Walking With Christ

John 4:4 And he had to pass through Samaria.(ESV)

Jesus, a Jew, had to pass through Samaria? I’m sure there was a long list of things that Jesus just had to do. This isn’t a case where Jesus wasn’t given a choice. This was a case of Jesus insisted on going through Samaria.

Let me explain. Jew and Samarian. Oil and water. More accurately, gas and fire. Mixing the two was often dangerous. These two groups absolutely hated each other. Proper Jews would walk around Samaria to just to avoid it. From Judea, where Jesus was preaching, back to Galilee put the fastest and shortest path right through Samaria. Jews would add three days to the journey just to walk around it so that they could avoid running into any Samarians.

Jesus made it a point to go through Samaria just so that He could meet the woman at the well who was actively trying to avoid people while getting water because her reputation was bad even amongst her own people. When Jesus was done with her she left her water jar and ran to go find the very people she had been trying so hard to avoid. That is the best story of repentance (a change of heart or mind) I know of in the bible.

Also, not the whole story here.

This woman at the well, who was not a Jew, was the first person Jesus said He was the messiah to. Jesus didn’t announce His presence to a male king or Jewish high priest. No, He picked a female outcast from a culture that every Israelite was raised to despise. What’s more is that Jesus then spent three extra days in Samaria preaching because of the testimony of this woman. Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. Most people assumed He had to go through there because of time constraints and He had to hurry back to Galilee. No, with the three extra days He spent in Samaria preaching and healing the lost He arrived in Galilee at about the same time as He would have had He taken the “proper” route.

Hat tip to Pastor Kelly K for pointing out the phrasing. Hat tip to the holy spirit for pointing out the next part.