“He left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but He needed to go through Samaria.” John 4:3-4

Need to Go 

To say the Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along is, at best, an understatement. There was a longstanding history of enmity between them. Jews would usually go out of their way not to go to Samaria. John 4:9b tells us, “For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” It was unusual that Jesus said He needed to go through Samaria. I’m sure the disciples were looking at Him a bit oddly, but off they all went. What they didn’t know was He needed to go through Samaria to deliver the first gospel message to a fallen Samaritan woman beside a well (John 4:25-26). It was a message that would change not only her life, but an entire community (John 4:42).

Seemingly an inconvenience, a place one had to go through to get from one place of importance to the next… but so much more. The gospel message, salvations, and a warm welcome awaited Him: “So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days” (John 4:40). 

You would think all the places where Jesus went, taught and performed miracles would be places He would be welcomed, but such was often not the case. The Gadarenes begged Jesus to leave them after He performed miraculous spiritual healing (Luke 8:35-37). The people in Nazareth where He had grown up wanted to seize Him and throw Him off a cliff (Luke 4:29). The chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill Him (Mark 14:1).

God looks at things so differently than we do. He knows people’s hearts and the receptions we will get, good and bad. We think we need to go to Africa to spread the gospel (and sometimes that is exactly what He calls us to do), but He can do miracles in the areas we go through, or even avoid, on a day-to-day basis.

What places do we “need to go through” to accomplish God’s will? The “trivial stops” can mean so much. The grocery store on the way from home to work? Past the cubbies at our jobs to get from our desk to the kitchen? The streets full of desperate, hopeless people? What are the seemingly inconvenient, insignificant or even hostile places God calls us to take His love and the gospel? 

“Lord, thank You for sending us to places we need to go in order to bring Your love and light to Your people. May we always be willing. Amen.”