Living With Unmet Longing: A Study of the Woman at the WellSample

At times, loving people means disrespecting social norms. That’s the example Jesus set in John 4:1-42.

As twenty-first century readers, the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well doesn’t shock us like it would have shocked John’s original audience. Jesus broke a handful of social, religious, and gender rules by initiating this conversation.

First, he was speaking with a woman. When Jesus walked the earth, women had next to zero rights. Women weren’t partners—they were property. Engaging a woman like this was awkward, maybe even indecent.

Not only was she a woman, but she was also a Samaritan. The Samaritans were distant cousins of the Jews, descended from the northern tribes of Israel that broke off from the southern half almost a millennia before that hot, dusty day at the well. Jews in the southern kingdom saw themselves racially “pure” and superior to the Samaritans.

Jews and Samaritans also disagreed on faith practices. The Samaritans read an altered version of the ancient scriptures. And they believed God should be worshiped on Mount Gerizim in their territory—not in Jerusalem.

In short, Jews and Samaritans despised each other. They had been fighting for hundreds of years. The historian Josephus tells a wild story about a group of Samaritans who snuck into the Jewish temple late at night during the Passover. They brought human bones with them, spreading them throughout the temple and desecrating the Jews’ most holy space.

Jesus and his disciples had a run-in with Samaritans in Luke 9, when a Samaritan village rejected and ridiculed them. Two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, were so enraged they asked Jesus if he wanted them to “call down fire from heaven to destroy them.” [Cue eyeroll from Jesus].

Given the cultural and religious tension of the situation, the woman’s question, “Why are you asking me for a drink?” is understandable.

What follows in this story—and the next few days of this study—is a powerful display of the gospel love of Jesus Christ. Nothing can stand between him and his chosen people.

For today, let’s close with this prayer:

Lord, please give me a radical love for people who think, believe, and act differently than I do. Give me the courage to break social norms that keep hurting people in the dark so they can know how much you love them. In Jesus’ name, amen.