Read: John 4:1-42

Earlier in this chapter, Jesus is met at Jacob’s well by a Samaritan woman, who has come to draw water. How very beautifully Jesus overleaps the various barriers that separated him from this woman. He was a rabbi, and according to the rabbinical law, rabbis were instructed to never talk to a woman in public—not even to their own wives or sisters. In fact the rabbinical law said, It is better to burn the law than to give it to a woman. In that culture women were regarded as totally unable to understand complicated subjects like theology and religion.

But notice how Jesus treats her. He could judge something about her from the circumstances of her being at this well. Although there was another well in the village, as a moral outcast she was forced to come all the way out to this well, half a mile away. Meeting her, our Lord understood this to be a sign from his Father that here was one of those sinners whom he came to call to repentance. He himself said on one occasion, I did not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners (Mt 9:13). He probably knew more about this woman’s history than this introduction suggests, because later he tells her some facts about herself that he evidently knew. He had been through this small village several times, and had probably heard something about her. Now to have her meet him at the well is to him an indication that God the Father wanted to reach out to her.

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