The narrative of Jesus' missionary journey to Samaria in John 4:4—42 had implications for the first-century Johannine community as they, like Jesus at Jacob's well, encountered new situations and new cultures. This article proposes that it may hold different but analogous implications for the church in every age. A contextual approach shaped by modern missiology, cultural anthropology, and local/contextual theology highlights the text's sensitivity to ethnic identity, cultural and religious traditions, past history, prejudice, marginalization, differences in perspective, and human processes in faith development. Read in this light, the passage can provide a model for ministry across cultural barriers in a pluralistic world still crisscrossed by divisions.
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