From my perspective, the conversation of Jesus and the woman at the well is one of the most interesting points in all the Bible. There are so many things you can gain by analyzing this supposedly “chance” meeting of two distinct worlds.

The woman was representative of the lowest underclass created by society at that time, a Samaritan of mixed blood lines from several different backgrounds, she also represented a part of history that the jewish people wanted to forget. She was living with a man that was not her husband, she had been divorced and remarried several times. Most scholars feel she was an outcast of even her own people as well.  Why else would she be drawing water by herself, at an odd time of the day.

Whereas Jesus was, on the surface, a Jewish man, representing a pure lineage, unbroken all the way back to King David. As God, He was the Son of God the Creator of the Universe.

The Samaritans had a religious code that mirrored the Pharisees. Samaritans had the same rules of the Jewish “religion” except for one distinct difference: which mountain was sacred.  The Jews worshiped in Jerusalem on Mt. Mariah, Samaritans worshiped in Samara on Mt. Girizim. The woman at the well knew that Jesus would have grown up knowing all these differences and rules.

Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…

So, in their discourse she is expecting to be put in her place: by class, by gender, by which mountain of worship, and then by the established religious rules.   Yet, here is a Jewish man that was required to study the Law from His birth, but she heard no condemnation, even though He knew and understood all that she had done.

As we learn words in our mind, we usually learn pictures, so when a word is introduced to our brain a picture goes with it.  If we think of the word cow, we usually have a photo that is attached to that word in our brain. If we attach a wrong picture for a word sometimes it takes a lot of training to ever change that image in our mind. The Ten Commandments, the Law of God, and Judgments are all daunting to think about.   Rules that God gave us to live by, a Law that is impossible to accomplish, and judgment for all those violations. We all have pictures in our mind of a deep-voiced Almighty God writing in stone with fire, while Charlton Heston (Moses) looks on, or we tend to picture a big man with a fly swat (maybe a paddle ??)  just waiting for us to miss up. It was into just such a world that Jesus entered that day, at a simple place of the daily routine of drawing water from a well to drink.

Luke 18:17

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

If you have ever dealt with toddlers, you know that, at times, the world has to stop. There is spilt juice to clean up, there are bathroom breaks at inconvenient times, and of course, nap time. Then multiply that bedlam by the number of toddlers that are around, and add words like moods, sharing and behavior. This is why you have to establish rules when playing in a sand box. The sand box is made so each child can have fun, but there is a price for fun.  There are rules that have to be followed.   The first and main rule – no throwing sand. Now this seems to be a simple rule, but if it gets violated someone will get sand in their eyes. If that happens everything stops for everybody, until the sand is wiped out of their eyes, the pain is gone, and tears are dried.

You see, the difference the woman saw in Jesus was His approach to the rules. He showed her, and us, that God did not set up the rules so He could catch us doing wrong and  punish us. He set up rules so we would not get sand in our eyes. We are not “missing out” when we avoid sin.   By obeying His rules, we are avoiding pain, the very pain that He knew we would face when He created and designed our world. Coveting our neighbors stuff, worshiping “things” in place of God, divorce, and hating each other only leads to hurt and pain. God loves us so much, He does not want to see us hurt, so he established rules.  So, with the help of His Spirit, we can not only have life, but have abundant life!

The Samaritan woman had a “chance” conversation with the Creator of the Universe about how to drink “Living” water then, how not to get anymore sand in her eyes.