John 4:1-9

John 4:1-9 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 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.)

Jesus walked through Samaria to save souls. Most Jews traveling from Judea avoided Samaria on their way to Galilee due to their belief in the uncleanness of the Samaritans. The Jews viewed the Samaritans as cultish because of the small differences between the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Jewish Pentateuch. They deemed them unrighteous and contemptible since the Samaritans' religious practices were not identical to the Jewish observances. For the rabbi Jesus to pass through Samaria would have seemed unusual to his companions. His action of speaking to a Samaritan woman would have appeared more strange and even suspect. But the Father led Jesus there to talk to this needy woman who had lived with five husbands. He spoke to her of living water, revealing himself as the giver of this water, from the fountain of eternal life. His divine discernment and holy actions identified him as Messiah, the long-anticipated Savior of the Jewish nation. Although Jesus stepped out of the appropriate cultural and religious confines for a law-abiding Jewish man, He did not merely take a shortcut to Galilee. The Spirit guided him there to reveal God's love and compassion for the hated Samaritans, considered as untouchables by all Jews in right standing, unworthy to know or to be known by God.

Jesus Messiah came, offering himself to God's chosen ones as well as the untouchables of the world. He came for the sick, the broken, the hurting, the doubters, the troubled, and even the ornery, the hateful, and the rebellious ones. God sent his Son for all humankind from those in highest standing to the lowliest of all. In another remarkable aspect of the story, we see Jesus at the well in his weakness as a fleshly man: Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. In our weakness and fatigue from life's journey, we tend to avoid the troubled and the hurting people around us, those who very well might take more energy from us than we want to give. Instead, we minister to the healthy and the strong ones in our sphere of influence, those with only one mate and fairly orderly lives, people who might reciprocate our loving concern with positive communications and actions. Did Jesus come for such a mission and did He ask us to lay down our lives for those who are strong and well, with no need for a physician? He said the strong can care for themselves, but the sick, the poor, the hurting, and the dying need assistance, a helping hand and a loving friend. The Samaritan woman and her village needed deliverance from bondage, salvation from sin. God passed by in the form of Jesus the Son who walked this earth to share mercy and grace. The righteous ones in Israel, the healthy Jews had avoided this village, avoided interaction, and would not have dreamed of helping these rejected people, but God always comes to the needy, the helpless, the lost. Cod calls believers to follow the same path, to answer the call.

We know from scripture that a servant is not greater than his master: we are not greater than our Savior and Lord. We should allow the Holy Spirit within to help us follow Christ in all our thoughts, in all our ways. As Christ served, gave of himself, and ministered hope to a dying world; so should we serve, give, and try to meet the needs of those without hope in the natural. We remain the visible body of Christ on Earth: his visage, his hands and feet, his holy presence, should be seen in us. When we so easily justify the avoidance of our most contrary friends and relatives in this Christmas season, we openly choose to pass by Samaria. When we decide not to provide for the poor, not to aid hurting, the rebellious, and the needy in our little world, we decide to pass by those God loves and came to touch with healing, compassion, and grace. When we ignore our mission and travel on in our journey, the Christ in us and with us literally ignores the needs and passes by. No, as with Jesus that day, we do not HAVE TO journey through Samaria. We can avoid contact with the despised and contaminated ones; but God gave us legs, hands, and hearts. He empowered us with enough strength and love to reflect him and bring the "good news" of his favor to the unloveable and the unredeemed.

As the Spirit led Jesus to Samaria, He will lead you where God has called you as you listen to his voice and answer his call. Just as many in that village found salvation that day because Jesus stopped to converse with the Samaritan woman and to offer life: when we have an ear to hear and a heart to love, the Holy Spirit of God will lead us to those sitting alone in darkness who need to hear our voice and receive the light we have from God. He may call us to a "village" full of hopelessness and defeated ones, to friends or relatives in depression, dysfunction, and total darkness, but lead us He will when we say yes instead of no. Jesus brought joy and life to that woman and that village. Will we share this inexpressible joy and the living water with the defeated and the thirsty? If so, we must go through Samaria, led by the Spirit, and willing to travel where He leads. God bless you all on this amazing journey of faith.