Women in white raiment

by John Lemley

Out of the commonplace lives makes His beautiful whole.

If we partake of the Divine nature, we will want to share in His work of saving, and thus enter into the joy of our Lord. To be able to touch life hopefully, and to see it expand and grow day by day into the similitude of the All-perfect, is to experience a joy not of earth. Womanhood has come into her kingdom in the sense of having reached a place of large opportunity, in the use of her God-given power. Our Saviour has honored woman by giving her a place in his heart and work, and most loyally does she “lay her hands to the distaff and with her hands hold the spindle” in the making of the great fabric of human destiny.

CHRIST AND WOMANHOOD.

How womanhood, in the days of the Saviour’s incarnation, manifested her appreciation, will be amplified in this and the next chapter, and her loving ministry does credit to her head and heart, for we read, as He journeyed with his disciples from place to place, “Certain women, which had been healed of infirmities, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and many others, ministered unto Him of their substance.” How beautiful is all this. Women actually following Jesus, as disciples, and out of their means ministering to His physical necessities. Heathenism has no place, socially for women, as we have shown in our introductory. Christ sought to bless and elevate womanhood.

The skill of our Lord’s wayside teaching is beautifully brought out in the scene at Jacob’s well. In one of His tours through Samaria our Lord reached Jacob’s well, in the neighborhood of Sychar, about noon, and being weary, sat down upon the stone seat in the little alcove erected over the well. It offered a shelter from the glare of the noontide sun. John, in his gospel, tells us that Jesus, “being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well.” The words in the original imply that He was quite tired out with His journey, and doubtless overcome with the extreme heat. In His exhaustion, He seems to be quite anxious, if possible, to obtain a little rest, while the disciples had left Him, to procure in the nearby city, the necessary bread.

The disciples had scarcely departed, when a lone woman, with face veiled, and on her head a great stone waterpot, came to the well to draw water. It was an unseasonable hour, for morning and evening only would the well be thronged by women, whose duty it is to carry the water for household use. For some reason, possibly because she was in no good repute, this woman avoided the throng at the well in the morning or evening hours, and availed herself of this unseasonable time to come for water.

The scene before us is pathetically picturesque. The Son of God resting in the refreshing shade of the little alcove, and a woman of doubtful character coming in out of the noontide glare and heat of the sun to draw water. We almost wonder if our Lord, in His exhausted and fevered condition, had not been casting around in His mind how He might obtain a cup of refreshing water from the depth of the well. And now is His opportunity. With the nicest tact and politeness He asks, “Give me to drink!” To ask for a drink of water in the East is a proffer of good-will. Under no circumstances would an Oriental ask or receive water or bread of one with whom he was unwilling to be on good terms. So when Jesus said to the woman, “Give me to drink,” it was as if He had said, “I wish you well; I feel kindly towards you and yours.”

We are somewhat surprised at the conduct of the woman after such kindly salutation. Instead of quickly offering Him a drink, she proceeds to ask, “How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?” She would recognize the nationality of Jesus by His dress. The color of the fringes on the Jewish garments was white, while those of the Samaritans were blue. Possibly His appearance and accent in His speech would also identify Him. However, in explanation of her conduct, she goes on to say, “the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” So that while this non-intercourse between the two people was not absolute, a request of such a nature might surprise a Samaritan. And yet we must confess she is more ready to conduct a religious discussion with the Son of God Himself than to offer cups of cold water.

But with what wonderful tact Jesus drew the mind of this woman away from the religious differences between Jews and Samaritans. He was not to be drawn off from the main point at issue. He had asked for water, for He was really thirsty. She had come to the well for water, for it supplied a need. When she came to the well her aspirations reached no farther than a pitcher of water. So, with water for a text, Jesus proceeds to tell this Samaritan that good as the well was, and great as Jacob was, all who drank of that water would thirst again. The best the world had to offer could never satisfy her thirst. She could not help but see the truth of these words. They were but the echo of her daily experience.