Jesus & the woman at the well

John 4:4-9

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 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.)

Verse 4 - We know from verse 3 that Jesus is headed from Judea to Galilee and the most direct route would be right through Samaria. However, the Jewish people of that time considered the Samaritans to be an impure, mixed-race people. In order to avoid the Samaritans entirely, the Jews would usually travel the long way around instead of going through Samaria. So since Jesus could have traveled by a different route, perhaps he "had to go through Samaria" because that was God's mission for him!

Verses 5 & 6 - Scholars and historians suggest that the town of Sychar would have had it's own well in the middle of town in addition to this well out by the road. The "sixth hour" refers to 12:00 noon, which is an unusual time for the woman to come draw water. This woman's poor reputation, which we find out more about later in this chapter, has caused her to go to a well outside of town in the heat of the day in hopes of avoiding the other women of the town.

Verses 7-9 - This situation presents many reasons why Jesus need not or should not talk with her:
- She is a Samaritan and we see it noted that "Jews don't associate with Samaritans"
- She is a woman and Jewish religious leaders of that time rarely spoke to women in public
- She has a bad reputation... which of course Jesus knows about (because he's God! =). Plus, later in the chapter Jesus reveals that he knows all about her and her past.

Jesus doesn't let any of these supposed boundaries stop him from engaging this woman in conversation! We'll see that later in the passage he begins to share with her about the amazing gift of eternal life that he can offer!

Are there cultural, societal, personal or other restrictions that stop us from interacting with and loving people who are different than us?