4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 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. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 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.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:4-14 NIV)

Jesus was heading back to Galilee and to get there He “had to go through Samaria.” The truth of the matter is that He didn’t have to go through Samaria. Jesus could have gone around Samaria–most Jews did. They didn’t mind the extra travel to avoid going through Samaria and possibly encountering some of the despised Samaritans. The Samaritans were looked down upon by the Jews because they had intermarried with folks who had been relocated there from Assyria. They were half-breeds. They were unfaithful to God. They worshiped strange pagan gods that God had forbidden His people to worship. The rift between the Jews and the people of Samaria was DEEP. So deep that Jews would do everything in their power to avoid setting foot in the region.

Jesus met a woman while traveling back to Galilee. She was a Samaritan woman. She was a woman who had failed at marriage over and over again. She had given up on marriage and was simply living with some nameless man when she met Jesus. She had come for water. Jesus had stopped for a drink. By the time they finished their conversation her soul was overflowing with Living Water that stirred something within her she had never experienced before. And Jesus? Well, He was on His way to Galilee, but along the way He changed another life and gained an evangelist who went back to town and spread the word. John tells us,

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. (John 4:28-30 NIV)

God has something important for me to do today that is not on my calendar. It may be to spend some time with someone that nobody would care to waste their time on, but they matter to Him so that means they must matter to me. Lead the broken and despised by way Lord and give me eyes to see.

My prayer today, Lord, is that You will help me to see the innate value in all people and to take the time to share Your love with those that others might simply pass by.

Think About It…