The long-standing hatred between the Jewish people and Palestinians has its roots over three thousand years ago, when the Assyrian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Israel and when the Babylonians conquered Judah. These empires left people behind in the land, who married men from these kingdoms and established their own traditions. The Jews who returned from exile in Babylon thought of them as traitors and sellouts. The Samaritans resented the Jews and their temple. By the time of Jesus, Jews would go out of their way to avoid traveling through Samaria. Jesus and His disciples did not.
The woman at the well had good reason to be surprised by Jesus. For him to take water from her would make Him ritually unclean — unable to make sacrifices in the temple or enter the synagogue. More than that, she was considered a very immoral woman, the kind even Samaritans warned their sons to avoid. By speaking with her, Jesus showed her unexpected love and mercy.
Jesus engages her in a spiritual discussion by speaking of living water. At first, she may not have understood what he meant. She thought it would be great to be able to go without drawing water from a well! Jesus followed up by telling her things that he could not possibly know — she had been married five times and now lived with a man to which she was not married! Now she knew Jesus had to be a prophet and needs to know how to make things right with God.
Jesus told her things had changed; He is the Messiah! She went back to town and brought her friends to hear him teach. For two days, Jesus stayed with them. So it was that the first Gentiles came to faith in Jesus.
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
©2022 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com
Did you really mean, “. . . stayed with him?” How about “them”?
Good catch. Corrected!