A Most Unlikely Encounter...

At the church where I serve, we have launched into 2014 by launching into a brand new sermon series entitled living on mission. During this series, our hope and our prayer is to equip and empower us as followers of Jesus to live our day to day lives on mission as a missionary that loves and serves those that God has already placed around us who are far from God in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to them.

And if you are not sure that you buy the whole Jesus, Bible, Church thing, our hope for you is that this series you would help you see what Jesus calls His followers to be so that you can see how He feels about you and what He calls His followers to do when it comes to engaging you. That way, you can cut through the bad experiences that you may have had with Christians and churches to see the truth when it comes to what Jesus calls His followers to be truly about as they live around you.

This week, I would like for us to look at a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John. Now the gospel of John was written the person who had perhaps the closest relationship with Jesus while He was on earth, a man named John. And it is in a section of the gospel of John that we see John give us a front row seat to a most unlikely encounter that Jesus had during His time here on earth. And it is in this unlikely encounter that we see Jesus reveal for us a timeless and true principles when it comes to living on mission. So let’s look together at this encounter, beginning in John 4:1:

Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John  (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

John brings us to our front row seats for this encounter by providing for us the context in which this encounter would take place. John explains that once Jesus knew that the Pharisee’s, who were the self righteous religious people, became aware that Jesus had become more popular than John the Baptizer, Jesus left Judea and went to Galilee. You see, Jesus knew that His growing popularity would be viewed as a threat by the Pharisee’s to their position and power that they loved. And Jesus knew that the Pharisee’s would attempt to harass and attack Jesus, just like they had done to John the Baptizer.

So, Jesus decided to leave Judea and the Pharisee’s animosity in order to continue the mission He had been given in Galilee. John states that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. But this morning, what is so significant about Samaria that John would mention the fact that Jesus had to travel through there?

To answer this question, we first need to understand a few things. The first things that we need to understand is where Samaria was located in relation to Judea and Galilee. Judea is located in what is now southern Israel. Galilee is located in what is now northern Israel. And in between Judea and Galilee was the region that John referred to as Samaria.

Now this leads us to the second thing that we need to understand, which is the history of the people that lived in Samaria. You see, at one time, Samaria was a part of the northern Kingdom of Israel. Then, in 722 B.C., the Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In order to help control the regions that they conquered, the Assyrians developed a strategy that involved deporting large numbers of Jewish people and replacing them with large numbers of people from the nation of Assyria. The Assyrians who moved to Samaria worshipped false gods and simply added the worship of the One True God to their worship of their false gods.

Over time, the Jewish people began to intermarry and adopt the religion and culture of the Assyrians. These Samaritans then rejected all of the Old Testament except the first five books and refused to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. Instead, the Samaritans built their own temple on Mt Gerizim in 400 B.C. Now as you might imagine, the Jewish people did not respond well to what was happening in Samaria. And over time a great deal of animosity built between the Jewish people who lived in southern Israel and the people who lived in Samaria.

The closest cultural comparison would be that the Samaritans were viewed in a similar way to how a black and white married couple would have been viewed in the southern United States in the 1950’s. The Jewish people came to view the Samaritans as “half breeds” and wanted nothing to do with them. The Jewish people would later burn down the temple in Samaria in 128 B.C.

So if a Jewish person had to make a trip from Judea to Galilee, they would often cross the Jordan River in Judea, travel north until they reached Galilee, and then cross back over the Jordan River to get into Galilee. That is how much the Jews hated the Samaritans. 

However, Jesus had to pass through Samaria. John then tells us that Jesus arrived at the city of Sychar, which is located here on the map. Upon arriving in the city, Jesus, tired from the long trip, decided to rest at a well. John tells us that it was the sixth hour, which was noon. So, Jesus, wearied from His trip, is sitting by a well in the heat of the dessert day, when a most unexpected encounter occurs. We see John record this most unexpected encounter beginning in verse 7:

 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

John tells us that as the disciples headed to town to get lunch, as Jesus rested by the well, a Samaritan woman approached the well to get some water. Now, this morning, here is a question to consider: Why is the Samaritan woman getting water at the well at noon? Would that be the time that you would choose to go get water from a well if you lived in the middle of a dessert? Would you go get water at noon in the summer here in Bullhead City?

No, you wouldn’t. Instead you would do what most of us do, which is to go out to get water either early in the morning, or late in the day, when the sun is not at its highest and hottest point. You would only go to get water at noon if you did not want to see anyone else. You would only get water at noon if you wanted to avoid people.

So what does that tell us about the Samaritan woman? You see, the Samaritan woman was ostracized and isolated from the community that she lived in. The Samaritan woman was an outsider who was far from God and was far from others. Jesus, however, responds to this ostracized outsider by asking her for a drink.

John then gives us a glimpse into the animosity between the Jews and Samaritans by how the Samaritan woman responded to Jesus: "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" You see, the hatred between Jews and Samaritans was such that they did not even speak to one another, let alone offer to drink from one another’s cups. The Samaritan woman basically says to Jesus “aren’t you Jewish people too good for us, so why are you even talking to me”.

I wonder how many people who are far from God feel the same way about the Christians that they encounter in their day to day lives. Just something to think about.

Tomorrow, we will see John reveal Jesus response to us…