Jesus and The Samaritan

My relationship with the Bible is complicated. Anyone who spends time reading the Bible has to acknowledge that there are stories and ideologies within it that are not only confusing, but downright problematic. Please understand that when I say complicated and confusing, I do not mean that it is not sacred. In fact, I would argue that our most profound and sacred relationships in this life are confusing and complicated. 

More than once are we given a picture in scripture of wrestling with faith or with God – and for good reason. In our current culture, we have moved away from the practice of mining and searching out truth (this is not limited to the Bible). Instead, when a passage of the Bible is challenging, we either completely toss it aside as irrelevant or we doubledown on dogma and place the Bible level with the Trinity as resolute and too Holy to interrogate. 

The Bible should not be viewed from such extremes or as a handbook in which we passively glean antidotes for a “good” life. Instead, we should acknowledge that the Bible is a fleeting glimpse into the person, the very heart, of God. What other book introduces humanity to the essence of God? And, just like when we get to know anyone, we must do a little work and possibly that work looks like wrestling – it is profoundly sacred. 

One of my favorite things about the Bible is how dynamic it is. The insights found within it often change as our life circumstances evolve without disrupting the fundamental truths of God. This quality of the Bible is so important in a year filled with unimaginable challenges.There have been moments during this year of uncertainty, fear, and change where it felt like humanity, not just society, was under attack. Many like myself, white and privileged, did not understand that our complacency had contributed to the ongoing systematic racism that infiltrates all facets of the American life.  As the COVID crisis escalated, so did the awareness of racial injustice until it reached a long overdue tipping point.

It was from this state that my mind turned to the Biblical story of the Samaritan woman at the well and its surprising and uncanny relevance today. In the scriptural account, Jesus is traveling through Sychar, a town in Samaria, and stops for a drink at the town well. There he meets a woman who self identifies as a marginalized person when she states, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (John 4:9). This simple, one sentence question is filled with significance. The woman is surprised by Jesus’ request because of their gender and racial difference. Jesus’ position as a Jew, the historically dominant culture, would prevent public interaction with a Samaritan because of social, political, and even religious boundaries. Jesus is not bothered by these human-built barriers and demonstrates this by interacting with, and even requesting help from, the woman. He is setting the example for his followers to befriend outsiders. This story is a referendum on race and Jesus is deconstructing the systematic paradigms that had been used by the Jewish people to exclude the Samaritans. Jesus’ unlikely request for water evolves into an even more unlikely conversation between him and the woman about culture and religion leading to His revelation as the Messiah.

This passage from the New Testament has been made famous from the pulpit as an allegory to women everywhere on the importance of a virtuous and chaste life because Jesus asks the Samaritan woman about her husband. We learn in this passage of scripture that she has had multiple husbands and currently lives, unwed, with a man when “Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” (John 4:16-18) The typical exegesis of this passage offers the Samaritan woman as a shunned, disgraced woman with her veritable scarlet letter pinned to her garments. She is scorned for her many marriages and her unchaste lifestyle, which is presented as an archetype that virtuous women of God should avoid becoming. The cast is set. We are only left to conclude that a woman of virtue cannot be found in this passage. And yet, why would Jesus reveal himself as the long awaited Messiah to this unchaste woman? 

While inferences can certainly be made regarding the Samaritan woman, I would argue that the crux of the story is not centered around the woman’s marriages but rather her race. She is a Samaritan. She is on the bottom rung of the social ladder and so this story must be told from her vantage point to truly grasp the significance of Jesus’ interaction with her. It cannot be understated as to how unusual it was for someone like Jesus, a Jewish man, to cross the invisible lines of social norms in this way. Jesus’ disregard for the social and religious order of the day is significant, not just to the Samaritan Woman, but it is also significant within the context of the Gospel and Jesus’ ministry because it sets the precedent on how we are exist within our own social and religious order in this post-modern Christian experience. The story, as seen from the lowly perspective of a minority, as well as a social outcast instead of from one privilege or power, is what makes this encounter redefines our interpretation. Our approach to the Bible is generally from the vantage of power and privilege, which unfairly discounts the experience of the marginalized, both historically and in modernity.

The delineations created by religion continue to be erased as the story in John 4. The unnamed woman states, “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem,” (John 4:20) illustrating the regulation that the religious system has placed upon the Samaritans. The woman speaks of the barriers that have been placed on their ability to practice their faith by requiring that worship must occur in Jerusalem, a place that would be difficult and dangerous to travel to. Even if the funds could be procured, a Samaritan traveling to Jerusalem would be met with difficulty in finding lodging and food because of discrimination. Jesus acknowledges this in his response to the woman when he states that “the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.” (John 4:21,23) Jesus tears down the barriers to faith placed in effect by the religious elite to keep the Samaritan people separate. He proclaims that how the worship is done is more important than where it occurs, changing the focus of worship from place to posture.

This story is relevant in our current cultural and social climate as an example to reach across social, political, and racial lines that exist within our communities to invite the marginalized into our midst. We must reject the implied and even outright belief that those in the dominant culture are better than those on the margins. It is easy to ignore our social privilege and yet it is clearly demonstrated in this passage that to do so is not congruent with the faith and practices of Jesus. In fact, Jesus is focused on breaking down the dominant structures of culture, society, and religion to bring hope to the outsider and to remind the privileged that it is our responsibility to care and uplift those on the margins.

Jesus was critical of the religious establishment for the exclusion created to keep people out instead of enfolding the other, the alien, into community and communion. Over the course of Christian history, the struggle against oppression from within the walls of the church has been a constant struggle that has persisted through each era. Truly our hearts have been hardened against this message of inclusion. In what should be a final blow to the religious and dominant cultural establishment of the day, Jesus reveals his true identity as the Messiah to this marginalized woman who was an outsider – an alien.

Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman is a revelation into the nature of God given to us in the Bible – however, this enlightenment does not come easily. It requires examination of both the Bible and our own hearts. The compassion for the poor in spirit and concern for the outcast is the true lesson of the story of the Samaritan woman. As followers of Jesus’ way, we must put down our privilege and stand with the minority and the marginalized.

Written by Kylie Riley