If you truly believe that God loves you and He loves everyone in the world, then why do even we Christians erect barriers between people?
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said that we Christians are the salt and the light of the world. This means that we’re here for a reason—to make a positive difference in our community and world. We are to live lives of purity, truth, and in accordance to God’s divine revelation we find in the Bible. We are to influence others and draw them to Christ.
Today we look at a very familiar story—Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. But let’s look at it from a different perspective than we normally do.
We know we are to share the Gospel with lost people. In fact, that’s the primary lesson of this story—Jesus sharing the Good News with the Samaritan woman. But there’s something else also going on here—Jesus was breaking barriers. As Christ followers, we are here to break down barriers.
In his autobiography Mahatma Ghandi said that during his student days he was deeply touched by reading the gospels. He seriously considered becoming a Christian. Christianity seemed to offer the real solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India. One Sunday he went to a church to see the minister and ask for instruction on how to become a Christian. But when he entered the sanctuary, the ushers refused him a seat and suggested that he go and worship with his own people. He left and never went back. "If Christians have caste differences also," he said to himself, "I might as well remain a Hindu."
We Christians, we Christ-followers are called by God to break down barriers.
This story is extremely interesting because if follows the story of Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3:1-21). You couldn’t have found two more contrasting people.
Nicodemus and this woman from Samaria were world’s apart. Nicodemus came to Jesus seeking answers; she was indifferent. Nicodemus was a respected ruler and educator; she was an outcast.
He was serious; she was flippant. He was a Jew; she was a despised Samaritan. Presumably he was moral; she was immoral. Religiously he was orthodox; she was anything but. He was educated; she was not.
None of that made any difference to Jesus. In spite of all the differences between this “good churchman” and this “woman of the world,” they both had something very much in common—they both needed to be born again. Both of them had needs which only Jesus Christ could meet.
Racially, socially, and economically, they were worlds apart, yet they both needed Jesus. Their people and cultures were worlds apart, yet Jesus came to die and forgive the sins of all of them.
There are many kinds of barriers, and Jesus went out of His way to break them down—tax collectors, lepers, and prostitutes. Jesus went out of His way to go to Galilee (v. 4). The shortest route was through Samaria, but it wasn’t the only way.
A good Jew would bypass Samaria. He should do everything possible to avoid contact with a Samaritan. And the Samaritans returned the hatred. They didn’t want the Jews traveling through their land.
For over 400 years they had hated each other. When the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom about 720 BC, they carried away as slaves most of the population. These are the 10 lost tribes of Israel. They would never return.
Other foreigners moved in to the area and intermarried with the remaining Jews. Their children became the Samaritans. The Jews were very prejudiced against them.
But in spite of what the Jews thought or wanted God loved the Samaritans too. And what God thinks is more important than culture and popular opinion:
Four hundred years later, when racial resentment and tension were high, verse 4 says, “Now he had to go through Samaria.” Jesus could have gone around Samaria.
But He didn’t. The reason is found in the little Greek word we translate as “had to.” The word means, “It is necessary.” It’s the same word in 3:14 when Jesus said, “. . . so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
Jesus didn’t go to Samaria because that was the only road. He went because He loved the Samaritans and God’s salvation is intended for all. Jesus intended to break man-made barriers.
Racism isn't a bad habit; it's not a mistake; it's a sin.
When Jesus told Nicodemus that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son,” He didn’t say, “God so loved only the Jews that He gave His one and only son.”
Jesus specifically went to Samaria to break down racial barriers. He also destroyed other barriers. It is fascinating that in a time when women were treated as mere property and sometimes treated no better that cattle, that it is a woman who would be the conduit to her people to hear what Christ had to say.
Jesus calls His followers to break down the barriers in our world that are keeping people from coming to Christ.
Think about what Jesus did here. He did the unthinkable: He traveled to a land filled with people the Jews racially hated and He talked to a woman—a Samaritan woman! (vv. 5-6).
He and the disciples had traveled as far as Jacob’s well. The others had gone to town for food. A tired Jesus stayed behind. Then He did a very surprising thing—He spoke to a Samaritan women He had never met (vv. 7-15).
As if the racial barrier wasn’t enough, Jesus now breaks another taboo—the gender barrier. He spoke to a woman! Jesus was called a Rabbi. A Rabbi didn’t talk to women in public—not even his wife, daughter or sister.
According to Wm. Barclay, there were some Pharisees who were called “the bruised and bleeding Pharisees” because they shut their eyes when they saw women on the street and so walked into walls and houses.
The quickest way for a good man to ruin his reputation was to talk to a woman in public. None of that mattered to Jesus. He didn’t care what culture decreed—He knew this woman and all women are important to God as all men are. God loves everyone. Jesus died on the cross for every person, men and women.
This lady was also a bad woman—another barrier to be broken. This woman had a bad reputation:
Not only was she a woman and a hated Samaritan, she was a woman of very questionable character. Did you know that even women of questionable character are loved by God—even if no decent man or woman would talk to her?
It’s no wonder she was so surprised when Jesus spoke to her. When we read these verses we often don’t fully see what’s going on. Jesus was serious and homing in on reaching her with the Gospel. The woman was flippant and sarcastic—trying to be pert and cute.
She has a well-known and bad past. She’s known as a flirt, and she’s available—other women won’t have anything to do with her, and they’re going to keep their husbands away from her.
She’s worldly-wise. Every man is a challenge, and she knows how to handle them. In other words, her motives in talking to Jesus are far different than His in talking to her.
Jesus knew He had to cut through her banter and superficial- ness, and get right to the heart of who she was. Her responses to Jesus were petty, dealing with the racial hatred, nationalities, sex, social position, and religion.
We are prone to erect barriers. I saw some little children playing in the waiting area of an airport one day. One was black the other white. It didn’t matter to them. They won’t learn to be prejudiced until taught by their parents.
These things that separate us are just excuses in God’s sight. He is color blind, nationality blind, gender blind, socially blind, and religiously blind.
Jesus had to get beyond these petty issues, because only when the woman got right with God would she be right with herself and others.
When Billy Graham held a crusade in Arkansas years ago, it was during a time of racial turmoil. The evangelist was asked to segregate his audience:
Billy Graham said that if he had to speak the word of God to a segregated audience he would violate his ministry, and he wouldn't do it. At the most intense time in the modern history of racial turmoil in Arkansas, blacks and whites together filled the football stadium. When the invitation was given, they poured down the aisles together. They forgot they were supposed to be mad at each other, that one was supposed to consider the other somehow less than equal.
Included in all the other barriers Jesus overcame was also the barrier of misunderstanding. Jesus talked to the woman about water—living water—but she did not understand any better than Nicodemus did about being born again.
So she said, “Give me some of this water so I don’t have to come to this well anymore” (v. 15). But Jesus wasn’t speaking of physical thirst, but spiritual thirst. He used the well water to help her understand. Jesus always begins where we are.
Jesus knows that a human being is a threefold being: he is body, mind, and spirit: Just as there are physical thirsts, there are emotional thirsts and there are spiritual thirsts. Jesus was saying to the woman:
“If you drink of this well water, you’re going to thirst again.” This is a fact of every physical experience that you may have or hope to have. There are always those who think, “If I could just . . .” you fill in the blank, “Then I would be happy.”
What’s in your blank? “If I could just achieve this,” or, “If I just had more money,” or, “If I lived in a bigger house, I would be satisfied.” “If I just had a different job, everything would be ok.”
“Not so,” Jesus said. “You drink of this water and you will thirst again.” The stuff of this world cannot ultimately satisfy. Only Jesus satisfies.
But she still didn’t get it until she was confronted with her sin. What she didn’t know was that . . .
Jesus saw right through her. John 4:16 – 18, 16He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
Jesus told her to go get her husband. She said, “I don’t have a husband. I’m available.” “You’re right!” He said, “You’ve had 5 husbands and you’re living with another.”
Immediately her attitude changes. She is no longer the perky, flirty woman sizing Jesus up for a conquest. She says in John 4:19 – 20, 19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Her mask is gone. No longer is she a little flirt. A lot of people go around wearing masks. They may have a cute, clever, self-confident exterior that says, “I can take care of myself.” But remove the mask and underneath there is a great thirst, a great need for God.
You can pretend that you don’t need God, but deep down, inside, every person’s heart cries out for God.
Her mask was removed; the barrier was smashed. She couldn’t fool Jesus. “He’s looking right inside me. He knows me. He knows the truth about me. I’m not fooling him at all.”
Now her spirit was open and revealed, and she knew it. So when she questioned about where the Jews and Samaritans worshipped, she was really asking, “Where is God? Would you help me find Him?”
Jesus is the only way to God. When she asked about the Messiah, Jesus said in John 4:26, “I who speak to you am he.” We all need God no matter what kind of front we put up. We erect the barriers, Jesus attempts to break them down. He was patient with her as gently showed her the way to God.
Francis Schaeffer said, “We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus' claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of oneness of true Christians.”
As long as there are man-made barriers the world will see a divided Christianity. God calls us to follow the example of Jesus and break down barriers so that the world will see genuine oneness among Christians.
Look at what happened because Jesus broke down these barriers: John 4:28 – 30,28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
John 4:39 – 42, 39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers. 42They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”