Tuesday, April 30, 2024
The Limitless Love of God
So he left Judea and returned to Galilee. He had to go through Samaria on the way. (John 4:3-4 NLT)
No Orthodox Jew ever would go to Galilee by way of Samaria. In fact, Jews went out of their way to avoid it altogether.
The Jews did not want to associate with the Samaritans, and the Samaritans did not want to associate with the Jews. This prejudice had been passed on from generation to generation.
Jesus, however, had to go to Samaria. He had an appointment with a lonely, hurting, and searching woman, and He was about to bring God’s love to her.
The love of God knows no racial, economic, or sinful boundaries. It had been determined long before, in eternity, that Jesus would meet with this Samaritan woman on that day.
We see from the example of Jesus that we must go where people are. We need to go into our culture and be salt and light to the people with whom we have contact. Each of us has a sphere of influence. And in that sphere of influence, we can touch people in a way that no one else can.
As Christians, we should seek to share the gospel in an authentic, loving, culturally relevant way without compromising the integrity of it. We want to let people know who Jesus is. And we need to care about the people we speak to.
People can tell whether we care. No one is beyond the reach of God, no one should be left out, and no one should be written off.
The Samaritan woman was surprised to see a man sitting at the well that day when she came to draw water. And she was even more surprised when she saw that He was a Jewish man. She probably braced herself for a confrontation at that point, believing it was only a matter of time until He said something insulting to her.
Perhaps she could tell from His clothes that He was a rabbi. The legalism of the day dictated that when a rabbi saw a woman, he had to cover his eyes. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for some of them to bump into walls or trip and fall because they didn’t want to make eye contact with a woman.
This wasn’t from God. It was cold, dead, legalistic religion. And just to show you that Jesus wanted nothing to do with it, He went out of His way to reach a Samaritan—and not only a Samaritan but a woman (and an immoral one at that). She was someone to whom you’d never expect Jesus to speak. And it’s why the disciples were shocked when they came back from town with food and saw Jesus talking with her (see John 4:27).
But Jesus loved her. He was reaching out to her and would appeal to her curiosity, her inner spiritual thirst.
Are you willing to leave your comfort zone and take the gospel to someone? Are you willing to go to people who are different from you and tell them about the love of Jesus Christ? That is what Jesus modeled for us. Every generation needs regeneration. Ours is no exception.
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