In this week's Gospel reading, Jesus stops at a well in a Samaritan village. He is tired and thirsty from his travels. The road is dusty and there are no cars or buses, no rolling up the windows to keep the dirt at bay, no pressing the gas pedal to get from point A to point B. Traveling miles and miles on his own two feet.
A local woman comes to draw water from the well, and Jesus asks for a drink. What follows is an interesting theological back and forth covering orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and salvation. All because Jesus got thirsty as he traveled through Samaria.
Just to set the stage, Samaria was once part of Israel. Following centuries of disagreement between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom and an invasion or two, Samaritans were considered outsiders by Jews. This is what makes the so-called story of the "Good Samaritan" that so many are familiar with so intriguing. Jesus places the positive action on an outsider, a foreigner, one considered beneath the Jews.
And now we have Jesus engaging in dialogue with a Samaritan on the nature of God, worship, and salvation. And not just any Samaritan, but a woman. Oh, the scandal. In a society that strives to keep unrelated women and men from conversing alone together, it is no surprise the Gospel writer felt the need to point out the fact that the Disciples did not react as expected.