Friendly rivalry and competition is a key part of sport.
Unfortunately sometimes the friendly rivalry starts to represent something that looks more like hatred.
The rivalry between the Jews and the Samaritans in the time of Jesus was much more outright hatred than anything friendly. Even though they shared part of their history and could be thought of as distant relatives these were two sets of relatives that would not be sitting down to share Christmas dinner together.
And so when Jesus decides to take the direct route from Jerusalem to Galilee - which is through Samaritan territory, he was doing so at a time when most religious Jews would have taken the longer route to the east that avoided Samaria. Contact with a Samaritan would impact your ritual purity. When you add to this that a Jewish man would not be seen talking in public with a woman - you start to get some idea of the shock that the story in John 4 would have created. Not only is Jesus talking with a Samaritan - this Samaritan is a woman - and this woman has a reputation. This was simply a conversation that should never have taken place, yet it does.
Jesus, by his actions, is continuing to dismantle the barriers that society has put in place - and to demonstrate that God's invitation to a new life is open to all. In chapter 3 it was a powerful, influential, (male) Jewish teacher. Now it is someone from the other end of the social spectrum.
Who are the people that we need to strike up a conversation with and what are the barriers that we need to be looking to break down this week?
