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Breaking Down the Barriers
John 4:1-9
- Here within this passage of Scripture was the Son of God, tired, and weary, and thirsty.
- Here within this text was the holiest of men, listening with understanding to a sorry story.
- Here within this Scripture was Jesus breaking through the barriers of nationality and Orthodox Jewish custom.
- Here contextually is the very beginning of the universality of the gospel; here is God so loving the world, not in theory, but in action.
Allow me to set the scene of this incident. Palestine is only 120 miles long from north to south. However, within that 120 miles in the time of Jesus, there were three definite divisions of territory.
1. In the extreme north lay Galilee.
2. In the extreme south lay Judea.
3. However, in between Judea and Galilee, lay Samaria.
There was a centuries old feud between the Jews and the Samaritans. It is reported about 720 B.C. the Assyrians had invaded the northern kingdom of Samaria, captured and subjugated it. They transported practically the whole population to Media. The Assyrians also brought people from four other areas. Almost, inevitably they begin to enter – marry with the incoming foreigners; thereby committing what to the Jew was an unforgivable crime. They lost their racial purity.
In the course of time a like invasion and defeat happened to the southern kingdom, whose capital was Jerusalem. The inhabitants also were carried off to Babylon; but they did not lose their identity, they remained stubbornly and unaltered Jewish.
However, in time came the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and the exiles returned to Jerusalem by the grace of the Persian King. The people from the exile took it upon themselves to repair and rebuild the shattered temple. There were the Samaritans that came to offer their help in this sacred task. They were told that their help was not needed, thus the Samaritans turned bitter against the Jews of Jerusalem. “In fact, it was about 450 B.C. when that quarrel took place, and it was bitter as ever in the days of Jesus.”
No Orthodox Jew would ever set foot in Samaria, but Jesus did and His little band of disciples did as well. As He and His small band traveled along, they came to a fork in the road. There at the fork in the road was the well known as Jacob’s well. Jesus took a seat on the side of the well to rest, for He was indeed tired. This is no casual undertaking! The little band of disciples went on ahead of Jesus to purchase food in the Samaritan town. Something truly was beginning to happen to this little band. Little by little, perhaps even unconsciously, the barriers were going down.
It is a mystery why that woman would have come at that hour (mid-day) and to that well, when in fact, in her village there was a well there. The woman had traveled over a half a mile from Sychar. There, Jesus asked to give Him a drink. For a Rabbi to be seen speaking to a woman in public was the end of His reputation, yet Jesus spoke to this woman. Not only was she a woman but a woman of notorious character. No decent man, let alone a Rabbi would have been seen in her company, or even exchanging a word with her, and Jesus our Lord spoke to her.
In Closing:
This text reveals several things about our Lord:
Today, God’s people are still at war. There doesn’t appear to be an end in sight.
Maybe we can learn from the woman. She dropped her water pot and left Jesus at the well. She began to proclaim, “Come see the man, the man who has told me everything I ever done.” The woman had caught sight of herself. Do we not know that “Christianity begins with a sense of sin. It helps us to know that the life we are living will not do.” This woman’s new relationship, not only altered her life, but the people she met after leaving the fork in the road took on a new identity.
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