Jesus & The Woman At The Well Counter Christian Nationalism

The story of Jesus and the “Woman at the Well” in John 4 counters the misogyny of Christian Nationalism and offers an alternative to toxic masculinity.

Woman drawing water from a well — Woman at the well. Photo by Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz on Pexels.com

Grab ‘em…

In October of 2016, a tape was released of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump bragging about the things he could do to women because of his stardom. The infamous line, “grab ’em by the p*ssy,” should have ended his bid for the presidency. Instead, it was barely a bump in the road.

In retrospect, this incident was a foreshadowing of the misogyny that would become a defining feature of the Trump administration both then and now.

Take, for instance, the administration’s handling of the Epstein files. The cover-up points to a world-wide network of wealthy, powerful men who pay for the privilege of exploiting, raping, and torturing young girls and women with impunity.

Also, the National Partnership for Women and Families counted 35 ways the administration harmed women just in the first 100 days of the second term. These include policies that remove protections in workplaces, threaten women’s health, and violate their civil rights.

And if the SAVE Act moving through Congress is passed, it will create unfair and unnecessary barriers to voting, especially for married women, women of color, and transgender individuals.

What do the attacks on women have to do with Christianity and Jesus?

What many Christians may not realize is that this disdain and exploitation of women is deeply rooted in the dangerous patriarchy of Christian nationalism. Fortunately, there is a story about Jesus and the woman at the well l that can help us counter and resist this disdain for and mistreatment of women.

But first, let’s get a handle on the misogyny of Christian nationalism.

Project 2025 targeted women’s rights and wellbeing.

Midway through Joe Biden’s presidency, The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, designed a policy roadmap called Project 2025. The 900-page document launched in 2023 included policies that would uniquely impact women. These policies included a restriction on federal funding for abortion, the removal of “gender equality” language from government websites, and reducing access to contraception.

Women’s advocacy groups estimate that half of this Christian-nationalist blueprint to remake the federal government had been enacted by December 2025. This includes restricting women’s reproductive freedoms, eliminating rights and protections of LGBTQIA individuals, and overturning policies tied to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in education and the military.

The ideology of Christian Nationalism undergirds these policies.

I define Christian Nationalism as a political ideology that distorts and weaponizes Christian teachings to legitimize and advance an aggressively patriarchal, racist, and ethnocentric agenda. [Read: Resist Christian Nationalism in Lent, Matthew 4:1-11.]

The patriarchy of Christian Nationalism has two key characteristics: purity culture and toxic masculinity.

Purity culture

In her book, Red State Christians, Angela Denker suggests that Evangelical Christian women who helped deliver Trump to the White House are conditioned by the “purity culture” of conservative patriarchal Christianity. They see themselves as possessions of men rather than as human beings with their own rights. In this ideology, women are merely “vessels” for bearing children. Further, they are to make themselves available to men as a sign of their purity before God. So, the president’s depraved notion that women want to be sexually grabbed and raped was not too far off from this distorted worldview.

Purity culture is part of the toxic masculinity of Christian Nationalism which “is a movement by, for, and in support of men,” Denker says (178). Carter Heyward adds that the sin of misogyny feeds the culture of Christian Nationalism. Ambivalence, dislike, prejudice, hatred, and violence are all manifestations of misogyny which men direct toward women. Women also direct misogyny at each other and even toward themselves. “Misogyny teaches girls and women to disparage ourselves in relation to men,” Heyward says, (91).

Toxic Masculinity

In her book, The Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood, Denker argues that a distorted, hyper‑masculine image of Jesus has profoundly shaped white Evangelical culture in destructive ways, especially the formation of boys and young men. She names this distortion “White Jesus”: a racialized, nationalist, warrior‑like Christ who urges dominance, aggression, and control. This heresy is an affront to the crucified, compassionate Jesus of the Gospels.

The story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well counters the misogyny and toxic masculinity of Christian Nationalism. It happens to be the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday of Lent in the Revised Common Lectionary this year (John 4:5-42). So, it couldn’t come at a better time for preachers and congregations who are working to resist Christian nationalism in Lent.

Jesus and the Woman at the Well

Illustration of hand reaching into well — Jesus gives the woman at the well “living water.” Image by CDD20 on Pixabay.

The story of Jesus’s encounter at the well with the woman from Samaria stands in stark contrast to the misogyny and toxic masculinity displayed by Trump and other men of his ilk. There’s no grabbing of anything or anyone here. Jesus does not forcibly take anything from the woman. Instead, he asks her for water and engages her in respectful conversation. Eventually, their encounter leads to her restoration in the community.

But isn’t she an impure woman because of all those husbands?

Some assume her to be a woman with loose morals who serially divorced and remarried like a Hollywood starlet. Many preachers inadvertently reinforce this false narrative by insisting that she was sinful because of her many husbands. But we must understand the misogyny and purity culture of the time in which this text was written so that we can disabuse this false idea.

In her culture, women were the property of their husbands. She likely had no say in her first, second, third, fourth, or fifth marriages. And when Jesus met her, she was in a precarious situation living with someone who was not her husband.

In other words, she was an extremely vulnerable woman. And she had been ostracized by other woman in her town, evidenced by her needing to go to the well alone in the heat of the day. Thus, she had no rights, no financial means, no support system, and no hope for a better future.

Jesus’s gift of “living water”

What’s stunning here is that Jesus did not define this woman by the misogynistic standards of her culture. He spoke to her as a human being.

Jesus asked her for water, putting himself in a position of humility. He then offered her her the “living water” that became in her “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (v. 14). As a result, “purity” no longer defined her personhood. Instead, she testified about Jesus to her neighbors, and they listened to her. Jesus empowered her, affirmed her, and trusted her to bring the message of his ministry to her community.

This story challenges us to rethink how we view and treat women burdened by social stigma and injustice. Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well models a radically different way of relating to all women. This story counters Christian Nationalism by insisting that women deserve respect, dignity, and empowerment rather than judgment and control.

Further, this narrative calls the church to embody a ministry that restores, uplifts, and honors the full humanity of every person, especially women. It invites us to offer the “living water” of respect, hope, healing, and inclusion to those whom society has cast aside. Ultimately, this message not only transforms individuals like this woman but entire communities when they orient toward love and justice.

Preaching about Jesus and the Woman at the Well

A sermon about Jesus and the woman at the well can “push beyond misogyny into fluid experiences of gender and non-dualistic images of our bodies and experiences of our sexualities,” as Heyward puts it (192). This, in turn, can open listeners to new experiences and expressions of what it means to be respected in one’s own body.

In this way, the preacher can create space to offer alternatives to toxic, misogynistic masculinity. Churches can be places where men and boys explore vulnerability, pursue a life of service, and seek solidarity with the oppressed. Preachers can find examples of this space-making for alternative masculinity in Denker’s The Disciples of White Jesus. She urges churches to reclaim practices that form boys and men with honest conversations about racism and history while guiding them toward emotional awareness. She gives examples of communities where men can confess, grieve, and change without being shamed.

Over time, guided by Jesus’s model, we might wash away toxic masculinity and purity culture with “living water.” We can celebrate women and all genders as diverse expressions of the Divine.

Central Question, Central Claim, Central Purpose

(The Central Question, Central Claim, and Central Purpose statements are a way to organize and provide direction for a sermon that I developed in the book Introduction to Preaching: Scripture, Theology, and Sermon Preparation (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013). Here are possible Central Statements for a sermon countering Christian Nationalism based on John 4.)

Central Question.

What does the story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well teach us about the value, worth, and dignity of women as we counter the misogyny of “purity culture” and toxic masculinity in Christian Nationalism today?

Central Claim.

Just as Jesus respected, empowered, affirmed, and trusted the proclamation of women, so the church can insist on the validity of women’s rights, equity, and justice.

Central Purpose.

A sermon on Jesus and the Woman at the Well deconstructs the purity culture of Christian Nationalism and washes away toxic masculinity with the “living water” that celebrates women and all genders as diverse expressions of the Divine.

Resist Christian Nationalism in Lent, Matthew 4:1-11

The Canaanite Woman Took a Knee (Matt. 15:21-28)