John 4:1-26 / The Woman At the Well

Necessary Detours

John 4:4 – “Now He had to go through Samaria…”

At first glance, John 4:4 reads like a geographical note, but it’s much more. When John writes that Jesus had to go through Samaria, he’s not giving us travel details—he’s revealing the very heart of God’s mission.

The Samaritans were outsiders—spiritually, culturally, and ethnically marginalized in every sense. They had their own temple, their own scriptures, and their own reinterpreted history. For centuries, the Jewish people considered them impure. And yet, Jesus didn’t go around Samaria. He went through it—on purpose. And not only did he go, He stayed for days. He spoke with them, ate with them, listened to them. This was radical inclusion. Jesus was crossing boundaries that the Temple leadership was unwilling to cross.

The Samaritan Woman

The Samaritan woman at the well is a curious character in the story. Many of us have read her story through a lens shaped by centuries of patriarchal interpretation. We’ve been told she was promiscuous, immoral, even scandalous. But take a closer look at the cultural context, and that interpretation unravels.

In the ancient world, women couldn’t initiate divorce and had no power over their marital status. If this woman had five husbands, it’s far more likely she was a victim multiple times over —of death, abandonment, or exploitation. She is not a villain, and she isn’t a moral cautionary tale. She was a survivor.

Jesus doesn’t shame her the way many readers do today. Rather, He honors her story. He sees her, not just as a Samaritan, not just as a woman, but as someone worthy of love and revelation. And it is to her that Jesus first declares, “I am the Messiah.”

If Jesus is the image of the invisible God, this moment tells us everything we need to know: God moves toward those who are hurting, not to correct them but to restore them. Jesus' mission is reconciliation between God and humanity and between people. The story of the Samaritan woman in the gospel of John forces us to reconsider how we see the “other.” Do we assume the worst about people whose lives we don’t understand? Do we use our religion to uphold judgment or to dismantle barriers?

Jesus was Present with Her

Real love grows out of deep knowing. The more intimately we know someone’s story, the more compassion we carry for them. That’s why reconciliation isn’t a theological idea—it’s a human one. And it always requires presence. Proximity. Curiosity. Jesus didn’t take a shortcut. He took a detour that looked like a distraction to most people. But it was the mission itself.

So maybe we should ask ourselves: Who is God calling us to be present with? Who have I judged, and who could I get to know better? Perhaps in our curiosity, we can find a way, through Christ, to include them as well.

Discussion Questions:

1. In what ways do you think our cultural assumptions have shaped how we read the Samaritan woman’s story? How does re-examining her context change the message of the passage?

2. Jesus revealed His identity as Messiah to someone completely outside the expected religious and social circles. What might this tell us about who God sees as worthy of revelation—and how does that challenge our own assumptions?

3. Consider a group of people you’ve been taught to see as “outsiders.” How might intentionally listening to their stories transform your perspective?

4. What systems or ideologies in our culture today mirror the exclusion the Samaritans faced? How is the Church called to respond?

5. Reconciliation begins with proximity. What relationships or communities might God be calling you to “go through” instead of going around?