Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” (John 4:4). Interesting language. The most direct path from Judea to Galilee ran through Samaria, yes. Yet it was still the road less traveled. Why?
Oh, Jews did not like Samaritans. There was great ethnic tension. To make a long story short, they were kind of Jewish, but not really, from the perspective of most Jews from “the Southern kingdom”. Samaritans were the descendants of Israelites from the Northern Kingdom who had married Assyrians that a conquering king had brought from abroad. To put it crassly, they were a despised “mixed race” people who were not really accepted by Jews or Gentiles. Samaritans were so despised that Jews would take a longer journey from point A to point B, just to avoid them.
So, logistically, did Jesus have to pass through Samaria? Nope. Most people did not. But to be abundantly clear–Jesus is not most people. Why did he have to go where no one else would? Oh friends, the Hound of Heaven is on the scent. A Samaritan woman has a date with divinity!
Woman, Samaritan, social outcast five-time divorcee living with some random guy. Jesus loves her, he finds her, he speaks with her, and he offers her something that will quench her spiritual thirst.
What barriers are keeping us from sharing the hope of the gospel with others? How can we cross them? We must cross them!
Jesus will find you wherever you are. Nothing will stop him from finding you. Jesus finds us where we are, but he does not leave us there. I am struck by how patiently but clearly Jesus speaks of this woman’s story, and presumably, her sin.
Jesus confronts our sin and shame. When she responds that she wants the living water he offers, Jesus goes to her biggest problem (her five husbands and current boyfriend). He then identifies it indirectly, I think, as a worship problem.
I know why you’re here right now in the heat of the day instead of earlier with the other women.
There is nothing Jesus does not know about you. Whatever that thing is that you’re hiding from
others–it’s hidden in plain sight of Almighty God. So you might as well deal with it.
If Jesus gives us rivers of living water that flow from our hearts, then sin is like a dam that keeps us from experiencing its flow. The metaphor breaks down, but the water is there, we just can’t really enjoy it or be refreshed by it because this wall of sin and shame has been built up.
And that dam is just another barrier Jesus loves to break.
Jesus offers us living water. He wants living water to flow from us. He wants to worship God in spirit and truth.