"How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" That is the response of this woman when she is startled by Jesus' request. Normally rabbis didn't speak with women in public, and they certainly didn't speak with Samaritans, who were considered half-breed heretics by the Jews. But Jesus not only asks this woman for a drink, but he engages her in conversation, finally revealing that he is the Messiah. This encounter is all the more striking when contrasted with Jesus' previous conversation with Nicodemus, a Jewish Pharisee who makes no headway in understanding who Jesus is.
That Jesus chooses to reveal himself to someone considered so unworthy by the good religious folks of Jesus' day gives me some pause. It makes me wonder about what folk are my Samaritans. Who are the people I think Jesus wouldn't talk to, wouldn't embrace and offer "eternal life."
But mostly Jesus' encounter with this Samaritan woman reminds me that Jesus' embrace is so surprisingly large, that I am surely included.
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