This is one of my favorite scriptures.

Joh 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
Joh 4:17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto
her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
Joh 4:18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is
not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.


I think that people who have dealt with a divorce and those that have
dealt with the death of a spouse can view this differently but what she
said, "I have no husband" means the same thing. It can seem like a
riddle when you read it though.

It is interesting how different people interpret the Bible differently.
One pastor (!!?) said he can make Bible say whatever he wants it to say.
Well, God is Love and Mercy. It is quite often religious people who
condemn other people while God does not condemn people for God has
created people and loves His creatures (for God is not willing that
anyone should perish...). In the Bible Jesus was angry with.... the
religious folks and it was religious folks who wanted to execute Him by
turning him to Romans. Jesus put in example the Samaritan (the Good
Samaritan story) to religious people who despised Samaritans (they were
better than Samaritans!!) and religious people were furious. Jesus said
to adulterous woman who was caught in adultery: I do not condemn you;
while religious people wanted to throw stones at her. Jesus said:
whoever is without sin first throw stone at her; and all religious folks
left. Now, who is it without sin that, metaphorically speaking, throws
stones at other people who are divorced, or remarried, or whatever? (The
word "Sin", by the way, comes from archery meaning "missing the mark",
or "missing the point".) It is time for religious people to stop missing
the point and start to love our neighbour as ourself.

Good point. We have to forgive ourselves for our own guilt, too. I
especially liked you insight into how Jesus had trouble dealing with
fanatics. To me God is love and Jesus just obeyed the will of the father
by showing love to the woman at the well by standing up for her. Love is
the answer. Any adjective of where, why, what, when or how is just the
question before the answer.

Well, actually Jesus did not have trouble at all handling all kinds of
situations. He handled it all brilliantly. Quite often religious people
were trying to "trap" him in order to embarrase and discredit him
publicly. One example when people asked Him if Jewish people should pay
taxes to Romans or not. Jesus Himself is a Jew and His first followers
were Jewish also. So here is the situation: Jesus is surrounded by Jews
and Romans, if He answeres: yes, Jewish people should pay taxes to
Ceasar (well, to Romans that is), then He would loose followers for they
would consider Him to be a traitor to Jewish people. If He answeres: no,
Jewish people should not pay taxes to Ceasar then Romans would accuse
Him of starting the rebellion against Rome and arrest Him. So what did
Jesus do? He said: you are testing me. Show me the coin. Whose name and
signature is on the coin? People answered: Ceasar's. So Jesus said: Then
give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God give that what belongs
to God. Anyway, returning to the woman at the well; she was Samaritan.
Samaritans accepted Jesus while His own people rejected him. The point
Jesus was making talking to a Samaritan woman was to bring her to God.
Remember in the Bible she (the Samaritan woman)left her water jar and
went to town to tell people: look, I found the prophet at the well who
told me everything I ever did (her "husband" situation), could He be the
Messiah?. Samaritan people came to the well where Jesus was and
eventually did accepted Him as Messiah.

One might even go as far to say that Jesus had a survival instinct and
that shows in his wisdom. Although he knew the letter of the law put the
people in the right he had to look past that in many situations and look
at the spirit of the law which is to love thy neighbor as thyself which
was a point that you already made. He was tempted in many ways and the
easier way might have been just to stand back and watch the lady at the
well be stones but instead of choosing to rationalize and justify their
behavior like a good Jew he gained unpopularity with some folks and
became popular with others. He even gave the story of the good
Samaritan. Ultimately his last choice to do the will of the father was
his own death. One can see that love can lead to martyrdom. But since
the ultimate sacrifice has already been paid it would only be suicidal
and the waste of one's life or like James Dean who was a rebel without a
cause. I think it is a good lesson in cause and effect.