22/07/2026
I LOVE THE SAMARITAN WOMAN ❤️ I have been thinking deeply about the Samaritan woman. I have gone back and carefully read her conversation with Jesus in John 4, and it has challenged some of the assumptions I have heard over the years.
Many preachers portray her as a promiscuous woman because she had five husbands, and they conclude that she was immoral or even a pr******te who gave herself to many men. Others go even further and suggest that other women feared her because she “stole their husbands”—as though husbands are fruits hanging on a tree waiting to be picked! 😊
But as I reflect on the injustices women have endured throughout history—and, sadly, continue to endure today—I find myself asking a different question.
What if she was not the predator but the victim?
What if those five men were the ones who used her, abused her, rejected her, divorced her, or abandoned her? What if she was repeatedly discarded rather than repeatedly unfaithful? What if she was trying to survive in a society where women had very little power over their own lives and futures?
The truth is, the biblical text never tells us why she had five husbands. Jesus simply states the fact. He does not call her a pr******te. He does not accuse her of adultery. He does not shame her or assign blame for the failure of those relationships. Those details have often been supplied by our imaginations rather than by Scripture itself.
Instead, Jesus does something extraordinary. He speaks to her with dignity. He asks her for water before offering her the Living Water. He sees beyond her history and looks into her heart. Rather than condemning her, He reveals Himself to her as the Messiah and entrusts her with the privilege of sharing the good news with her community.
Perhaps this story is not meant to make us judge the Samaritan woman but to challenge our own tendency to judge people without knowing their full story.
How many people have we labelled because of what we see on the surface? How many women have been blamed for circumstances that were never entirely their fault?
Sometimes the most faithful way to read Scripture is to resist filling in the gaps with our own assumptions. Instead, we should allow the text to speak for itself and allow the compassion of Jesus to shape our understanding.
