I have heard people say that few women would have been at the well in the heat of the day, but the cool of the evening was the time to gather, and socialize together. There may well have been a reason that the woman was alone at the well, to avoid the gossip, and the stares that would be inevitable on account of her compromised sexual situation.
We are talking about the ME, after all, where women are still stoned for less than what was implied about this woman.
Jesus not only crosses the racial social barriers between the despised Samaritans that any self-respecting Jew would avoid at all cost, but the sexual segregation where it would be improper to talk with a strange woman at the well in the first place.
He did so not because he thirsted for her like many men might have seeking out the low places, but because he thirsted for her salvation.
It is the beginning of the open table, where the restrictions for Jews about who they dine and socialize with are being overturned. People that hear the voice of the Spirit share a drink together, and what the Spirit has brought together, let no men pull asundeer.
Because Jesus valued Salvation above Ethnic lines, it caused Him to be willing to "color outside the lines"/cross certain boundaries that others had set up which were never necessary to begin with.
Some of it isn't surprising, however, when seeing what Christ had to go through Himself growing up as one who was mistreated due to His background...just as the Samaritan woman was. He could relate to outcasts because He himself was one. In example, in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, the Lord YEshua was affirmed PUBLICALLY that he was indeed the son of His Father, who was well pleased with him...something he noted far earlier to His parents in Luke 2 when they found Him in the temple and He noted He had to be in His "Father's House." Seeing how many may've assumed that Jesus was an illegitimate child and Joseph was not the real father (which was hinted at in
John 8:40-42 when the Jewish people noted of themselves that they were not illegitimate children to Jesus when he challenged them), having to be confirmed was a big deal.
Although the Lord was qualified to be considered an heir to the Davidic line, he still was not known to be one who was born of a virgin....and thus, the stigma of being considered as being born out of wedlock would not have gone away easily. People contanstly thought Mary was a loose woman in her youth and that Joseph tried to cover for her, with Christ being called alot of things most likely.
One man of God, known as Joseph Garlington, said it best here:
From what I was able to see, the Lord would be in need of having a rite of passage himself. Messianic Jew
Asher Intrater from "Revive Israel" ministries and Israel Mandate...actually had one of the greatest speeches on the subject I've ever heard of entitled
You Are My Beloved Son
For another example of where Christ was treated as an outcasts because of His background...just as the Samaritan woman was...With Christ, others were threatened...and thus, his background was often used against him in POLITICAL ways more often than not. The leaders tried to trap him multiple times and get him in trouble with the government, as seen in Matthew 22 when came to their questioning Him.
But his upbringing is where they seemed to have the most issue.
Recall John 7:
John 7:37-53
Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders
45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]
53 Then they all went home,
The Pharisees that Jesus came against, often noted to be apart of the School of Shemi, were not accepting of Gentiles....and this is not surprising since the School of Shemai taught such. Thus, using their authorities, they often tried to silence anything that was supportative of Gentile praise. Its one of the reasons they came in conflict with Christ---as with him being more in line with the School of Hilel, he would have been very much opposed to Him. Though they could claim nothing good came out of Nazareth/Galilee, they could only reinforce that thought if they skipped over what the Prophets had already said.
As said of Galilee by Isaiah:
Isaiah 9: 1
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.
In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan.
What the Pharisees did not tell the people was that yes in the past God did humble the land of Zebulun but in the future God will honour Galilee of the Gentiles.....and the future had arrived, as the Messiah was from Galilee---The One place that many Ethocentric Jews just could not stand. Bear in mind that the Jews LITERALLY wanted to kill him after praising Gentiles (like Naaman the Syrian or the Widow who the prophet fed) in Luke 4/Matthew 4...as they felt that only Jews could have truth faith...but this was apart of prophecy
For as much as the Pharisees (minus the godly ones, such as Nicodemus---a secret follower of Christ) and Saducess would say Christ was illegitimate due to his upbringing, they had no real basis...and their desire to kill Jesus was birthed out of how he was really challenging their biases/prejudices toward certain groups. When they said "Examine the Scriptures.....you will see that out of Galilee there ariseth no prophet!!!!", it was a reflection of something that often happens in history when certain groups deliberately leave out the stories of where other groups have made contributions---and then all precedding generations afterward believe the lie. For the Pharisees were simply false in their claims (as were others agasinst Galilee) since Jonah was of Gathheper, in Galilee ( 2 Kings 14:25, compared with Joshua 19:13). As said before, Jonah was a prophet from Galilee (Gath-hepher) who counseled Jeroboam II in his successful conflict with the Syrians...making our date for the prophet Jonah to be that of 786-746 B.C.E. During Jeroboam II's reign, the boundaries of Israel reached the former limits of David's kingdom. And a new threat arose in the move of Assyria as it expanded and swalloed up kingdoms. Jonah came from Galilee to prophesy during expansion of Israel under Jeroboam II. ..and as the story of Jonah shows, God responded compassionately to Israel
Outside of Jonah, other prophets came from the "Ghetto" of Israel. In example, the Prophet Nahum was also a Galilean ( (Na 1:1) ), for he was of the tribe of Simeon. And some suppose that Malachi was of the same place. If that wasn't enough, the greatest of the prophets was Elijah the Tishbite (1 Kings 17:1)---and even HE was of Galilee. Either they were unaware of scripture as they were teaching--or they were BLANTANTLY putting up a BOLD Front due to desiring to maintain the "color line" in the Jewish world when it came to hating to admit any of the contributions other ethnic/cultural groups in the Jewish world could bring.....no more different than today if saying two sub-groups in a larger culture are fighting (i.e. West Indian Blacks and Black Hispanics of the Americas and African Blacks) and one side has power....but refuses to publish where another group has made significant impact in the world.
Be it with Gentiles or Samaritans, much of the focus was an ethnocentric focus that said only Jews could be saved and needed to hear about the Lord---and thus, for Christ, His arrival shook all of that up
