We don’t know her name, but the Samaritan woman in today’s Gospel has the longest conversation recorded between Jesus and any person. It was noon on a hot day. Jesus, tired from traveling, chose a rest stop – Jacob’s well, outside the town of Sychar – while waiting for His disciples to fetch food. The woman who joined Him at the well was an outcast, looked down upon by her own people. She came alone to draw water from the community well when, during biblical times, drawing water and chatting at the well was the social highpoint of many women’s day. But this woman was ostracized and marked as immoral woman living openly with the sixth in a series of men. Jews weren’t supposed to speak to Samaritans. Men weren’t permitted to address women without their husbands present. Jesus was willing to ignore the rules, but the woman reminded Him. She focused on the laws of respectable society; Jesus focused on grace. To this woman Jesus revealed that He was the Messiah, offering the living water. She forgot about her own need to fetch water, and ran to tell others about Jesus. She became a powerful evangelist.
The story of the woman at the well teaches us that God loves every one of us, especially those of us who feel ourselves undervalued and even worthless.