I have to hand it to the lady—she is feisty. Life has obviously taught her to speak up and
defend herself. Life has also taught her
the realities of female-male relations, as we will discover later. Try to see things through the eyes of a woman
in first century Palestine.
She has no rights as a woman. She is, for all intents and purposes,
property of the man she marries.
Secondly, she is a Samaritan.
Although the citizens of the town have some status due to the presence
of Jacob’s Well, this does not add any value to her in the eyes of the
Jews. If she is not low enough as a
woman, than being a Samaritan woman secures her devaluation. Consider the fact the she arrives in the
middle of the day due to her checkered past and you can see how she is
well-primed to go on the offensive against any threat, real or perceived. Her words are defiant and defensive. “How dare you” might even be a good
paraphrase. They should not be talking
at all. She doesn’t care if he was a Jew;
she is not going to put up any nonsense from this stranger. She knows how to handle men.
But Jesus knows the pitfalls and the risks of engaging in a
conversation with this woman. But he
launches in unabashedly. He sees in her
a “diamond in the rough” and he is determined to get to the priceless center of
this gem that had been abused by life and misused by people who claimed to care
for her. I am delighted Jesus is not
intimidated by circumstance or first glances.
He would not have noticed me if he used lineage or status as the basis
of his interest. He sees me not for what
life has made me but for what he intends to do in me if I let him. The die has been cast. He is taking all the risk.
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