Jesus at the well (John 4.4–42): Our approach to the ‘other’

Abstract

This article employs the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4 as a prism through which to examine Christian perceptions of and approaches to the outsider – especially the ‘foreigner’, the migrant or the Muslim. The study is particularly concerned with some broadly similar dynamics at play between the Judean and Samaritan communities in the first century and between Jews, Christians and Muslims in our world today. An important aspect of these dynamics, in the story and frequently today as well, is the concern for ritual purity and group separation. The encounter is framed as a potentially fraught and tense ‘ethnic’ encounter, which then, as now, may well entail painful friction over matters ranging from religion to politics to communal metanarrative. Christians, Muslims and Jews remain connected and divided over such realities as scripture, history, land and even the names of prophets and places held in common. The posture of Jesus of Nazareth presents a vital challenge to his followers today in our age of intense nationalism, populism, terror and xenophobia.