HOST: Michael Whitworth
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
There are many lessons that can be learned from this event, but I want to draw your attention to one that we often miss. Verse 4 says, “And He had to pass through Samaria.” Normally, we consider that statement nothing more than an insignificant geographic detail, but that is not necessarily the case. Though Samaria was located directly between Judea and Galilee, it was not uncommon for Jews to travel well out of their way to avoid Samaria because of their disdain for the Samaritan people. But Jesus made a point to go through that region, not necessarily because He had to, but because He knew that He could make a difference there. He took the message and offer of living water to a woman and people that most Jews would have considered a lost cause and not worthy of their time or effort. He reached out with God’s love, and as a result, many believed in and followed Him. What an example from the Master Teacher!
Who have you not mentioned Christ to because you considered them a lost cause?
Don’t forget to pray and have a great day!