In the fourth chapter of the Gospel According to John, the author recounts the story of Jesus’ interaction with a Samaritan women at Jacobs well. Jesus and his disciples have been working in parallel with John the Baptist and began baptizing more people than John. This drew the attention of the religious leaders and created anxiety for them, Jesus knew they would be coming to question him next.
At this point, Jesus decides to head for home, Galilee, but he chooses an unusual path through Samaria. When the Jewish people traveled to and from Jerusalem and Galilee, they usually avoided going through Samaria and would cross the Jordan to the east to make their way. The Samaritans and the Jewish people hated each other.
They had different customs, heritage, a different Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) and both they experienced God’s presence in different places. Those practicing Judaism believed that making contact with a Samaritan would render them ceremonially unclean and the Samaritans where not hospitable to pilgrims passing through their territory. All this sets the stage for Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan women at the well of Jacob.
The text tells us that the encounter took place at noon. Most of the time water was drawn in the early morning or evening while it was cool. The fact the she was there at noon, when no one else was likely to be there, tells us something about her relationship with the people in her village. And yet, Jesus crosses a cultural and gender boundary by speaking with a women who is unaccompanied by a male relative. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jesus asked her for water. He knew that having her draw it, or using a cup that she had touched would render him ceremonially unclean.
After a conversation about the living water that Jesus offers, he asked the women to go and get her husband. She confesses what Jesus already knows. She has been married five times and the person she is with, at present, is not her husband. This is why she was considered an outcast and was at the well at noon. Now Jesus crosses another cultural boundary… he does not condemn her for her past.
Lastly, Jesus confronts the religious differences and makes it plain that we worship in spirit and where we do that is immaterial. This would have not only upset the Samaritans, but the religious leaders of Judaism, at the time, would have been outrage.
Jesus had crossed the boundaries of race, gender, class, and faith traditions in just forty-two verses. The women from Samaria, which he met at a well during the heat of the day, became his best evangelist in her village!
These last few years, and especially these last few months, we have seen an unprecedented level of activity, probably the greatest since the civil rights movement, working toward ending systemic racism. People are exercising their rights to peaceful protest, free speech and the right to assemble. These rights are fundamental to our democratic way of life. They help keep this grand experiment alive to meet the evolving needs of our democracy. What we are seeing in the exercise of these rights is good and necessary. But, these rights would not be being exercised if first, the hearts and minds of people where not changed. The greatest force for change is in each and every one of us. All positive change begins, in people’s hearts and minds. In John’s account we see the example of Jesus changing the hearts and minds of the woman first, then Jesus ‘disciples when they returned to the well, and finally the villagers. Maybe we should follow Jesus’ example and take on oppression when we encounter it and stand up for the perceived “others” in our world.