The text tells us today that Jesus has to go through Samaria today. But that is not quite right. He doesn’t have to go through it. There are other ways to get to Galilee. But this is not a “chronos” scheduled event or earthly time. This is a “kairos” event, or God’s time. Jesus deviates from the human schedule and instead listens to His Father. Through that, He shows God’s love to people who do not expect it. We have the same chance every day. There are folks all around us who need to know God’s love, but we are often too busy with our schedules to show them that love. Who do we miss when we do that? Today, who can we impact when we are willing to go off schedule?

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Good morning! It’s wonderful to be with you on this Wednesday. I’m thrilled to be back from school last week because it means I get to teach Bible study tonight at St. Matthews. There’s something special about Bible study, and I hate missing our Wednesday nights like I did last week. So, it feels good to be back. I’m looking forward to our Rooted session this morning, but I’m even more excited for tonight’s live session at St. Matthews. If you’re in the Madison area and looking for a place to fellowship, enjoy a good meal, and engage in activities for adults, youth, and children, we’d love to have you join us at St. Matthews for Wednesday Night Live. It’s always a great time together, and I’m particularly excited to dive into our Bible study.

As I mentioned yesterday, we’re going to explore one of the well-known stories in John’s Gospel: the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. This is a significant narrative that spans the majority of John 4, covering 42 verses. To make it more digestible, we’ll break it down into three sections over the next few days. Today, we’ll start with the introduction in verses 1 through 15. Tomorrow, we’ll dive into their main conversation in verses 16 through 26, and on Friday, we’ll conclude with verses 27 through 42.

In this passage, we see Jesus interacting with the Samaritan woman at the well. Notice that we haven’t yet reached the part where Jesus tells her to go get her husband—that’s tomorrow’s focus. As my teachers reminded me last week, it’s important not to get ahead of ourselves. We need to stay with what we have and fully understand it before moving forward.

Let’s start by talking about Samaria. By the way, I’ve actually been to this well. Samaria is located northeast of Jerusalem, heading towards Jericho, in the West Bank. The well is now in the basement of a church, and I’ve had the privilege of drinking water from it. It’s one of those sites in Israel where you can be fairly confident it’s the actual location mentioned in the Bible because springs and wells don’t move. So, this is likely the very well where this story took place.

The passage begins by noting that Jesus learned the Pharisees were discussing him, so he left Judea and went to Galilee. Now, the text says he “had to go through Samaria.” However, geographically speaking, Jesus didn’t actually have to go through Samaria to reach Galilee. Most Jews of that time would have avoided Samaria altogether due to the longstanding enmity between Jews and Samaritans, as indicated in verse 9. The Jews considered Samaritans unclean and heretical, and so they typically went out of their way to avoid passing through Samaria.

But Jesus chose to go through Samaria, not out of geographical necessity, but for a greater spiritual purpose. This was a divine appointment, where Jesus was operating not on Kronos time (human, chronological time) but on Kairos time (God’s appointed time). This distinction is important. While Jesus didn’t need to pass through Samaria on his journey, he had to go through it for God’s purpose.

This raises a question for us today: Are we living more for our own purposes or for God’s purposes? Are we operating on our own schedules, or are we open to God’s divine appointments in our lives? Jesus went to Samaria because he had a divine appointment with this woman, a moment that would transcend cultural boundaries and social expectations.

We’ll delve into the theological differences between Jews and Samaritans tomorrow, but suffice it to say, the Jews viewed Samaritans as the worst of the worst. They were considered unclean, impure, and completely outside the bounds of acceptable worship. So, the fact that Jesus would engage with a Samaritan woman is shocking to the disciples and to us as readers.

This brings us to another important reflection: Who do we, as Christians, tend to avoid today? Who are the modern-day “Samaritans” in our lives? Sometimes we get so caught up in our routines and to-do lists that we miss the opportunities to step outside our comfort zones and reach out to those who might be considered “unclean” or “unworthy” by societal standards. But Jesus challenges us to love and reach out to everyone, even those whom society tells us to avoid.

Remember, there was a time in each of our lives when we were the ones people didn’t want to love. Yet, someone took the time to share the good news of Jesus with us. Someone loved us, cared for us, and showed us the love of Christ, and that made all the difference.

So today, who is our Samaria? Who do we need to reach out to with the love of Jesus? Who needs to hear about the love of God from us today?

That’s where we leave off today, with Jesus in Samaria. Tomorrow, we’ll unpack the conversation he has with the woman at the well. I look forward to exploring that with you. Have a great rest of your day, and I’ll see you in the morning. Thanks for joining me.