One of the most important moments recorded from Jesus’ ministry is when He encountered the woman at the well. Many are familiar with this story, for it is a very good story. It’s filled with lessons on witnessing, sin, and many other things. Most of all it is a lesson on forgiveness.
The scriptures I’ll be referencing as I teach from this story are from John 4:1-42. A lot of verses, and I won’t teach from all of them (though I could). Instead I’ll pick out verses to teach on things I believe God has laid on my heart. I’ll start with two verses. John 4:3-4:
“He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria.”
These verses are easily ignored, but the implications of these verses are very important. In Jesus’ day most Jewish Rabbi’s would have gone around Samaria to avoid becoming unclean in the presence of the Samaritans. The Jewish disdain for the Samaritans was so strong that avoiding them was a religious matter. Jesus would have been expected to go around Samaria, but He didn’t. It says He needed to go through Samaria.
Why did Jesus need to go through Samaria? Because He knew that’s where those in need of His message were. He knew Samaritans needed to be saved just like anyone else. They were dirty and unclean, and that’s precisely why Jesus went to them. They needed to be cleansed.
This speaks to us today. As Christians many of us today isolate ourselves from the sinners of this world. We consider this a religious matter. We must stay away from sinners. They have not been cleansed as we have, and we should stay away. That is not what Jesus teaches us. He teaches us to go out, and seek out the unclean people of this world. Find those in need of salvation, and offer it to them. Don’t avoid them. Go to them. These sinners don’t just need us. We need to go to them so they can find out about Jesus, and accept Him. They need to be cleansed, and we are to witness so they can be.
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