Break the walls down part 1

John 4:1-14

Break the walls down Pt 1.

Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John ² (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), ³ He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. ⁴ But He needed to go through Samaria.

Jesus sees a pointless political debate brewing. He does the smart thing and the thing I have advised so many of you to do and every once in a while, one of you does it. He walks away.

Why is Samaria such a big deal in the New Testament? We hear it mentioned a lot. The Pharisees would accuse people of being Samaritans as an insult. Jews would take the long way around Samaria via the Jordan river with Samaria situated between Southern Judea and Northern Galilee this was a common trip to take. If you did not have time to go around Samaria, you went through it as fast as you possible could with minimal stops. Even the direct route could take three days. Why so much hatred for this group of people? It actually goes very far back.

Following King Solomon’s reign, Rehoboam took over as King of Israel. He was a selfish and cruel idiot. The northern tribes of Israel rebelled and created their own kingdom. The capital of it was Samaria. Fearing people would return to Jerusalem to worship they created their own religion. God was not happy with any of this.  Despite numerous warnings to return to God, the people of Samaria refused. God acted, or rather, God let them try and live life without Him.

It went the way it always goes when we try to do things our way because we think we know better. The Assyrians overran the nation in 722 B.C. They took many of the people captive. You can read about this in more detail in 2 Kings 17. The Assyrians then took captives that they had from other conquered nations and used them along with the poorest Samaritans to stay and work the land. They all inter married and the race of people known as Samaritans came to be, half Jew, half gentile.

The Jews from Judah also went into exile and capture thanks to their refusal to repent and constant ignoring of God’s messengers. They were captured by the Babylonians. However, thanks to Godly people like Daniel (as in Daniel and the lions den) when they returned to Israel they had managed to hold on to their Jewish heritage and religion. Instead of recognizing this for what it was, the Grace of God. They used it to view themselves better than the Samaritans  and taught there children to do the same.

Some 500 years have passed between the return and where we are now in the Gospel of John. Did they somehow realized that both sides were equally chastised by God? That only by God’s grace that they were who they were? No of course not! They blamed each other for their own problems and had only grown in their hatred of each other.

Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Two opposing sides with a similar heritage that constantly hate and blame each other for their own problems? Instead of putting aside differences and working together as the scriptures clearly command us to do.

Romans 14:10-12 “ Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; ¹¹ for it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
    and every tongue shall confess^[b] to God.”

¹² So then each of us will give an account of himself to God”

⁵ So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, it was roughly a three day journey if you took the direct route through Samaria. You have to remember that most of Jesus journey’s were foot powered. No car, no bus, no uber, no chariot and rarely even an animal. He walked, like pretty much everyone else did.

The drive from my house to church is right about 12 minutes most days. If I get stuck behind a tractor or something it might take 15 minutes. However, if I were to walk that 7 miles I’m looking at 2 hours or so for that trip.

Jesus stops at a well because they had been walking all day and were thirsty. He then sends the Disciples in to town to buy food. We overlook this part to focus on the conversation Jesus is has with the woman at the well. Yet, I don’t want you to overlook it.

The disciples had been brought up their entire lives to fear and hate the Samaritans. To take the long way around Samaria via the Jordan river and to never under any circumstances do business with them. Yet, Jesus intentionally sends them into town to buy food. This was a big test of their faith in the simple act of buying groceries. I bring this up to make two uncomfortable points. When you follow Jesus you won’t feel safe or comfortable, if you place your safety or comfort in anything other than Him. Which is why He places us in situations where we don’t have any other choice.

⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

A Samaritan woman comes alone to draw from the well. Jesus asks her for a drink, as they had no equipment with them to draw from the well. This lady is shocked that anyone is speaking to her much less a Jewish man. She has come by herself to draw water, which we will address in more detail in a later message, but if you were a woman drawing from a well alone there was no good reason why you were in that circumstance.

With one simple question Jesus breaks down two walls. The wall of cultural prejudice and the wall of gender prejudice.

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

¹¹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹² Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Jesus desired a drink of water. Jesus did not stop at this well out of convenience or happenstance. Jesus didn’t randomly send the Disciples away. Every last bit of this story was foreordained. Jesus was always in the right place at the right time for the right reason. What was that reason? To glorify God by spreading the gospel.

He found a common ground between himself and this Samaritan woman. He then used that to present the gospel. The world wants to focus on differences, walls and division. Yet, Jesus is about breaking down those walls and finding common ground.

He then takes that discussion about physical water and transitions to spiritual water. He points out the superiority of living water. It’s obtained without cost or effort and it satisfies both completely and eternally.

Anything that you love more than you love Jesus Christ is an idol. Don’t care who or what it is. It’s an Idol and God will have no idols before Him. I don’t know what God is doing with 2020 and I don’t dare speak for Him outside of His word. However, I have seen the systematic destruction of nearly every idol that we hold dear. Money, Health, Comfort, Safety, Politicians, Jobs, Entertainment. It’s all gone away in the blink of an eye. What’s been our reaction? For the majority of us it’s been to hold on to whatever is left of our idols as fiercely as we can! To long for the good ol days of 2019. Yet, these things are temporary, we drink of them we will be thiristy again. Now it’s time to drink and drink deep of the living waters of Christ.