience can tap the well of living water that refreshes and
enlivens our souls: “But unto him that keepeth my
commandments I will give the mysteries of my kingdom, and the same shall be in
him a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life.””
So what is living
water? In my understanding living water is the gospel of Christ and when we
take in and believe the gospel and keep it within us, it will sustain us
eternally.
However, some people
as Jeremiah 2:13 says, “have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and
hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
I think sometimes
people say they have a “cistern” that will hold water but they only have one
that can be filled but will eventually drain all the water out or they just
have a “cistern” with no bottom to keep the water in.
Studying about the Samaritan
woman has really opened my eyes to how we look at others and what we let into
our lives. The talk by Elder Wirthlin was one that I believe everyone should
read, so here is the link to find it, just copy and paste it into your web browser! Have a wonderful rest of your week!
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