John 4:7-10, The Samaritan Woman

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."  8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)  9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 

We may not understand the radicalness of the greeting Jesus gives this woman without the following background. In his day there were two deep prejudices: one against Samaritans and the other against women. Recall our description from yesterday about the Samaritans. To the Jewish leadership headquartered in Jerusalem, they were traitors to their faith and of mixed race. 

And in regard to women, rabbinic citations such as the following illustrate the attitudes of the day: “A man should not talk with a woman on the street, not even with his own wife, and certainly not with somebody else’s wife, because of the gossip of men,” and “It is forbidden to give a woman any greeting.” Jesus spoke to her deliberately breaking the social norms of the day. Jesus came to tear down prejudicial and sexist barriers and gather a new, more inclusive people of God based on his divine standards, not human constructs. 

Jesus invites her to ask him for “living water.” It is an offer to join the new people of God, to break through the exclusivity and prejudices of humankind, and, as he said to Nicodemus, to “be born again.” “Living water” is Biblical image for salvation in relationship to God (e.g., Jeremiah 2:13, 17:13; Genesis 2; Ezekiel 36, 47; Revelation 22). 

Are you thirsty for more of God in your life? Ask the Lord to fill you today with his living water in prayer and worship.