When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) John 4:7-9

It’s difficult to appreciate how revolutionary Jesus was. We read the miracles and know about the resurrection, but just talking to a woman he didn’t know—and a Samaritan woman—was mind-blowing. Men didn’t do it. Especially, renown rabbis. Woman were considered less than. They went to get water everyday, carrying back full, heavy jugs on their heads, because men didn’t do that kind of thing. 

And this woman… She got water in the middle of the day because she was “tainted,” or branded a “slut.” The other woman looked down on her. Not only did she feel socially limited as a woman, but then as a disgraced woman, at that. 

And then, Jesus. Before anyone was talking about empowerment, Jesus just looked and saw women—daughters he’d designed in his own image. Women who reflected him—each in a unique way—not better or worse than any other human. Equal in every sense. And it was revolutionary. 

Just his engagement with woman could have gotten him stoned and killed. The social structures were so rigid and stuck; but Jesus poked and exposed and called into question. But he was not leading a social revolution… he was leading a soul revolution. 

So he made sure the woman at the well was seen. Let’s just start there. Being seen by the One who made you and gives you purpose. 

You ask, “Why are you talking to me?”

Jesus: “Because I see you.”