Lately at my church we have been discussing the story of the Woman at the Well in John. The story really makes you wonder what the woman was thinking while she was interacting with Jesus. If I had to guess it would probably be something along the lines of…

“If they really knew me….”

This truth has really made me think myself. I think as Christian women we often disregard the woman at the well…I mean no one answers the question “with which Biblical woman do you identify? with ‘the women at the well.’ Esther. Sure. Martha, of course. The woman described in Proverbs 31. Absolutely. Despite our dismissing her as a role model, the woman at the well was intentionally sought out by Jesus.

She was, in fact, His first choice. The person to which He revealed the truth of who He was and what He came to accomplish. This fact does not make sense to us as a society who has chose to believe the lie that we must come to Him completely clean and perfect. We simply must choose Him.

Jesus chose an outcast within an outcast society.

Jesus chose a woman completely broken by the world.

The woman at the well was shunned by her village. Judged by others. She endured her life with the despair and hopelessness that is so common today. The fullness of her emptiness was inescapable. Each day carrying it, alone and isolated, to the well with the sun beating her down, further reminding her of her worthlessness. For a moment, drawing from the well, her thirst was quenched, her skin cooled. Respite enough to pick up and carry the weight of her shame back home.

But then….

She encountered Jesus.

Waiting. Patiently. A divine appointment. An unexpected and shocking encounter.

When He spoke to her, her confusion was palpable. A man. A Jew. Speaking to me? “If He only knew…” But, in her isolation, the comfort of a human being interacting with her…not sneering, pointing, or accusing had to be a welcome relief. As I’ve read—and re-read—this passage over the last few weeks, what stands out is her fear. The thought “If He only knew me…..”

But He DID know. Jesus knew everything about her. He confessed the truth of all she had ever done out-loud. The love in that moment—in His choice to confess her sin—such a beautiful foreshadowing of all He would carry for us. I imagine Jesus saying: “I KNOW you. I know you don’t even have the strength to confess all that you have done, but I love you enough to free you from your brokenness and the shackles of your shame. I will confess on your behalf.”

The goodness of God. The sufficiency of His grace. The power of His love found in a brief encounter:

I KNOW you; yet, I CHOOSE YOU.

In that encounter, everything changed for the woman at the well. You can imagine just how truly seen she felt. The empty, broken woman covered in shame was now filled to overflow with living water. Her thirst forever quenched. The ashes of her brokenness and the shackles of her shame forever exchanged for the beauty and freedom found through Jesus Christ alone.

She forgot and abandoned her worldly toiling. She bounded back to her village proclaiming the truth. She came to the well invisible, condemned, and imprisoned by her sin – that is not how she left though. She left seen, forgiven, and freed.

Her simple, unexpected encounter with Jesus was tangibly visible to everyone in her village. Compelled by her love for Him, her joy and transformation were evident to all. Her testimony: “He knew everything about me” brought many to Him.

Jesus waits at the well for us all.

He knows everything about you, but still, He pursues you. He does not condemn you.

Jesus is enough.

You are loved.

Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

John 4:13-14