“And he had to pass through Samaria,” John writes (v.4) — except geographically He didn’t. Devout Jews routinely crossed the Jordan to go around Samaria altogether. The “had to” isn’t about the map; it’s about a divine appointment with one woman. And when Jesus arrives, He breaks every barrier at once: He speaks to a Samaritan (an ethnic wall), to a woman alone at midday (a gender wall), to a woman who has had five husbands (a moral wall). His own disciples come back and “marveled that he was talking with a woman” (v.27). Today’s reading is about a God who goes out of His way — who “had to” — for the one person everyone else would have walked around.
