Live Free with Josh Howerton - Jesus Had to Go Through Samaria | Ep. 406 | Monday, August 26, 2024

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

Throughout the book of John, Jesus encounters disenfranchised people who desperately need to know they are loved. Jesus goes out of his way to break religious and societal norms to show kindness and courageous acts of love, as seen in John 4 with the Samaritan women at the well. Jesus had to go to Samaria to reach her. Who are you called to be kind to today? What steps of courage do you need to take to show someone the love of God? For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. daily drive. Summer is almost over. I can't believe it, but school is starting in most places. And just like I do every day, I'm praying for you students as you go back to school. And also for all you teachers, administrators, and bus drivers and custodians and counselors and coaches

and security and medical personnel and cafeteria workers and crossing guards and all you parents as well. And as all of us move among people, wherever we go, my prayer is that we would do it the way Jesus did. So for the next couple of weeks, I thought we would look at some one-on-one encounters that Jesus had with some people. And I'm praying that it might help all of us get to know Jesus better and maybe even might help us as we try to imitate him with the way we treat people. I thought we might start today with a story found in John chapter 4. Have you all ever had that feeling where you knew everybody was talking about you? You ever had an experience where you see a little group of people in the hallway at school close to your locker or a cluster of people. around the coffee pot at work or some neighbors at a barbecue.

And when you walk up, all conversation stops. And you could tell with the glances, the awkward silence, all the four smiles, what they were talking about. Ever had that happen to you? Now, some of that can be personal insecurity and paranoia. I mean, if you go to a football game this fall and you think that when the team huddles up, they're talking about you, you might need some therapy. But other times, it's very real, like too real.

And when you become the topic of conversation, it makes you want to hide. Close the blind, stay in bed, withdraw from all contact, all conversation, all touch, and just isolate yourself. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to come to the well at noon. In John chapter 4, we meet a woman who has a surprise one-on-one encounter with Jesus. She was coming to draw water from a well at noon. And we see that she's carrying with her, not just an empty water pot, but but the emptiness of life, a life where she feels unknown, unworthy, unsatisfied, unfulfilled, and unloved.

And the story begins with these corrupt religious leaders trying to stir up some sort of unhealthy competition between Jesus and his cousin John the Baptist. And when Jesus hears about the potential controversy, he just decides to leave town because he wasn't about to feed any of that ugly who's better than who kind of talk. By the way, just as a side note, the kingdom of God is always hindered when his people compete against each other. I've seen it way too much in my days of ministry. It's why Jesus prayed for unity among his people, because we're on the same team. We've got the same leader, Jesus. And when we avoid the comparison trap and we stop competing with each other and we work together and we celebrate other people

and we support other ministries and we cheer on other churches, I believe God smiles. So Jesus was not going to be part of any of this petty competition stuff. So he heads back to Galilee. And I know it's not going to sound like it, but I think verse. 4 is a very significant verse. And this is what it says. Now he had to go through Samaria. Man, there's a whole lot packed in that little verse. You see, Jesus didn't really have to go through Samaria. There were other ways. In fact, every other Jewish person would always Google map or weighs their route over the Jordan River and travel up the east side to avoid having to step one foot in Samaria because Jews despise Samaritans. Now, you think,

unrest in the Middle East is a new thing? Oh no. There is some long-time history there. These people had destroy one another's temples. The Samaritans actually scattered human remains and bones in the Jewish temple. It got so ugly that Jewish children were taught that if they passed a Samaritan on a dusty road, they were to go immediately to the temple and have a priest, ceremonial wash them, or they would be declared uncleaned by God. In fact, Jewish law allowed anybody to testify in a court of law except for Samaritans. Why? Because one of the stipulations for testifying was, and I quote, you have to be human. I mean, this was intense. I mean, even though they started out believing in the same God and even descended from the same people, the Jews

regarded Samaritans as religious and social half-breeds, because generations ago they had intermarried, they had built their own temple, and allowed all kinds of idol worship and other false religions to creep in. So in the Jewish mind, there was no way that Samaritans would ever be allowed into the kingdom of God. They were all past the point of return. And that was constantly being pounded into the heads of the people by their religious leaders. Lots of hatred, lots of animosity here. And I believe that's why Jesus had to go. Verse 5. So he went to a town in Samaria called Sychar. Near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son, Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.

It was about the sixth hour. Now, the Jewish day began at six o'clock in the morning, so you can do the math, and you can see that Jesus was sitting there at that well at high noon, in the heat of the day. And that well would have been a pretty lonely place around noon. You see, women in that culture would typically go fill their water pots at dawn, or at sundown when it was much, much cooler. Nobody, I mean nobody, came at noon, unless you did. didn't want to be seen unless you didn't want to walk up and hear the huddles of whispers fall silent. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Hey, will you give me a drink? Then in parentheses it says,

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. Now, this is one of the things I love most about Jesus. He breaks all kinds of rules here. First of all, if you read the whole text, you'll see that he's sitting there alone because he has sent his disciples in the town to buy food. Samaritan food That they weren't technically supposed to eat Jews often said they would rather eat swine's flesh than let Samaritan food

ever touch their lips So you know that Jesus guys Had to be walking in a town shaking their heads like What are the heck are we doing? Yeah, I think he might be stretching us again. I hate it when he does this. What are we doing in Sychar anyway? And then, here's a Jewish man

speaking to a Samaritan woman, a Jewish rabbi or teacher associating with a Samar Samaritan outcast asking to drink from a Samaritan vessel that a Samaritan hand had touched. All of this was unheard of. And that's one of the things I love most about Jesus. So let's just push Paul's right here. And let me ask you, where is it that you just have to go?

What is it? Who is it that maybe you've been avoiding? What courageous act of compassion do you know that God is asking you to do? What barriers need to come down? What kind of love do you need to express today that's simply unheard of? I encourage you to go, to imitate Jesus and go, to step into perhaps unfamiliar territory, and trust in for the right words and the right actions, maybe even today. We'll pick this up tomorrow, and I'll see you then.

Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us. for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.church slash daily drive. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out?