Jesus crosses borders

 JESUS CROSSES BORDERS

 

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

JOHN 4.7

 

Based on JOHN 4.1–42

 

In Jesus’ day, strict rules defined appropriate behaviour between genders, classes, and ethnic groups. Though some originated in the law of Moses, most others had morphed over time to exclude the underdog and insulate the privileged in their own little club.

Interactions between a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman were clearly demarcated, ideally, avoid interaction if at all possible. If unavoidable, minimise contact to avoid becoming ritually unclean.

But in His conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus defies these human regulations and shocks even His own disciples.

Jesus intentionally steps into this scene with the Samaritan woman even though political and religious divisions existed between the Jewish people and the Samaritans. Though many Jews traveling between Judea and Galilee chose to take the long route around Samaria, Jesus chose to cross the cultural border into Samaritan territory. Alone at Jacob’s well, Jesus sees a lone woman approaching at the hottest hour of the day, and asks her for a drink.

This is problematic for the woman, because most Middle Eastern cultures disapproved of men speaking with women in private, and since Jewish tradition considered Samaritan women continually unclean, drinking from her water jug would make Jesus “impure.” The woman challenges Jesus, “How can you ask me for a drink?”

But Jesus knows the heart and love compels Him forward. He invites the woman into a conversation, allowing her to voice her frustration until reaching her predicament, even if she could worship the one true God, where could she worship Him? The Jews had destroyed the Samaritans’ holy place, and as a Samaritan woman who had been married five times (whether widowed or divorced was beside the point — it still reflected poorly on her character) and was living with a man who wasn’t even her husband (shameful by both Jewish and Samaritan standards), she had no hope of worshiping God in His temple in Jerusalem. She was excluded from true worship of God and relegated to a life of quiet desperation, yet her questions reveal a deep longing for God.

Her only hope was to wait for the coming Messiah, the true prophet who followed Moses, who would set all things right. She was burdened by her past choices and trapped by her present circumstances. If only the Messiah would come.

When Jesus asked her to call her husband, she admitted she had no husband, most likely feeling shame because of how often she’d already been married and now she was just living with a man.

Jesus does not rush her for her answer.

He doesn’t chastise her.

He doesn’t belittle her.

Instead, He does the unthinkable: Jesus reaches across every man-made boundary to quench her deepest longing with Himself. And as if that weren’t enough, He honours this Samaritan woman by choosing her to be the first person to whom He reveals His identity as the Messiah: “I am he.”

What’s more, Jesus chooses her to witness Him not just as Messiah for the Jews, but the Saviour of the world. His love truly knows no limits.

 

Prayer 

 

Jesus, I praise You for Your love that crossed into my life one day, and every day since then. Thank You that human constraints can’t keep Your love out and past sins don’t keep Your love away. Thank You for loving me just as I am. Help me love others where they are, and to seek them out with Your great love for them. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen.

 

If you want to read more 

 

2 Kgs 17.24, Ezra 4.1–24, Lk 9.52–56, Rev 7.9–12