And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 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.
When I was growing up in Berks County Pennsylvania, Philadelphia was nearby and I thought it was like Oz. We would go to Phillies games and I would just gaze at the city from a distance. Then one night we got lost in Philadelphia and my illusion was gone. Forever. For Jews in the first century, the first few words of verse 4 would have caught their attention. Jesus had to pass through Samaria. Most Jews would take the long way around Samaria, like the Blue Route goes around Philadelphia. Jews hated Samaritans. They considered them half-breeds because they intermarried with the pagans around them. There is a significance to Jesus going into Samaria and speaking to the woman at the well. It is also no accident that Jesus chose a Samaritan to come to the rescue of the robbed and beaten stranger on the road in his Good Samaritan parable. His point was that now that Jesus had come and would die for the whole world, God’s love would be shown to everyone.
Not long after the church was born, Philip was preaching in Samaria and from there reached the first Gentile Christian, the Ethiopian Eunuch. The vision of Jesus in Matthew 28 and Acts 1:8 was being fulfilled. The gospel was going into all nations and to the ends of the earth. Who are your Samaritans? Who do you hate? Who do you not want to see in heaven? The answer needs to be no one. That is…
Brotherly love.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church