Mensa Otabil - Jesus Outreach (11/07/2025)
John chapter 4, verses 7 to 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 say 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 to fetch water at a time when most people would not be fetching water because, in those days, women would fetch water mostly in the morning. This 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 at noon, and we’ll find that out later. Jesus initiated the conversation. If Jesus had not spoken, the woman would have just fetched water and gone 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 conversation by making 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 lower than the one who is doing the giving. So Jesus placed himself in a lower position in relation to the woman to make her feel comfortable so that she could speak comfortably and express 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 of the woman. In this context, Jesus broke several taboos. I will talk about three of them.
Jesus broke a religious taboo because the Samaritans and the Jews had a religious conflict. They have some background together. The Samaritans were made up of the Jews or the Israelites who were taken into captivity in Assyria. The Jews were those who were 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 is the first issue, and because of that, as the woman pointed out, they do not deal with each other.
So there is a religious taboo. Secondly, there is a gender taboo because Jesus is a rabbi, and rabbis are not supposed to be talking to women. In some circumstances, it would be thought that the woman could make Jesus unclean or defile him. So, Jesus was not supposed to be talking to those women. But Jesus was ready to take the initiative, although people would have thought that he would defile himself. If you read about Jesus, he hung out with people that others didn’t think he should be associating with, like Zacchaeus and others. So he broke a certain taboo: a gender taboo, and then an ethnic taboo because, as the woman stated, the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
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 someone 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’s higher than the woman, by placing himself in a humble position by asking for water. It’s just a conversation starter-asking for water. But that conversation starter shows that Jesus did not want to lord it over her.
That is how we also share the gospel. We do not share it from a superiority point of view, trying to be better than others and thinking that some people are so bad that you cannot talk to them. Some people are so wayward that God’s love cannot reach them. In order 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.