Mensa Otabil - An Ambassador of the Gospel (10/31/2025)
We’re considering Jesus and his meeting with the woman at the well; so we want to look at how Jesus reached out to this woman.
John 4:7-9: A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, «Give me a drink,» for His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, «How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.»
For all you can see about this woman, she’s a very bold and confident woman who talks back to Jesus in this exchange. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night in John chapter 3, but this woman of Samaria came at noon, and she came fetching water at a time when most people would not be fetching water. In those days, women would typically fetch water in the morning; it still happens in our society where people go through those chores in the morning and in the evening. But she came at noon, so there must be a reason why she came then, and we’ll find out later.
Jesus initiated the conversation; if He had not spoken, the woman would just fetch her water and go by. So many times when we want to introduce the gospel to people, we are the first to start the conversation. Jesus reached out in a very non-threatening manner. He started with a request to the woman. Normally, when people ask you for something, they give you an advantage because the one who is asking is always in a lower position than the one who is giving.
So Jesus placed Himself in a lower position in relation to the woman to make her feel comfortable so that she could speak her mind freely. Jesus did not want to intimidate the woman. If the Lord had started the conversation by questioning her, then she would have been on the defensive, but Jesus started by making a request. In this place, Jesus broke several taboos and limitations, and I’ll talk about three of them.
Jesus broke a religious taboo because the Samaritans and the Jews had a religious difficulty; they had some background together, but the Samaritans were made up of the Jews or Israelites who were taken into captivity in Assyria. The Jews were those taken into captivity in Babylon. In the process, the Samaritans developed a different system of worship from the Jews, so the Samaritans and the Jews had a significant religious problem. That’s the first point. Because of that, as the woman pointed out, they don’t deal with each other, creating a religious taboo.
Secondly, there is a gender taboo because Jesus is a rabbi, and rabbis are not supposed to talk to women. In some circumstances, it was thought that a woman could make Jesus unclean or defile Him, so He was not supposed to be talking to such women. However, Jesus was ready to take the initiative, although people would have thought He would defile Himself. If you read about Jesus, He hung out with people that others didn’t really think He should associate with, like Zacchaeus and others like him. So He broke a certain gender taboo.
Then there is an ethnic taboo because, as the woman stated, the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. So, are there people in our lives today that you think Jesus would not talk to because it would be a taboo for Him to do so? Can you think of a people group that Jesus would say, «Oh, these people are so far away, they’re so sinful, they’re so different; I don’t want to reach out to them»? I think the more we know about Jesus, the more we realize that nobody is removed from His love. That is why, in sharing the gospel, we cannot have a superiority attitude over somebody else.
You cannot think you are better than someone and share the gospel with them. To share the gospel, you come the way Jesus comes. He comes, although He is higher than the woman, placing Himself in a humble way by asking for water. It’s just a conversation starter; asking for water. This conversation starter tells you Jesus did not want to lord it over her, and that is how we also share the gospel. We don’t share it from a superiority point of view, thinking some people are so bad that we cannot talk to them or that some people are too wayward for God’s love to reach them.
To share the gospel, we have to reach out and break barriers to share the love of God. May God give us the grace to do that in our society.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, make me a gospel ambassador. Enable me to reach out to those who need Your love. In Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.»