The woman is completely taken aback at being addressed by Jesus “What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?” The verb in Greek is SYNCHROTAI, which forbids Jews to drink from the unclean vessel of a Samaritan let alone a Samaritan Woman. This is why the woman is understandably shocked. When the disciples return they are shocked at seeing Jesus with the Samaritan Women. The Disciples wanted to safe – guard Jesus’ reputation but Jesus didn’t care. He was breaking the racial barriers.
The story of the Samaritan woman makes a strong statement about the role of women in the early Christian communities. She is not silent, and she is not limited to the private world of women. She has a voice, and she moves out into the public arena, into male space. She enters into debate with Jesus about issues and questions that interest her. She does not wait for permission to do so, but takes the initiative herself.
There had been a long-running conflict between the Jews and the Samaritans. Jesus disregarded the ancient enmity between the two groups. He began talking to the woman about ‘living water’. The woman questioned him and drew him into conversation. Jesus explained that when people drink ordinary water, they got thirsty again. But he had water that gives eternal, not temporary, life. Naturally this caught the interest of the woman. She asked for some of this water.
Jesus told her to go and get her husband. She did not have one, she said. You have had five husbands, said Jesus, but the man you are living with now is not your husband. We know she is Practical, a Samaritan, Curious, sexually promiscuous, an outcast among Jews and from her own. She is isolated and alienated; Jesus knows all this and yet still does not care because he sees something in her – curiosity. Why didn’t she run or leave. She says:
“I know the messiah will come, when he will proclaim al things to us”
This is her statement of faith; even though she is an outcast she still has belief of her own people. This is the First time in John Jesus saying he is the Messsiah. He proclaims this to the woman, she is the first person in John he tells he is the Messiah. The woman then goes back to her village and says
“Come and see a man who told me all things I have ever done”
She believes and repeats what she said earlier. John portrays Jesus as not being interested in whom the revelation is made to but only that the revelation is made. The woman immediately believes, she leaves her water jar and goes back to her village. The Samaritan Woman leaves behind her water jar; the very reason she was at the well in the first place. Leaving her water jar seems a trivial piece of information, but it parallels other incidents in the gospels, when various men left their everyday pursuits, for example fishing nets or tax collection tables, to immediately respond to Jesus.
The woman told everyone about Jesus, suggesting that he might be the Messiah. After Jesus' death and resurrection, the male disciples would go and tell people about Jesus because they were sent to do so. The Samaritan woman did the same thing, but on her own initiative. She saw what should be done, and did it. And the townspeople went with her in order to see Jesus for themselves.
John presents the Samaritan Woman as a Disciple she goes back to her village to spread the word of god and tell them to “come and see”. This is very important in John; as seeing is believing. When the villagers come to see Jesus, spend time with him and listen to him talk they believe, However many believed because of her testimony as she told them “he told me everything I ever did” The first word of Samaritan woman and the second word of Jesus. There is also a correlation not only between sight and believe but also word and faith.
The woman had persuaded them to believe in Jesus. In this, she acted as an apostle, going out to tell people about Jesus, and bringing them to him.
‘Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony “He told me everything I have ever done”. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.’ The Samaritans invited him to stay, and he stayed for two days. Many people believed in Jesus, not just because of the woman, but because they have seen for themselves that Jesus was the Saviour of the world.
The fact that Jesus revealed himself to the Samaritan woman is significant when one considers that she led an outcast life. She had been rejected from the minority group and the fact that she was also seen as inferior because she was a woman. Jesus decided to make his first revelation about himself to someone not even regarded as a person by society and whom people thought unworthy and incapable of hearing such things. Jesus treated her as an equal and valued her questions and opinions. He refused to conform to traditional views and laws.
John implies that the hour has come when even women may be messengers of the Kingdom.
