As we continue in a story of Jesus and a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, Jesus has made a reasonable request for a drink of water from the woman, who is at the well to get water herself. So far, much of this account is probably fairly common in first-century Samaria.
After all, it seems like a request for a drink isn’t unusual or unrealistic. After all, Jesus just asked the woman for a drink, not a swimming pool’s worth of water or anything. However, there is something unexpected about this request, and the woman calls it out.
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
John 4:9 NIV
It makes sense for someone needing a drink to ask for water, especially from another person who showed up with the means and equipment (i.e., a bucket and maybe some rope) to get water from a well that was right there. However, there’s a cultural issue here: Jesus is a Jewish man, and the person with the bucket is a Samaritan woman.
You may know this from sermons and lessons that you’ve heard before, but in that day, “good” Jewish people did not talk to people from Samaria. The two nations were opposed to each other, and there was some messy history between the two groups. The Lookout describes that these two people would normally not talk for multiple reasons, including “gender, ethnic, religious, social, and cultural barriers”.
Remember (from the previous article) that it was farther to get from Judea to Galilee without going through Samaria? There were Jewish people in the first century who would do exactly that, though: take the long way around, just to avoid stepping foot in Samaria or encountering Samaritans, I guess.
And, with regard to Jesus speaking to a woman, a commentary [Bryant & Krause, p.116] suggests that a Jewish man in this culture would not talk with a woman in public at all – even his wife. (Today, though, I’m pretty sure that I would be in more trouble if I didn’t talk to my wife in public, no matter what the social norms were around me.)
Some centuries later, we might consider ourselves more enlightened than that. As Christians, we know that God loved the world. Still, there are groups who either don’t talk with each other, or if they do, there is a real risk of an argument or fight breaking out. For instance:
- Democrats and Republicans
- Browns fans and Steelers fans (at least, in the part of the United States where I reside)
- Calvinists and Arminians
- Those who love black licorice and those who hate black licorice
- Rich and poor
- …you get the idea
For many of us, there might still be people in this world today that we would just as soon take the long way home to avoid. (And, on occasion, there might be good reasons for doing so.) On the other hand, there could also be people who would take the long way home just to avoid us, too!
When living in a culture that sets up walls, though, we have a choice to make: We can separate people based on the most superficial of differences, and choose who we will – and won’t- speak to. Or, we can be like Jesus Christ, who didn’t care what other people thought about this woman, and was willing to strike up a conversation with her. He had helped create human beings in God’s image, after all, and knew that there was no reason not to speak to this woman in a polite manner.
So, the next time you need something, don’t pre-judge the person next to you too harshly. Just ask them if they could pass the ketchup (or salt or a tissue or anything else that you need but is out of reach). Who knows what God might do with that conversation?
From Sunday School lesson prepared for December 17, 2023
References:
- The Lookout, December 17, 2023, © 2023 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – John, by Beauford H. Bryant and Mark S. Krause. © 1998 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 