The Woman at the Well

" Jesus came to a town  of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to this son Joseph.  Jacob's well was there.  Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.  A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.' His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to Him, 'How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?'  --For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.--
Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink', you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.'  The woman said to Him, 'Sir, you do  to even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water?'  Jesus answered and said to her, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.' "--[ John 4: 5-42].


The Samaritans lived in Samaria, to the North of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, in what is now mostly the West Bank. The Samaritans claimed that they were the only "true" original Israelites who had stayed in the Land of Israel, vs. adherents to Judaism who had been merely returnees from their exile to Babylonian Captivity, bringing back an "adulterated version" of the religion.

That Jesus, as an Israeli Jew, was expected to not associate with a Samaritan is made very clear. In fact, some Biblical scholars believe that the Samaritan woman at the well had to travel over 1/2 mile back to her village to fetch water from the Samaritan well.

Our modern selves want to cry "Injustice" at this discrimination. But we would be hypocrites to do so!

Growing up, I remember much family talk pointing out people's differences. This was not a matter of neutral observation. My family judged others simply for being different than ourselves.

Calling someone Latino, Polish, Italian, Irish, Jewish etc, was clearly a pejorative. My father would lecture us that our race (English) was a superior race. When my sibling and I laughed at this absurdity, my father would say, "What are you laughing at?! I am deadly serious."

Today, even in our "modern times",  evangelical Christians treat Catholics as "the wrong kind of Christian." Protestants don't intermingle with Jews or Muslims; they don't even interact with Christians of different denominations.

World leaders, of England, of France, of America, of Holland run on isolationist platforms.

School children in American inner cities attend schools where the roof leaks, there is inadequate heat and rats run through the hallways. A suburban student would not even recognize their urban brothers' and sisters's schools as belonging to the same country.

When I went to college many decades ago, I met more than a few white students who had never seen a black person before. These students would whisper to me, asking for advice on how to behave around people of color. I would bet there are plenty of people in America still, who have never seen a person of another ethnicity or color before.

In many instances, when a person in America finds out that a long-time friend voted in the last election for the "wrong candidate", that "friend" stops speaking to the other. The relationship abruptly ends. We cannot even TALK to each other any more?!

People mischaracterize Christians as those who point fingers, spend their lives as the Morality Police and generally judge others harshly. Actually, in this Scripture, the one true Christian, Christ Himself, approaches a Samaritan (the "wrong kind of Jew"), he interacts with a woman in public (another no-no), AND he converses with a sinner -- all in the same woman!

I am reminded that Sin is nothing more than separation. When we separate ourselves from God, when we separate ourselves from each other, that is the beginning of Sin. Adam and Eve descended into  Original Sin when they separated themselves from God's command, and they hid from Him in shame.

If Sin is separation, then we as humans need to do a lot more work on ruling people IN, not ruling them out.

Jesus teaches us that no one is "untouchable". Rules that separate us are meant to be broken. He conversed with the Samaritan woman at the well. He kissed the leper. He broke bread with tax collectors.

I talk to everyone and I treat everyone the same, with kindness and respect-- the guy who is homeless; the guy in a wheelchair who can't walk and who can barely speak; the baby who is preverbal and has nothing to say; the Muslim woman in a head scarf; the Jewish lady who runs the Kosher deli at the market. I don't stand on ceremony or shy away because of societal labels.

Neither did Jesus. . . We need to dispense with the labels and talk to each other. And that begins with a simple, Hello.

[Related Posting: "The Living Water", 3/23/14].

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