AfterWords: Breaking the Rules--Women

 

John 4:1-9

Jesus breaks the rules, crosses a line, knocks down a boundary…Jesus changes everything.

In today’s reading, Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman. Samaritans are personas non grata in 1st Century Judea. Jews at that time remained acutely aware of the perceived impurity and “unclean” nature of the Samaritans—Israelites of the former Northern Kingdom who had intermarried with “foreigners,” who had built their own temple. Yet, Jesus breaks the rules and engages this Samaritan in conversation.

Probably only a notch above Samaritans were women in general during this time period. In Jesus’ world, women had no public voice, could not own land, were not to be taught, and should even be ignored in public. Women in this time period were considered little more than property.

Jesus changes the life of this Samaritan woman and for all women (potentially) ever after. Jesus treats women as human beings, as persons of worth. He asks their opinions and thoughts. He tells parables in which women are the heroes. Jesus’ approach to women confronts head-on the cultural assumptions of the Jews, the Romans, and the Greeks. You see, Jesus is willing to break the rules…that others might have life.

Jesus asks for a drink that he might tell this unnamed woman about the “living water… a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:11-13). Jesus recognized the thirst in her life, the same thirst in our lives—a thirst for life…for purpose, for meaning, for healing, for relationship, to be valued, to be seen, to be known, to be loved. King David wrote about this thirst in our lives—“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…” (Ps.42), and the great African theologian, Augustine, declares—“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You” (Confessions). Jesus offers her and us what will quench that thirst, address that restlessness within.

Just as Jesus breaks the rules for this Samaritan woman, God breaks the rules for us—crosses time and space to enter our world, engages us—unclean and unworthy as we are—to offer us living water…a spring within us that leads to eternal life, real life, abundant life. Do you as a deer pant for living water? Is your heart restless…seeking and searching, ill at ease? Jesus offers us living water…life…through faith today. That living water, that rest, is as close as a prayer.

Sunday, February 1, 2026
Breaking the Rules: Women
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