By Pastor Dave
John 4:4 (my paraphrase) And He, Jesus, had to, must need to, go through Samaria.
This scripture is a big deal. The Jews and the Samaritans despised one another. They were enemies and they were not kind to one another. Whenever the Jews had to travel, they would avoid Samaria, even if it was on the direct route to where they were going. They would travel around it even if it added a day or two to their travel. The despising of each other was deep in their hearts.
The disciples are walking with Jesus, they were following Jesus. Can you imagine what the disciples thought when Jesus told them that He had to go through Samaria and not around it? I am sure they had a few objections. I think they reminded Jesus of all the reasons they should not go through Samaria. But Jesus went to, and through, Samaria. And what happened? They ended up staying there two full days and there was an awakening and many of the Samaritans got saved. They believed in Jesus. They acknowledged Jesus as the Christ. This was something the Jewish people were not doing, at least not like it was in Samaria.
“Cool,” you say, “How does this apply to me?” If you are a follower of Jesus and if you walk with Him daily, He may want to lead you to someone or some people you would rather avoid. He may say that you must go to this person and you will remind Him of all the reasons you can not go to them. You may say, “they hate me” or “they do not like me”. You may say “they are mean and abusive to me”. You may say “we don’t like each other”. You will probably have a lot of good reasons why you can not go there. But Jesus! He says we must, and if you are a true follower of Jesus, you must go where He goes. You need to humble yourself and go where He tells you, where He leads you. If you obey you may be surprised and you may find that salvation is part of your obedience to go to, and through, where He tells you.
Are you an obedient follower of Jesus? Will you go to that person or those people? Will you allow Jesus to work through you?