Vol.12 No.4

Crime and Punishment
Two Women. Two Crimes. Two Different Punishments. What Made the Difference?
By Barbara Graham

I thumbed quickly through the magazine, skimming the latest news about the war in Afghanistan. Then I saw the shocking, color picture!

With his back to the camera, a large, bearded man in a black robe and turban was raising a metal rod over a small, bent figure draped in blue. The caption read: “A woman is flogged in Kabul for removing her veil.”

Forcing myself to read the story, I learned about the Taliban’s “relentless oppression” of women in Afghanistan. One mark of this oppression was the blue, head-to-toe-covering known as a burka, which some Muslim women were required by law to wear in public. Violation of this law could result in a public beating. (U.S. News & World Report, October 15, 2001, “Unveiled Threat,” pp. 32, 33)

While that particular issue dealt with the Taliban—Islamic radicals believed to be responsible for the September 11 tragedy—it also pointed out that there were Islamic men who treated women with decency and respect.

I couldn’t help but contrast that story on oppression of Muslim women with a similar Bible story about another Middle Eastern woman who was also guilty of violating her country’s moral law. But how different was her treatment.

THE WELL

The story is recorded in John 4:1-42.

Jesus was traveling to Galilee, “And he must needs go through Samaria.” The phrase “must needs” indicates compulsion. There was a providential reason for Him to travel to Samaria, where people were bitter enemies of the Jews.

Tired and thirsty, Jesus rested at Jacob’s Well, while His disciples went to purchase food. A Samaritan woman who had come for water soon joined Him. Though fully aware of the animosity between Samaritans and Jews, as well as the social prohibitions between men and women, Jesus asked her for a drink.

Surprised, the woman inquired, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealing with the Samaritans.” But in her culture, no one would deny such a favor, even to a “despised” Jew, so she agreed.

Jesus’ divine love was tactfully searching for the key to this heart. His trust was awakening her trust. He asked her a small favor, that He might grant a greater one: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”

She sensed something different about Him. His conversation had none of the veiled flirtations with which other men approached her. His respectful, but no-nonsense manner changed her frivolous attitude. He isn’t like the others, she thought. He’s much more serious. And what did He mean by “living water”?

THE WATER

Underneath her trite conversation and joking demeanor, Jesus saw one who was seeking reconciliation with God, one for whom Providence had arranged their meeting. He continued, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

She did not fully understand but sensed that He was offering her more than physical water from a well. Somewhat hesitantly, she asked, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”

Jesus was offering her the “water” of eternal salvation, a personal knowledge of Himself and His mission. But before she could fully accept and appreciate this gift, the sin in her life had to be acknowledged and forgiven.

“Go, call thy husband, and come hither,” He told her.

“I have no husband,” she answered curtly. Clearly, she didn’t want this matter pursued.

With heavenly wisdom and love, He gently continued, “Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.”

Fear overcame her. How did this stranger know that she was living in sin? She had longed for relief from the crushing guilt of her adulterous life, but did not know where to turn. Could He—a Jew—help her? She trembled at the thought of being exposed, yet, she sensed that He was trying to help her.

She acknowledged, “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet,” then abruptly turned to another subject, not wanting the painful wounds to be probed any further. “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Most Jewish teachers could not resist  a controversial, theological argument about which was the proper location to worship— Jerusalem with the Jews or at Mt. Gerizim, where the Samaritans worshiped.

But Jesus was not like most Jewish teachers. He was seeking to break down the barriers of nationalism, sexism, and traditionalism between the Jews and Samaritans. Had the Samaritans been under Jewish law, the woman could have been stoned to death. Looking past this troubled, outcast soul, Jesus saw her potential. She had studied about the coming Messiah. The Holy Spirit was leading her to recognize Jesus as such, and she could not dismiss these thoughts. “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” She wondered, Could this Man be the Messiah?

The opportunity had come and Jesus seized it: “I that speak unto thee am he.”

THE WITNESS

As her faith took hold of His announcement, she sprang into action. She forgot her agreement to quench His thirst. Excitedly, she returned to her village to spread the good news—the Messiah was here! “The woman left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”

What brought about the change in this woman’s life?

Jesus’ kind, respectful, forgiving treatment of an outcast Middle Eastern woman, living in open sin, contrasts sharply with the treatment of the woman being beaten under the Taliban regime. One blessing of the Afghanistan War was to see women freed from their cultural tyranny.

But how much more of a blessing to see all Islamic people, men, women, and children, freed from their shackles of false religious practices, because they, like the woman at Jacob’s Well, had an encounter with Jesus Christ.

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36.

* Barbara Graham, an associate editor for Last Generation, enjoys reading, writing, and being out in nature.