The Woman at the Well 

Was no Ho’!

I consider this my most important blog post of all of my entire writing career.  I want to right a century's old wrong, a very much wrong done to a HOLY woman.  We've always heard her be called an immoral woman who was shacking up after having FIVE husbands.  Who told us that?  Think back, who taught us that she was a whore. Nine times out of ten, our answer will be, my pastor, or a Bible commentator, in other words, in most cases, it was a MAN who took this HOLY woman and turned her into a whore for centuries.  Let me tell you, if this were my daughter, and she is GOD’s, I would be FLIPPIN’ mad about this. 

First, let’s define HOLY: Most people attribute holy as pure, perfect, and good, but the true definition is “set apart.”  That’s it!  Now, GOD is true and pure and good, and set apart as LORD of lords, Majestic above all, thus He is Holy .  Likewise is Jesus.  But, did you know that as a Christian, you are holy regardless of the sins you keep falling into.  You are set apart.  Now, that we have that established, let’s look at that poor woman at the well that men seemed to enjoy calling a ho'.  She was alone there, wasn’t she in the middle of the day, when most outcasts would be subject to in order to keep them set apart from the highly respectable woman who gathered their water in the early morning.  So, either she couldn’t make it early that morning, or, she needed more than she got earlier and went back for a refill. Maybe she spilled her early morning jar of water.  Regardless of why she was there, it was planned by GOD to have her there, set apart.

She would be the very first woman to hear Jesus proclaim to be The Messiah.  He  did NOT tell a man, he told a woman.  Likewise, a woman was the first to see Jesus risen, another woman who was unfairly labeled a woman of ill-repute, just because she was the victim of several demons and shunned by all men.  I am an outcast, tossed away by several people, unwanted, then a  woman scorned, so, I’m going to try and keep my bias against men out of this.  Okay, well, maybe I will throw in a few well-deserved shots!  The first Bible commentators were MEN.  Most pastors are MEN.  Most of all clergy through out Christendom were MEN.  Therefore, it was a man who put that label on both of them.  I’m going to have you to go back and read John 4, and I will ask you a few questions.  I’ll wait until you finish. 

Okay, it’s quiz time. 

Not a single one of those answers will you find in that section of John 4 or anywhere else in the Bible, and yet, all those men have labeled her a whore.  That ticks me off to the point that I get in trouble with my children, because I run to her defense, loudly.  She could have been 75.  She could have been barren, thus shunned by her community, labeled as cursed; thus, the reason for the five husbands. If she was unable to bear children, she would have been tossed out onto the street, because back then, men counted a woman’s worth by the usage of her womb and other parts that they enjoyed, along with the culinary skills which ranked last to them. . 

Divorce was not so common, but definitely an option, according to Jesus, because GOD knew how hard were men’s hearts.  She wasn’t really a Jew, she was an Israelite, but not from the southern kingdom, but a mix of what was left of the northern kingdom and foreigners that the Assyrian Empire mixed in after they conquered the ten rebelling tribes. The    Assyrian empire conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC.  Most of the Israelites from the ten tribes were hauled off as slaves, while some were left to procreate with some Assyrian peasants brought there to keep the land alive.  Therefore, the lower class Assyrians had their way with the lower class Israelite women, henceforth, you have a sect of half pagan half Jews hated by the thoroughbred Jews, as if they were any better.

We have NO idea what she was wearing, so assuming she was scantily clad, as I’ve seen in some productions, all decked out in bling, is again, a MAN’s interpretation and poetic license.  I think their license needs to be revoked who drew her that way. 

Tell me, how many women and men do you think “shacked-up” in Jesus’s day?  Not too many, I would think.  So, to put her in 20^th century shoes and clothing, calling her a whore is taking the Bible out of historical context on a whole new level.  Here is a question you may want to ask yourself. How many women were adept in theological studies back then?  How did she know what the Jews believed about Abraham’s well and worship, as opposed to her own people? How did she know that a Messiah would come, what he would look like, and what to expect of him? How did she know the Messiah would  even accept the hated Samaritans?  How many women in the oldest female profession do you know that know Scripture?

Now, let’s look at the obvious.  If GOD is Sovereign over all the earth, and He does whatever He pleases, then He arranged for HER and her only to be there to hear what no man had ever heard to date.  Jesus chose this woman to be the very first one to hear those glorious words, “I am he.”  (as in the Messiah)  She was likely a servant to some man, or his concubine by force, against her own will. Instead of passing “it” around voluntarily, she was likely passed around and raped, forced to live a life all women hate. Women did not have a great deal of opportunities in the industrial workplace then. If they didn’t own property, she couldn’t sell her wares.  She would have had to  “rent” herself out if she wanted food and shelter.

Maybe she was widowed five times?  What was the life span of a man back then? What about men in battle? Maybe both, she was widowed and toss out on her fanny unfairly.  Maybe she was living with a brother-in-law who took her in, or a son-in-law, or even her own son.  Therefore, she would have been living under a roof owned by a man who was not her husband, and subject to his conditions, and we all know what conditions a man likes to enslave a woman, in their fantasies, even if they never admit it.

So, this darling lady, who knew her place with Jews, particularly men, and who  generously drew out water for a stranger, was chosen not only to be the first missionary, but the first one to know for sure that the Messiah had come.  One last question I want to ask you.  How many women of ill-repute would have the audacity to go into a town square market-place and announce the arrival of the Messiah, insisting that they follow her? None, I dare say, and none would believe and follow her. “Professional” women back then had no credibility, and were often forced to be silent in public and hiding in alley-ways, until there were "picked" bye a man to please him, sometimes for free.  They surely would address a man or a marketplace full of them.  Hence, this woman had some credence, or she would have been ignored or scorned. 

Listen people, we do a great disservice when we look at anything in the Bible with 21^st Century glasses and then impose our views and opinions and own personal history into the Bible and refer to it as Scripture. The reason there are so many translation and interpretations is because man has decided that A really means B, and C really means D.  Maybe GOD wants us to read, A B C D, in chronological order as written and give the credit as the letter that they truly are, and not assumed that they are other letters in disguise. 

The Remnant takes the Bible at its word, and we don’t’ inject our assumptions or flawed human philosophy into it. We learn it chronologically, and we aren’t trying to build a conglomerate corporation disguised under the title of “evangelism.”  We live like the Apostles did, walking the Gospel out to the world, not just talking it. We seek GOD and trust Him to bring to us the ones He wants us to minister to, to love on, to help find healing from the black eye the church yard bullies gave them.  If that makes me a heretic in the church playground, well then so be it.  I find that a compliment, because Jesus was crucified by the “church” people for being a heretic in their eyes, only. 

How grateful I am, that he and John-the-Baptist stood up for the sinners and the tax collectors as people who needed healing, not accusing, or finger pointing into a social class of :throw-a-ways.’  I’ve been a throw-away, by MEN, so I know that pain, and so much for keeping my personal bias against men out of this blog, you didn't expect that I would, did you?  

Cancer,  Death , 
and Good Humble Pie 

~Among Others~

   Eight years ago, I remember GOD calling me to begin a writing career. Of course, I thought that was the most ludicrous notion that I had ever heard. After all, I don't think I received higher than a D in any of my college writing classes. So, I said to GOD, "But GOD, I'm not a writer, I'm not a novelist, I haven't a clue how to do that." I distinctly heard in my spirit, before those frightful words of rebuttal left my lips,

   "Kristina, you are who I make you to be." Oh, yeah, that did it. I had no argument with that.

     You see, we can argue with GOD all we want, but we will never win. Here's the beauty, He doesn't mind how much we do it, until we learn that we aren't going win, and we can trust Him with that which we know we can’t handle. Eventually, we realize that He has been trying to teach our slow brains that we can’t handle it, but He can. 

    Another day, I remember being on one of my five-mile autumn walks, and  I saw in my head in the future, a very successful author who had my face. The terror that ran over me on my walk nearly face planted me right there and oddly enough, right in front of the local library. GOD has a funny sense of humor. That fear gripped my heart because I know just how much of a screw-up I have been and still am. Again, I had a rebuttal for GOD, and before the words,  

    "Oh, no, GOD, what will I do if I am successful. I'm sure to ruin it. That kind of success like that ruins everyone. What if I get too full of myself? What is to stop me from making it all about me?

    Again, the answer was swift and only took two nouns and a conjunction, "Cancer and death." 

   “Oh, yeah, that'll do it." The Bible is clear, storms come from GOD’s permissive and sometimes planned will. The crook in your lot that totally messed you up came from GOD. He may have used other people to put the bend in the road that caused you to crash and burn. He did it because you were probably going the wrong way at warp speed and didn't see the train wreck coming right at you.

   Two years later, I was knee deep in radiation hell, having all pride I had built up in my first book, finished, with “rave” reviews. (I sometimes wonder if there was more wrong with those who reviewed my book than me in the intelligence department.) burned out of me.  So, one book down, another started and an amazing one at that. God gave me a story that was sure to be an epic. Right after I finished the rough draft, I spent the next six months in radiation hell getting the snot burned out of me, literally. 

   Sadly, though, GOD had more sense-of-self I needed to be rid of, because having bounced back beating cancer and surviving radiation hell, I still had a garden needing to be weeded after a longest winter of my life. So, he ruffled up the garden paradise of my home and family life. With a stroke, dual cancers, a few days past the pain of radiation hell, I was basking in victory. With no real warning, none that I paid attention to, because I never thought divorce could happen to me, my husband informed me during the last few weeks of my cancer treatments that he was filing for divorce when my treatments were over after twenty-nine years of marriage. 

    A year after that, another major heart crushing rejection came along to seriously send me under the bed hiding behind my cat afraid to even come out of my room, lest something worse happen. Rejection is one of GOD's greatest tools, not only to protect us from those who are not good for us, but to protect us from ourselves and that ugly human disease called, P-R-I-D-E. It is so sneaky. Even in all that, it still snuck up on me. You'd think I would have had my fill of humble pie with my family shattered, dual cancers, divorce pending, and a crushed and broken heart should have humbled me, but nope. He had one more lesson. Vindication!

   You see, the Bible promises us that He will vindicate us from those who do us harm, even if sometimes He was the one who sent them to do just that. Boy, I surely needed some vindication, or rather thought that I deserved vindication. Do you see it? Pride entered even through my brokenness. I was so broken by those who GOD sent in my life to hurt me, on purpose, to keep me humble, but now as the "victim," I felt I deserved some Heaven sent vindication, and some serious justice to feel satisfied. There is a difference between seeking justice for a person’s well-being, and seeking vindication for our bruised egos. When we plead for justice, it must be with an attitude of needing deliverance from something that is oppressing us, with the Father-forgive-them-for-they-know-not-what-they-do attitude and heart behind it. When we seek the self-satisfying kind of justice and vindication, that is usually nothing but pure anger and bitterness coated in pride.

    Now, I am cancer survivor who is well aware that just like the winter, cancer always comes back, especially the rare kind I was gifted with, even if it takes decades. Yes, cancer was a gift, and anyone who drew closer to GOD during theirs understands that. It is, however, a permanent, unwelcomed guest that never really leaves, but lies dormant in my cells, ready to leap at a moment’s notice, and all just to keep forcing that humble pie down my throat. 

     

  So, here I am eight years later, working on my eighth book, (eight meaning new beginning in Hebrew numerology) Google-able, yet, still a nobody. As a mother of eight in a small town, my house isn't all glass, but still too much of it is. I can't walk down main street without one of my children's friends letting them know that they saw me tripping over my own two left feet on that sidewalk, again. Failure in obscurity is fine with me. After eleven years in the fiery furnace of affliction, with the heat turned up to broil, I've learned that failure is the flour in humble pie, and it is way easier to deal with, and much more preferred than success. I know how to do failure very well, but I've never done success. Believe me when I say this, I'm scared to death of it! PUN intended. I'd almost rather fail my entire life, and let my work succeed after I am gone. That way GOD gets all the credit, all the glory and I'm just a stone in the ground. After all, Allen means stone!