Jesus decided to go straight through Samaria to get to Galilee. Samaritans and Jews were enemies -- they hated each other. So, this was not what Jews typically did.
Shannon gives us a brief history lesson why Samaritans and Jews hated each other:
930 B.C. -- The Israelite kingdom divides -- Israel and Judea. The Larger part -- Israel, known as Samaria, fell into a golden calf worship.
732 B.C. Assyrians conquer Israel (Samaria) and take the people out. They send in Gentiles to take care of the land. Eventually the people return but they intermingle with the Gentiles there. They still consider themselves to be Jews.
585 B.C. -- Babylon conquers Judea. The people are taken into exile for 70 years.
332 B.C. Alexander the Great conquers all of the Holy Land. Samaritans accept Greek Rule. Jews rebel (and hate the Samaritans for accepting the Greek Rule).
113 B.C. -- Maccabees try to unite all of Israel again so they destroy the Samaritan temple (possibly thinking they will come back to Jerusalem to worship?) So, the Samaritans fill the Jewish temple with bones the day before Passover and cause the temple to be unclean.
In Jesus's time, the hatred continued.
"4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon." John 4:4-6
Jesus was there at the hottest part of the day. When the woman arrives it was customary that a man would step back 20 paces so she could do what she needed to do. And it was a big taboo for them to speak. Jesus ignores these customs. She does too.
"7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 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.[a])"
John 4:7-9
She has a claim to Judaism
. "13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.'" John 4:13-15
First time in the conversation Jesus uses the pronoun "I." He is getting the conversation personal. The woman's initial reaction is self-interest.
'16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”" John 4:16-26
He is getting personal with her. She changes the subject. He was the very first person in the gospel of John he told his true identity too. A Samaritan woman!
"27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him." John 4:27-30
The woman was the first evangelist (besides John the Baptist). And she showed great courage going into town and talking to all the people who shunned her daily.
Jesus himself was an outsider. He was from northern Israel -- Galilee. Jerusalem, the urban part of Israel was in the south. In the Northern part people had a distinct accent. They dropped their Hs when they spoke. And Galilee was full of farmers and fishermen. They were the rural Jews. Jews from the the south looked at the northern Jews as backwards.
"6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight." Acts 1:6-9
Where is your Jerusalem (family and loved ones); your Judea (acquaintances); your Samaria (the 'other' people)? And then tell the world. Everyone needs to hear.