Sitting at the Well

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)  John 4:5-7

When you read  “Samaritan”, just replace it with any modern stand in for “outsider”: illegal

immigrant, refugee, Muslim, atheist ,.... For Jews living in Jesus’ day no one had greater outsider status than the Samaritans. They had a pretty major quibble with Judean Jewish people about some things that might seem pretty minor to us today. They were even more “outsider” than Roman citizens, believe it or not. Pretty risky to talk with a Samaritan, much less make friends with her. 

Jesus drinking from one of their wells would have been pretty gross for most of his fellow Judeans. So, not only does he drink the water of “the other” he has a conversation with one of them (and a woman—yet another level of outsider back in that day—to boot). You get it.

Later on in the scene, Jesus says to 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 (8).” He offers her his friendship, God’s friendship, and a new way to relate to God that includes not only her, but all people. Jesus winds up staying with the Samaritans for two days, and at the end of his time they say, “…we know that this is truly the savior of the world (42).” Jesus spends his “social capital” on this anonymous woman because she is a child of God.

As you find  yourself sitting across from someone who is “other” for you- be it a person who disagrees with you, or someone who looks or sounds different, or even someone you just find annoying, put yourself in the position of being curious about how you might be able to find out who they are and “sit at the well” with them. Not only that, but see if you might find a way to spend some of your “social capital” on them and make them a more welcome part of the world you live in.