The Message, March 8, 2026: "The Other Samaritan," John 4:5-15
Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
March 13, 2026
“The Other Samaritan”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
John 4:5-15
I am fairly confident that everyone
is familiar with the companion phrases:
“We ALWAYS do it this way.”
And “We NEVER do it that way.”
You may even have had personal,
first-hand experience.
On the very first weekend that I
began my ministry at my previous church in Norfolk, Massachusetts, I officiated
a wedding. Yes … the day before my first Sunday morning worship service I
officiated a wedding. As I was preparing the sanctuary, the Music Director came
over to me and said, “This is how we do weddings here.” To which I replied,
“Well … let me tell you how I do weddings.” (Nice beginning to our working
relationship.)
A few months later, we were setting
up for our Maundy Thursday Tenebrae service and one of the Deacons said, “This
is how we do Maundy Thursday here.” My response to that proclamation was a
little different. I said, “Great, thank you. I look forward to experiencing
that. But next year we will do something different.” I then went on to explain
that there was nothing wrong with the way that they observed Maundy Thursday; I
simply like to change things up. Then one of the Deacons, Jean … a very lovely
and caring person … said, “You mean we will do it differently EVERY YEAR?!”
“Yes, we will try new things every year.”
Just like Jesus. Jesus was the
exemplar of “let us do this a different way.” Jesus came to teach us … to show
us ... to lead us … to something new. He came to fulfill … to complete … the
Law and the Prophets, and he was going to show us exactly what that looked
like.
And John had a unique way of
conveying that in his Gospel record. Again and again in John’s Gospel, Jesus
talks with people who initially misunderstand what he is talking about.
Consider the story of Nicodemus from last Sunday. In our passage for this
morning and the interaction with the Samaritan woman, a simple seemingly
ordinary event turns into a deeper theological lesson.
Let us dig deeper.
Per usual, we hear or read this
story from a very different cultural perspective. For us today, a man and a
woman sitting by a well … or sitting on a park bench … and talking would not be
surprising in any way. It is something that we may see quite often in our daily
lives, and most likely would not raise any red flags for us.
However, in the cultural context of
First Century Palestine, this was a very big deal. In that day, a devout Jewish
man would not have allowed themselves to be “alone” with a woman, even in a
public place. ESPECIALLY in a public place. It would have been scandalous. What
is more, a devout Jewish male would certainly have not engaged in conversation
with a woman. They often referred to “bruised” or “bloodied” rabbis, because
they would rather close their eyes and walk into a wall than interact with a
woman in public … even their own wives or daughters. The risk was too high; the
risk of impurity, or the risk of being drawn into immoral thoughts or acts, and
the risk of gossip.
And yet, there was Jesus talking to
a woman out in public where all could see. Except that there was no one there
to see.
Again, lost in our cultural
understanding was the fact that no one went to the well at midday. People went
to the well first thing in the morning, or late in the afternoon, when it was
cooler. The fact that woman was at the well at that time of day communicated
something very clearly to the First Century listener. She went to the well when
she knew that no one would be there. Those of us who are familiar with the rest
of the story know that she had had five different husbands and was not married
to the man that she was currently living with.
Jesus doubled down on the scandal by
talking to a woman who possessed questionable morals.
But, even with all of that, the
WOMAN at the well was not the most scandalous part of the story. It was WHERE
this encounter happened … Samaria. In verse four, John pointed out, “They had
to go through Samaria.”
Now, we already know from the other
story about a Samaritan that Jews and Samaritans were not on the best of terms.
In fact, they hated one another and had hated one another for over seven
HUNDRED years.
Time for a brief “Helpful History”
lesson. Get your pencils and notepads ready.
Actually, the tension began in 975
BCE when the Kingdom of Israel divided into two kingdoms … ten tribes in the
north that remained the Kingdom of Israel, and two tribes in the south which
became the Kingdom of Judah. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom
and Jerusalem was the capital of Judah, the southern kingdom. However, the
animosity deepened after the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in
720 BCE.
Many of the citizens of Israel … the
northern kingdom were taken away in exile to the Assyrian capital. The
Assyrians then sent five of their tribes to occupy Samaria. Those occupying
Assyrians intermarried with the Jewish remnant, which in the eyes, hearts and
minds of their southern cousins meant that they were defiled … impure.
There is a long history of conquest
and destruction in that region. About 100 years later, the Egyptians defeated
the Assyrians and they controlled the northern kingdom. Then the Babylonians
conquered the southern kingdom of Judah and took many of them into exile in
Babylon. During that period, the whole region … the combined northern and
southern kingdoms ... was referred to as Samaria.
Are you still with me? I know, it is
like one of those very complicated family trees.
Throughout this period, the
residents of the northern kingdom still worshipped Yahweh, God, but they
“adjusted” their worship. They only acknowledged the first five books of the
Hebrew Bible. They did not accept the writings or the prophets. They built their
own temple on Mount Gerazim, which during the days of Moses was a place of
blessing (Deuteronomy 11:29; 27:11-13).
When the Jewish people that had been
taken away into exile in Babylon returned, they strictly adhered to ALL of
Hebrew scripture, and they began rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem which had
been destroyed by the Babylonians. They believed that was the only true place
of worship, and even rejected the offer of assistance from their northern
cousins because of their sinful and impure ways.
The acrimony reached its zenith in
128/129 BCE when the restored army of the southern kingdom of Judah descended
upon Mount Gerazim and destroyed the temple that the Samaritans had constructed
there.
I know that it was not really very
“brief” but it does help us understand how verse four would have impacted those
hearing this story in the First Century. “They had to go through Samaria.” “No!
Not Samaria! Nothing good can come from Samaria!”
But there is a reason why Jesus went
that way rather than going around like nearly every other traveler. And there
is a reason why John made note of it. The location of this interaction is
intended to be surprising … even shocking.
Jesus was saying, “All of this
tension, this hatred, this acrimony that you carry in your hearts toward these
people does not matter. It does not matter if they worship in Gerazim or
Jerusalem. What DOES matter is that ALL OF YOU are children of God. ALL of you
are offered the same gift of God … living water. New life.”
Jesus was expanding the message.
Jesus was extending the love of God. Last Sunday, Jesus told Nicodemus that
simply being “born a Jew” did not guarantee someone a place in the Kingdom of
Heaven. He opened the gates of the kingdom wider. Anyone born of water and of
the Spirit will be able to see the Kingdom of God. The interaction with the
Samaritan woman at the well expanded upon that message. That woman had
everything counting against her in her social and cultural context, and yet
even she was invited to drink of the living water.
Jesus was offering her new life. He
was offering her something more than what she knew in her daily life and
experience. He was offering her something beyond her gender, or her
nationality, or her moral … or immoral … background. The woman may not have understood
initially what Jesus was talking about, but she had a longing, a yearning, for
that something more. “Living water” was just that … it was alive and flowing.
It was not stagnant.
But
it was even more. It was irrepressible. It was a gift of life that bubbled up
within. It is something of God. It will refresh you from the inside.
Of
course, the point of the story is that everyone is offered living water.
Everyone is offered new life. This interaction taking place in Samaria
communicated a very clear message. One does not live by hatred. One does not
live by hostility. One does not live by jealousy. One does not live by exclusion.
One does not live by vengeance or retribution. God’s love does not divide.
Prejudice
and judgment and greed and avarice are by-products of arrogance. Arrogance
leads people to believe that they can decide who belongs and who does not.
Arrogance leads people to believe that they can decide who is worthy and who is
not. Arrogance leads people to believe that THEY can determine who is defiled
in God’s eyes and who is blessed or redeemed.
We
remember that in Jesus’ first sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, he taught:
Blessed
are the humble …
Blessed
are the gentle …
Blessed
are the loving …
Blessed
are the compassionate and the caring …
Blessed
are those who stand on the side of justice …
Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness …
For
they shall be born from above. For they shall drink of the living water that
God offers us in Jesus Christ.
Jesus offers each of us living
water. May we drink deeply …
Amen.
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