John 4: 1-10, A Well in Samaria

Jesus, growing up in Galilee, has now been ministering far south of home, in and around Jerusalem.

John 4: 1-3, Return to Galilee
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 
2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 
3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

It is not clear why Jesus returns to Galilee.  His popularity has gained the attention of the religious leaders and controversy has been stirred up by that popularity. If his cleansing of the temple (in chapter 2) truly occurred before this time, then that would certainly explain the opposition from the Pharisees. This popularity brings some type of threat from the religious leaders and Jesus moves back north to spend time (several years?) in Galileean ministry.

The author digresses to explain that Jesus himself was not baptizing people. For all the energy American Christians seem to put into disputes about baptism, neither Jesus nor Paul (I Corinthians 1:14) spent time on baptism.

John 4: 4-6, A well in Samaria
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.

Commentators will point out that, no, strictly speaking, Jesus did not have to go through Samaria. Samaria was the region between Judea and Galilee, but devout Jews could bypass it by going east of the Jordan river and traveling north until they were past Samaria and then crossing back over the Jordan.

Jesus appears to have deliberately decided to pass through this region, a region populated by people who were not quite Jewish....

In the village of Sychar, Jesus stops at a famous well. It is likely that this area is the old region of Shechem, purchased by Jacob in Genesis 33:19. The Encyclopedia of the Bible has an article on Sychar.

John 4: 7-10, A Samaritan woman
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.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

There are a number of social taboos being broken here.  First, Jesus speaks to a woman by herself. And she is not a Jew but of "mixed" racial heritage, a Samaritan, a descendant of the racial mixing of Jews with non Jews after the return from Babylon.  Jesus, with the disciples gone, is willing to chat alone, with a woman who is also alone.

Many Jews despised Samaritans as religiously impure, not just racially impure.  The author of the book makes a brief comment to that effect, saying either that "Jews do no associate with Samaritans". The NIV footnotes suggest that this may simply mean"Jews do not use dishes Samaritans use," implying that the utensils the woman would use to draw the water would be unacceptable to a Jew. Regardless of the translation, Jesus is making a request that many would consider unclean.

But Jesus responds to the woman's questioning by saying, "I give you an opportunity for living water."  Here "living water" is a metaphor for "fresh water", for water that is pure and moving, not still and brackish. For someone visiting a stagnant well in the heat of midday, fresh, moving water would be a wonderful offer.