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Intro today we will begin looking at John chapter 4.
Here we find the famous account of Jesus meeting the woman at the well.
Let’s read it together.
I love this account of Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well.
In this account we can see both Jesus’ humanity, and his deity.
We can see how he draws people to himself.
We see… Well, we will get to all of that.
For today, I want to start by digging in to verse 4.
Why does the Spirit have John write it this way?
What was Samaria?
Why did he have to go through Samaria?
Samaria was the territory between Judea in the south, and Galilee in the North.
But what was Samaria, and why do we read of Samaria as a place Jews typically avoided, and the people of Samaria as ‘enemies’ of Israel?
Background:
After David, Solomon was king.
After Solomon, the kingdom was divided, 10 northern tribes, 2 southern.
The norther tribes were referred to as Israel, the southern as Judah.
722 BC, Assyria conquered the northern tribes and exiled many of them.
They also resettled other captives from other nations in Israel.
We read about this in 2 Kings 17.
Map
Secular records show that there were more Israelites in the area, and gradually, worship of the Lord became predominant.
However, the Samaritans were a little different than the Jews.
The Samaritans only held to the first 5 books of the Old Testament.
And, their copies were slightly different.
They held that the Jews were wrong to have a temple in Jerusalem.
Rather, Mt.
Gerizim was the place where the tabernacle should have remained.
Later, the Samaritans built a temple on Mt.
Gerizim.
c. 128 BC, Jewish ruler John Hyrcanus destroyed Shechem and the temple at Mt. Gerizim.
AD 6, Samaritans desecrated the Jewish temple by putting human bones in the temple porches and sanctuary during Passover.
Because of the hostilities, many times the Jews would not travel through Samaria when traveling between Judea and Galilee.
They would literally take twice as long and travel around Samaria.
So, that is the background of John 4. So, let’s read this verse again.
Why does it say “He had to go through Samaria?”
He did not ‘have’ to go through because there was no other way to travel.
He could have taken the long way around.
But the text is clear.
It says He had to.
My first thought was to look up the word ‘had to’.
Does the original Greek text mean ‘had to’, or what?
Well, yes, it means ‘had to’.
So then, I decided to see the places where this word is used.
Then things got interesting.
Would you believe this word is used 99 times in the New Testament.
I started reading the verses where it is used, and very quickly I realized something that I thought was pretty wild.
When, I tell you the word for ‘had to’, or ‘must’ is used 99 times, how do you think it is used for the most part?
Many people think Christianity is all about things we have to do, or not do.
There is some of that.
But when I started looking at the verses, and who had to do what, guess who the subject, or actor, that is used most with ‘had to’ is.
Jesus!
Not you, me, or anyone else.
Yes, there are things we must do.
But the one that is the actor that ‘has to’ do things the most in the New Testament is Jesus!
Over 20 times Jesus is the one who had to do something.
This expression is used 10 times in John.
Seven of those 10 are Jesus having to do something.
Let’s look at the 10 in John.
Let’s look at some of the other verses that describe what Jesus had to do.
What did most of these verses say Jesus ‘had to’ do?
Most of them had to do with him suffering and dying for us.
A few of them deal with Jesus having to preach to others, or go to certain individuals, like Zaccheus.
So, keeping that in mind, “Why did Jesus have to go through Samaria?”
Jesus did not have to go through Samaria because he had no other good options or routes.
Jesus did not have go through Samaria because he was in a hurry to get to Galilee.
Jesus had to go through Samaria because he was on mission.
He was doing the work the Father sent him to do.
What was that mission?
Looking at the context of one of the things Jesus had to do—going to Zaccheus’ house—Luke 19:10 says...
Jesus was on mission to seek and to save the lost.
He had a divine appointment with the woman at the well!
The Samaritan woman at the well.
The Samaritan, adulterous, woman at the well.
The Samaritan, adulterous, idolatrous, woman at the well.
He came to seek and to save that woman at the well!
My next question is,
How did he handle what he ‘had to’ do?
Think about the things you and I have to do.
There are many things we have to do in life.
Some of them are not very pleasant.
How do we handle those things?
I’ll be honest.
I do not always do those things I ‘have to’ do with a good attitude.
They are not pleasant.
I don’t like it.
So, I do it begrudgingly.
Do you do that?
Did Jesus to it like that?
Think about it.
He was having to walk around.
He had to walk in the heat of the day, on the dusty trails, in blistering heat, under the glaring, burning sun for hours on end.
Then, when he has a chance to take a break, he has to engage in a deep conversation with a woman who most people would write off.
He came to the world he created, the people he created and cared for who have rejected him over and over, and he knew he was going to be betrayed, humiliated, beaten, cursed, ridiculed and crucified.
Sounds like a great job.
Something he ‘had to’ do.
I think the things Jesus ‘had to’ do were a lot worse than the things I ‘have to’ do.
How did he do it?
Against his will?
Begrudgingly?
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