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From Hopelessness to Hope(Part One)
Jesus had just completed a ministry of approximately eight months in Judea. It had been a very active time for Him. He had cleansed the Temple and met with Nicodemus. He had been sharing a marvelous message accompanied by miraculous signs. But now, John the Baptist has been arrested for preaching the truth. John’s disciples are like sheep without a shepherd and in need of Jesus. The religious authorities are beginning to resent the Lord’s popularity, and the crowds are pressing Him. For these reasons, and perhaps others, Jesus travels north to Galilee. Generally, Jewish individuals making the trip from Galilee to Judea, or proceeding north as the Lord was, chose to take the seven-day journey by way of Perea. This way they avoided Samaria, the area between Judea and Galilee, and more so, avoided the Samaritan people. Samaritans were, in the eyes of the Jewish people, despised half-breeds. When the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrians, foreigners intermarried with Israelites and the resulting union further corrupted both the politics and the religion of the region. When Jews returned from the Babylonian Captivity to rebuild the walls, temple, and the nation, the resentment between the two factions was exacerbated. Reflecting on this hostility, Jesus used a parable of a Good Samaritan, an oxymoron to the Jewish mindset, to demonstrate who a real neighbor was. (See Luke 10:25-37) On this occasion, Jesus chose to take the three day trip through Samaria.
Not only was the trip shorter, it provided Him, in all likelihood, with
the opportunity to break down barriers and to lay the groundwork for future
work by Christians in this area. In Samaria, Jacob’s well, one half mile northwest of the small town of Sychar, was an ideal place to take a break. It was the sixth hour. (6:00 p.m. if John is using Roman time and 12:00 noon if he is using the Jewish standard) Jesus is tired and thirsty. His disciples leave Him at the well to go into town to purchase food. The well is not only the best place to secure a drink; it is also a great place to share information. And here she comes. Significantly alone. Water pot on her head and with an attitude. Usually women traveled to the well together to share labor and small talk. She was probably the topic of much of that small talk. And then, the unheard of; a Jewish man spoke to her. He asked her an apparently inconsequential question. She had no idea that His question would open the door to a life defining moment. “Will you give me a drink?” He was obviously thirsty and there was nothing unusual about that. But the foundation was laid to address a greater thirst, a thirst that this woman suffered from, a dying thirst of which she was not completely aware. “Excuse me?” I know that she did not actually use these words but the intent was undoubtedly there. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” We already know how the Jews felt about the Samaritans but this was even more significant. She was a Samaritan woman. Some Jewish men of that period prayed daily, “I thank God I was not born a Gentile or a woman.” Some rabbis taught that no Jewish man should speak to a woman in public, even his wife or his daughter. Some Pharisees would even close their eyes when they saw a woman on the city streets. As a result they would bump into objects resulting in minor injuries. These men became known as bruised and bleeding Pharisees due to this practice. When the disciples returned from Sychar with food (See John 4:27) they were surprised that He was talking with a woman. Additionally, the woman did not know what Jesus knew about her. Her past, her reputation, and her lifestyle were questionable at best. She was not the kind of woman that you would want to be seen with. You definitely would not want your son to take her on a date. Even other Samaritan women seemed to have little to do with her. You have to understand that she was just not our kind of people. If Jesus had been the typical rabbi, he would have gone and ceremonially washed himself having been in this woman’s presence. She was just a hopeless case and a case without hope.
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