Baa Baa Black Sheep

Looking back over my life, I always knew I was the black sheep of the family. The one just a little different; the one who didn't quite follow the rules; the one not afraid to march to the beat of  a different drum. In the context of my family, it's only in the last few years that I've realized just how non-traditional I have been. Especially in the area of 'religion'. As a young Christian in my teens, I tried to conform to the way I saw others in the family living, and saw the hypocritical life they lived in front of me. When I questioned what I saw, the black sheep became an outcast.

When most people read stories in scripture, they apply it to the time and culture in which they live. In so doing, very valid points come across with subtlety, if at all, and we miss what some points are are really about. I think every person that claims to 'know the Bible' ought to also study the culture of biblical times. Wouldn't scripture serve us better if we knew what things were like in the time it was written?

Take the woman at the well. There are several 'hints' in the scripture as to the cultural differences between Jesus and the woman. But, without reading additional literature about why there were differences, the story loses part of it's great message. Let's look at the story in John 4.

v4: But it was necessary for him to come and pass through Samaria.

Samaritans were the outcast Jews~those of mixed blood. Jews normally avoided going through Samaria when travelling between Judea and Galilee, even though it was the shortest route.

v6: And Jaqob's spring of water was there, and Yeshua, weary from walking, sat down by himself at the spring at the sixth hour.

Jesus sat on Jacob's well, figuratively associating himself with 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob', while the water inside it represented him. Also, that it was noon meant it was the hottest part of the day.

v7: And a woman from Samaria came to draw water and Yeshua said to her, “Give me water to drink.”

The woman came to the well when she knew no one else would be there. Respectable women would have come in the evening when it was considerably cooler. As we read on in the story, we realize why as her past is revealed.

v9: And the Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, would ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” For the Jews do not associate with the Samaritans.

She had two major things going against her: she was a Samaritan, and she was a woman. She did not comprehend Jesus' respect toward her.

v11: This woman said to him, “My Lord, you have no bucket and the well is deep. From where do you have living waters?”

She was  amazed at Jesus' offer to give her living water, even if she didn't yet know He was speaking of himself. Notice that in his respect toward her, she addressed him with a title of respect more so than in her previous statement.

v12: "Are you greater than our forefather Jaqob, he who gave us this well, and he drank from it, also his children and his flock? "

When the Samaritans and Jews were getting along as neighboring villages, the Samaritans would claim their heritage from Jacob. When they were not, they would discount that heritage. In a subtle way, however, she questioned Jesus' authority in offering her water.

v15: This woman said to him, “My lord, give me from these waters that I shall not thirst again, and so I am not coming to draw from here.”

Still respectful, she wants the water, and even more so, wants it so she does not have to come out into the public place to get it.

v17: She said to him, “I have no husband.” Yeshua said to her, “You have said correctly, “I have no husband."

A simple statement. In today's times, it is nothing out of the ordinary. But for her, it meant having no male to represent her socially. We begin to see why she came to the well at noon.

vv19-20: The woman said to him, “My lord, I perceive that you are a Prophet. Our forefathers worshiped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship.”

There is a hint of her culture~obviously her forefathers worshiped idols. She 'switches sides' to claim her non-Jewish heritage in recounting the practice of worship in her people.

v25: The woman said to him, “I know that The Messiah is coming, and when he comes, he will teach us all things.”

She has heard the prophecy, so the idea of a Savior is not new to her. In his next words, he tells her that he is indeed the Christ.

v27: And while he was speaking, his disciples came and they were amazed that he was speaking with the woman, but no man said, “What are you seeking?, or, “Why are you speaking with her?”

Here is the culture all wrapped up in a few words. The disciples were shocked that he would be talking with a Samaritan, especially a woman from Samaria.

vv28-30: And the woman left her cruse and went to the city and said to the men: “Come see a man who told me everything that I have done. Is he The Messiah?” And the men departed from the city and they came to him.

Things changed as soon as she was told that he was the Messiah. She had no shame in returning to the city, to the men, telling them who she had just met. No doubt these were men who availed themselves of her services at night and acted as though she didn't exist during the day. She was so out-of-character compared to before that they had to go see what she was talking about.

v35: Do you not say, 'After four months the harvest comes?' Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and behold the fields that are white and are ready to harvest even now."

In reference to the crowd he knew was coming from the town, Jesus explains to the disciples that the harvest is wherever the fruit is ripe. The fruit does not come to them, but it is they who must go to the fruit to harvest it.

vv39-40: Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's saying which she testified: “He told me everything that I have done.” And when those Samaritans came to him, they requested of him that he would stay with them, and he was with them for two days.

This woman was the first evangelist, playing the key role in spreading the gospel to a large number of people that probably would not have listened to Jesus had he just walked into town and started preaching. He used a woman that the people were least likely to listen to. Some denominations might downplay her role, putting it into today's terminology, saying she 'witnessed' to them, or 'shared her testimony'. So many denominations fail to recognize women as Jesus did~people worthy to be called into his ministry, regardless of their past.

This woman had been a black sheep, the outcast of the city, the shamed of her village. One meeting with Jesus changed all that. Not only was she changed, but the people she associated with on a daily basis did also. Once Jesus continued on his way, I hardly think that life for any of them went back to the way it was before she walked to the well with her water pot. She would now be shown respect from the very people that had once used her. She went from being an outcast to a friend to the people.

Sometimes, being the black sheep in a world full of traditional ones has it's advantages. Like in the picture above, it may be the very fact that we stand out against the rest that Jesus chooses us.

all scripture quoted from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)