Jesus Crashes Through Barriers

John 4:5-42

Today, many states have “Good Samaritan” laws that make it easier for citizens to help others without incurring unnecessary liability. The words “Good” and “Samaritan” are tied together for most of us. Anybody who goes out of their way to help another person is often called a “Good Samaritan.” The Bible contains a parable of a ‘good Samaritan’ (Luke 10:25-37). The message is simple: care for one another.

But “Samaritan” has not always meant “Good.” In Jesus’ time, in first-century Judea, the word “Samaritan” did not dennote anyone good or well-regarded.

I have read this scripture section many times and generally focused on the words of Jesus introducing salvation to a Samaritan woman at a well. It is a beautiful story, but my previous casual reading of this text made me miss critical points in these ancient words.

To understand the text, we have to get a clearer picture of the historical context, specifically the racial realities of Biblical times. When Jesus was walking on this earth, there was already a centuries-old feud between Samaritans and Jews. This feud fueled racist attitudes.

The Jews and Samaritans were related. In 722 BC, the Assyrians invaded the Jewish territory and took the brightest and strongest back to Babylon; only the poor remained. Those taken to Babylon remained strict in Jewish practices; they only married each other. Those left behind intermarried with people of the surrounding nations and were later known as Samaritans.

A hundred years later, the observant Jews returned to Judea. This group of full-blooded Jews and their descendants came to despise the Samaritans. The Jews hated the Samaritans more than they even hated the gentiles. They resented that the Samaritans were now racially and religiously intermixed; Samaritans were mongrels in the eyes of Jews.

The hate ran deep. The most “religious” Jews hated Samaritans so much that if they needed to travel between Judea in the south and Galilee in the north, they would travel west into Perea, allowing them to bypass Samaria. Considering that travel time by foot was about two and a half days from Judea to Galilee, a detour of that magnitude was very taxing.

Another common belief by Jewish religious leaders at the time was that anything a Samaritan touched was ‘unclean.’ That meant drinking out of the same vessel would have been unthinkable. The prejudices against the Samaritans were good old-fashioned ‘racism.’ as in the American segregation era, African-Americans could not drink from the same water fountains as whites.

Racism is rampant in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. We often miss racism in the Scriptures because we do not see our modern words in the text. However, by taking a closer look at the historical context, we will see that this is indeed a story of racism and how Jesus broke through those racial barriers.

Racism is rooted in ideas of racial supremacy, purity, or systemic power, denying individuals or groups their inherent, God-given dignity to live in their customs. That Critical Race Theorists and Social Justice Warriors who seek dominance over those they regard as abusively dominant still qualifies as racism.

Enter Jesus and the Samaritan woman 700-plus years later. Jesus was a rabbi, and rabbinical standards of that time dictated that any “good” Jew would not go near a Samaritan.

But what does Jesus, the rabbi, do? He didn’t take the long route through Perea to get from Galilee to Judea.

he needed to go through Samaria (John 4:4)

He had a divine appointment, even if the Samaritan woman had no idea what awaited her.

Jesus broke the racism barrier when He engaged the Samaritan woman in conversation; he also broke the social norm about women.

In Jewish culture, Rabbis did not speak to women in public, not even their female relatives, including their wives, sisters, and daughters. They took this so seriously that they would close their eyes when a woman approached them. For a man to speak to a woman in public was unthinkable. Women belonged to their husbands like property; for another man to tamper with that property invited scorn and suspicion.

Jesus tore down the barriers against women by talking to the Samaritan woman. He was talking to her without anyone else being around! Jesus did these things throughout his ministry to free women from societal norms and expectations that did not fully allow them to serve God.

When he reached the Samaritan city of Sychar, he sat at the well and asked the Samaritan woman for a drink. With these simple words,

“Give me a drink” (John 4:7)

Jesus broke down centuries of cultural, social, and racial biases. Why? By asking the woman for a drink, He was saying,

“I am willing to drink out of the same vessel as you because you are not unclean but worthy.”