Growing In Godliness Blog
“Jesus in Samaria”
Categories: Author: Paul Earnhart, Jesus, RelationshipsJesus in Samaria
By Paul Earnhart
In John the 4th chapter, we have the first record of an encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan (Jn. 4:3-42).
The land in which Jesus lived was divided into three parts. The northern part was known as Galilee. Jesus was a Galilean. The southern part of the country was called Judea. Jerusalem was in Judea. The population of both Galilee and Judea was Jewish. But in between Galilee and Judea was Samaria. The people there were called Samaritans. The Jews and Samaritans did not get along well at all. As a rule, they despised each other. The Jews especially looked down on the Samaritans. The Samaritans rejected much of the Old Testament, and revised the books they did accept. They had built a rival temple in their own territory and insisted that it was there that people should worship, not in Jerusalem. The Jews considered the Samaritans wretchedly immoral and spiritually unclean. They had as little dealing with them as possible.
When Jesus and His disciples were traveling through Samaria, passing from Judea to Galilee, they arrived in a city of Samaria about noon. They were tired and hungry. Jesus sat down by a well, while the disciples went to buy food. While they were gone, a Samaritan woman came to draw water. She said, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (Jn. 4:9) What she did not know at that point was that Jesus was different. Jesus was not prejudiced as other Jews were. Jesus was much more concerned about the heart of an individual than He was about race or color.
People today who are truly Christlike, regardless of nationality or race, can associate together in peace and harmony. They do not share the prejudice and bitterness so often found among people of the world. Each of us should ask ourselves, “Am I like Jesus in my attitude toward other races and nationalities?”
