AND HE HAD TO GO THROUGH SAMARIA

Part I: Good Shepherd Bad Shepherd

If ever I were a shepherd, I would absolutely wrestle with the idea of leaving 99 of my beautiful, fat, profitable sheep just to search for one seemingly insignificant one (let’s call her Clarissa😂) that was playful enough to lose her way while the others obeyed my leading. I wonder how often Clarissa loses her way and the rest of those sheep have to wait for their Shepherd to bring her back!

Until you are Clarissa- lost, desperate, wandering and you are counting on your Master’s love to defy 'logic' and lead you back.

Part II: The nature of God

God is Love. Jesus is Love personified. That’s it. That is Part II.

Part III: John 4:1-23

Some of my friends have endured moments of me going on and on about Jesus and the woman at the well. From the moment I read this story, not many lines screamed off the pages as much as this:

‘And he had to go through Samaria’

In those days, the Jews scorned the Samaritans so much that they opted to take the longer route to Galilee as opposed to branching through Samaria.

I can imagine how worse this scorn was when directed to this Samaritan woman, five husbands in and counting. If anyone was least expected to introduce this small town to their long-awaited Messiah, it was this madam over here. We all might even struggle to believe her, honestly🌛🌛.

Not Jesus though. When He scoured through the thousands of socially and morally acceptable Samaritans, His (loving) (faithful) (beautiful) gaze rested on her.

Clarissa suffered the brunt of societal judgment (and possibly isolation), but Jesus perceived her as the perfect vessel for the revealing of His Glory. While she always seemed to make the worst plans (and decisions), His wonderful plan for her was that she would bring salvation to the Samaritans.

While Clarissa got up in the morning, probably beating herself up about her life decisions (or maybe internally grumbling about how she had to go to the well all the time), Jesus traversed highways for days on end with the sole aim of meeting her. He dredged through whatever pathways and arrived at the well, exhausted. While she went about her business, gathering pots to draw water, He waited for her. The King of kings, waited for her.

He defied perceptions, attitudes, rejection so Clarissa would see the truth He had always known about her.

Because that’s just who He is. He is the Shepherd who breaks protocol to reach us.

How much more does He know about us that He finds us worth saving…