A Hope for the Hopeless
4/8/25 Bible Thought (John 4)
Today’s passage begins with Jesus leaving Judea and heading for Galilee (John 4:4). Nothing crazy on the surface, but sometimes geographical details have more to do with divine providence that a mere recounting of information. The text says that he had to pass through Samaria (Jn. 4:4). The Greek word is more typically rendered “It is necessary” and can be explained as, “to be under necessity of happening, it is necessary, one must, one has to, denoting compulsion of any kind.”[1]
While geographically, Samaria was between Judea and Galilee, oftentimes Jews would travel through Perea to the east in order to avoid Samaria altogether. It was a detour, but for some it was worth it because of the harsh relations between Jews and Samaritans.
Craig Keener offers some helpful insight from the Jewish historian Josephus:
“Josephus considers them Jewish apostates (Josephus Ant. 11.340) and complains that Samaritans claimed to be Jews when Jews prospered but confessed their differences when Jews endured hardship (Ant. 9.291; 11.341). Jews often deemed Samaritans sinful; thus Samaria supposedly was founded by those who rejected Jeremiah’s call to repentance (4 Bar. 8).”[2]
Even John offers a note on the bad relationship between the two peoples (see Jn. 4:9). So, technically, Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria. He could’ve gone through Perea like others might have. But the reason that it was necessary for Him to go there is because there was a lost and hopeless woman who had an appointment with Him that she knew nothing about.
We know very little of this woman. No name is given. Little background is given. But Jesus knew her. He knew her rough marital history. He knew her poor reputation. Most of all, He knew when she would be at that well. Noon was one of the hottest times of day, and the fact that she was there by herself at such a time shows that she was probably ostracized by her community. [3]
Yet, no one is too far off for Jesus. Jesus arrives at the well and waits. Shortly thereafter she comes along, right on schedule. Then, Jesus strikes up conversation, another break in custom that could’ve been seen as Him flirting with her.[4]
Jesus breaks all the customs. He talks with a lone woman at a well, a woman who is a Samaritan no less, and a woman who had gone through husbands like some people would’ve gone through sandals. But Jesus had to go through Samaria, for there was this woman without hope. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, had left the 99, and found the one.
The rejected woman shortly thereafter becomes an evangelist, telling the whole city of Messiah Jesus. As a result, “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony” (Jn. 4:39a).
Truly, the fields were white for harvest (Jn. 4:35). The temple fields might not have been white, but the Samaritan fields were. The religious elites might have rejected Christ, but the rejected of society received Him.
None are too far off, if they will only receive the Lord Jesus through faith, as John put forth in his prologue:
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:12-13).
Who might Jesus be looking to reach through us?
[1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 214.
[2] Craig S. Keener, John, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, vol. 2A of Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019), 34.
[3] Ibid., 37.
[4] Ibid., 37.
One of my favorite stories. So much to draw out of it.