16 “Go call your husband,” he told her,“and come back here.”

17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered.

“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

John 4:16-18

Wound Healer

Following the Samaritan woman's request to taste of the "living water," Jesus instructs her to go and get her husband. She responds 'I don't have a husband,' and Jesus goes on to tell her she has five husbands, and the man she now has is not her husband.There is typically two interpretations of this woman's lifestyle:

1. She is a serial adulterer who has had five husbands and is now with another man to whom she is not married.
2. She is a serial widow, in which all of her husbands have died.

Culturally, both of these realities would have been a reason for deep shame and pain, especially in her 1st-Century context. Regardless of how you interpret the Samaritan woman's situation, the point is that she has experienced a great wound and is marked by great shame. This gives evidence to her appearance at the well in the middle of the day and her willingness to give Jesus a half-truth in verse 17 ("I don't have a husband"). When discussing our wounds and/or our sin, we typically conflate the concepts of guilt and shame. Dr. Mark Yarhouse describes the distinction between guilt and shame in this way:GUILT = I have DONE WRONGSHAME = I AM WRONGI would argue that the Samaritan woman, considering the honor/shame culture, her appearance at well at mid-day, and her hesitation to tell Jesus the whole truth, was marked by the shame of sin. Have you ever been there before? I know I certainly have. That feeling of "there is something wrong with me, why can I now get this right," that low-grade feeling of your confidence being sucked out of your soul, one loss after another. Typically, it's that "thing" (be it a wound or sin) that the people around us tip-toe or avoid at all costs.Jesus, on the other hand, goes right to the source of the pain and meets it head-on. he tells her in verse 18, you've had five husbands. What you have said is right.Jesus addresses the wound not to injure but to heal. Not to agitate but to soothe. Jesus is offering her the living water that can fill her shame-drained soul.If you were honest with yourself today, what is your wound? What is the thing that has brought shame? Jesus wants to address it head-on and bring healing. No tiptoeing, no beating around the bush. He wants to make all things new.