Restoring damaged people (3)

“He needed to go through Samaria.” John 4:4 NKJV

Why does the Bible say Jesus “needed to go through Samaria”? To redeem a damaged woman who was called to introduce the gospel to Samaria for the first time. Think about the situation Jesus faced: the heat was smoldering, the journey was long, and He was on foot. He knew He wouldn’t be welcome there because of a long-standing animosity between Jews and Samaritans. Women in those days veiled their faces and were forbidden to speak to men outside their own family. This woman was already the talk of the town because she’d been through five divorces. So why did Jesus feel He “needed to go through Samaria”? Because He saw her as a diamond in the rough. He looked beyond her problem and saw her potential for His kingdom. The Bible says, “Many of the Samaritans…believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified” (v. 39 NKJV). There’s an important lesson here. The schedule didn’t control Jesus; the will of God and the needs of hurting people did. He was willing to go out of His way, turn tradition on its ear, and break new ground to do it. Notice what Jesus told His disciples afterwards: “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest?’ Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together” (vv. 35-36 NKJV).

Bible in a year: 1 Chron 7-9 and Acts 15:22-41