The Samaritan Woman and Jesus

Read John 4:1:30

“But the hour coming, and now is , 

when the true worshippers will worship the Father 

in spirit and truth;

 for the Father is seeking such 

to worship Him.

                                                                                            John 4:23


Here is the story of the Samaritan woman. Jesus in speaking to her breaks the social rules of his day.
Samaritans and Jews had a great deal of problems with each other. They ridiculed each other’s holy places and generally would not tolerate each other. Even the Samaritan drinking vessels were ceremonially unclean to Jews.
The Samaritan woman was possibly a further outcast from her own people some have suggested in that she was at the well alone. The meaning being that possibly because of her life style, she’d had five husbands and was now living with a man not her husband, she was not welcome in most social circles.
On top of all of this in Jewish culture there was a gender barrier in force. Many of the teachers of Jesus day warned about talking to women you were not related too. The reasons being one could fall into temptation and one might get a bad reputation.
I feel here Jesus was giving an example to His disciples.
Here’s the modern day scenario. You could find yourself in.
You see a woman you vaguely know sitting in a coffee shop drinking coffee who well may be a so called ‘lady of the night’. You a man sit down and talk to her.
Immediately anyone who you know sees you and assumes the worst.
Are they not the guilty of Judging you without all the facts?
Jesus didn’t really care it seems about social mores of his day. He concentrated on doing the true will of God. On following God’s laws. He didn’t break any of them.
Speaking to the Samaritan woman was not against any of God’s laws.  Jesus had one purpose and one purpose alone to present the salvation message to the entire world.
The world in which Jesus lived was really a microcosm of the world as a whole. There was everything from a very secular civil authority who allowed wide range of practices to exist. A pantheon of god’s were worshipped, there were ethnic and social prejudices among the people.
Even among those who held God’s word, the Pharisees and Sadducees had differing opinions on God’s word.
There was a lot of customs and ritual built up that God had never intended to be there.
It was in this context that Jesus was teaching His disciples and us how to spread the gospel to the whole world.

 Something to think about

Many churches today for what seem to be very good reasons place restrictions on who can minister to who. Which is a good thing in many ways. It prevents the wrong message being given out.
Many churches have good rules about cross gender witnessing. These restrictions are necessary sometimes. It can and has on many occasions prevented the wrong message being sent out to both the parties involved and those who see them.
However if these rules become a barrier to spreading the gospel we should rethink those restrictions.