The Woman at the Well

“but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.” — John 4:14 (ASV)

“The voice came to me as to Abraham,” Ramabai said later. “I went forth as Abraham, not knowing whither I went.” In England, Anglican sisters at Wantage, near Oxford, took her in, and one of them, almost certainly Sister Geraldine, became her “spiritual mother” and taught her English.

Then came two hard blows. Ramabai was already partly deaf, and she was told her deafness made it impossible to train as a doctor. She had crossed the sea for nothing, it seemed. Worse, a few months after they arrived, her friend Anandibai Bhagat took her own life. The reasons have never been clear. Some at the time suggested she feared being pressed to become a Christian; others saw other causes. Ramabai's published accounts never mention it. At twenty-five she had lost her parents, her sister, her brother, her husband and the friend who came with her. For a time, it seems, she was badly shaken.

If you have lost someone to suicide, or are struggling with thoughts of ending your life, please don't carry it alone. Tell a safe person: a parent, a pastor, a teacher, a doctor, or a crisis line where you live.

Then, in London, the sisters took her to a rescue home at Fulham, run by Christians for women who had been prostitutes. Many of those women now nursed the sick.

Here for the first time in my life, I came to know that something should be done to reclaim the so-called fallen women, and that Christians, whom Hindus considered outcasts and cruel, were kind to these unfortunate women, degraded in the eyes of society.

She had never seen anyone treat such women kindly. She asked what made Christians care for them. The sister read her John 4, the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. The woman belonged to a despised people. She had had five husbands. She came to the well alone at midday. And Jesus spoke to her, told her the truth about her life without condemning her, and offered her “living water.”

She spoke of the Infinite Love of Christ for sinners. He did not despise them but came to save them. I had never read or heard anything like this in the religious books of the Hindus. I realized, after reading the fourth chapter of St. John's Gospel, that Christ was truly the Divine Saviour He claimed to be, and no one but He could transform and uplift the downtrodden womanhood of India, and of every land.

“Thus my heart was drawn to the religion of Christ.” Her mind still needed reasons. They came from a book by Father Goreh on Hindu philosophy. “I was intellectually convinced of its truth on reading a book written by Father Goreh.” She needed both: an English sister showing her Christians who cared for outcasts, and an Indian Brahman convert showing her, in her own tradition of thought, why Christianity was true.

On 29 September 1883 she was baptised at Wantage, with Manorama, and took the name Mary. She was calm, not ecstatic. “I knew full well that it would displease my friends and my countrymen very much; but I have never regretted having taken the step.” Back in Poona, many were dismayed. For some of her countrymen, she has never been forgiven.

People come to faith by different roads. Some are moved by love they see in action; some need to think it through. Ramabai needed both, and God gave her both. If you're still asking questions, that's not a problem. And if you are a Christian, remember: someone may be watching how you treat the people everyone else looks down on, to decide whether Jesus is real.

One thing to do this week: read John 4:1-42 this week, the whole story. Notice how Jesus treats the woman, and write down one thing he does that surprises you.