EXPLORE IT! - John 4:1-4

At the beginning of John 4, Jesus and his disciples leave Judea and returns to Galilee. They then go to the Samarian town of Sychar, and Jesus rests at Jacob's Well. And John says that he had to go to Samaria… which isn’t exactly true.

Jesus was going from Judea to Galilee, and the normal route would take him up the Jordan river, and away from Samaria. But instead of going the normal route, Jesus takes the long way through Samaria.

Most Jews would go way out of their way to avoid going through Samaria… but Jesus goes there intentionally.

The Samaritan people are named for the capital city, Samaria, of the ancient northern kingdom of Israel, and the Samaritans were a distinctive Jewish group who occupied the territory lying between Judea and Galilee.

Now the Samaritans were, of course, half-breeds, being the descendants of Jews who’d intermarried with non-Jews. They continued to honor God, but they were banned from the Temple because of their lineage. So, they followed the Torah, but treated Mt. Gerizim, in Samaria, near the ancient Israelite sanctuary of Shechem, as the place of the true temple (John 4:20).

For most observant Jews, the Samaritan branch of Hellenistic Judaism was little better than a Gentile cult.

This is extraordinary that Jesus, a Jewish rabbi, would even be talking to a Samaritan woman. But isn’t that just like our Jesus? And like him, we should always be willing to go out of our way to show love to those that the rest of the world despises.