They just aren’t like us. They’re half-breeds! Unworthy of being a part of the people of God! While we were suffering, they stayed and fit into the pagan worlds of our enemies. They don’t deserve to be called ‘Children of Abraham!’
That’s how the Jewish world talked about Samaritans. While Israel was in exile, those who were not deported intermarried and mixed into the cultures around them. When Israel was resettled, these “half-breeds” were marginalized and became a people unto themselves. They still considered themselves a part of God’s people, so they didn’t truly belong to the cultures around them. But they didn’t fit into the Jewish world either. The Samaritans kept a version of the Mosaic Law and had their own Temple in order to continue in worship of the LORD their God. But the divisions between the Jews and Samaritans ran deep, and their differences brought deep divisions and hatred.
This makes Jesus’ interactions with Samaritans all the more remarkable. Jesus took his disciples through Samaria instead of going around it, like everyone else (see John 4, ESV). He took his people through the hood. And of all people to encounter, he befriended a woman who had been married and divorced multiple times. She represented the lowest of the low among a people who were already despised and rejected.
Living Theologically 