A NEW DAY DAWNS

Jesus left Judea and returned to Galilee once He learned of the Pharisees’ curious interest in His gaining and baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist; although, as John points out, it was not Jesus but rather His disciples doing the baptizing. As John began to tell the story of Jesus’ trip back to Galilee he used an intriguing opening phrase, “Now He had to go through Samaria.”(John 4:4) The imperative implied in that statement begs to be explored.

Obviously John knew, as did Jesus, that one could travel from Judea to Galilee without having to go through Samaria. In fact the Jews of that time preferred to cross to the eastern banks of the Jordan and travel through Perea rather than to take the shorter route through Samaria. They felt it well worth the extra miles just to avoid Samaria. No doubt John used that expression to call attention to Jesus’ mission, not the geography or the direction of His travel. The events that took place definitely point to a divine plan.

Jesus was returning to Galilee after having visited Jerusalem. The record of that first visit indicates that His reception there was less than memorable, to say the least. “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” (John 1:11) As the prophet had foretold,
“‘Suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the LORD Almighty.” (Malachi 3:1)

When God’s Son, the Messiah, returned to His Temple, He found it firmly under the control of evil men. They had allowed the outer Court of the Gentiles to become a place of commerce, and a den of thieves. Merchants and money changers dominated the scene. No longer a house of prayer for the nations, it had become a noisy, smelly market place that deprived it of its holy purpose. Not only was Jesus angered by the scene at the Temple, He was totally astounded by the lack of understanding He found among the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. The ones who knew the law and prophets best had no clue as to who He was or understood what He said. To one who came to Him to investigate and find out who He was, Jesus said, “You’re a teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?” (John 3:10)

Sadly the Temple built to the glory of God had been compromised and was under enemy control. As in His parable of the murder of the son who came to his father’s vineyard, Jesus knew the entrenched occupants would also kill Him to keep control. Having witnessed the conditions of things at the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus turned His attention next to a rival site that was claimed by some to be the true place of authentic worship, located on Mount Gerizim in Samaria.

Mount Gerizim was a significant and holy place in the history of the Children of Israel. As they were about to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land for the first time God said to them through Moses,

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse — the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. When the LORD your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.” (Deut. 11:26-29)

In Deuteronomy 27:11, Moses commanded that when they had crossed the Jordan that six tribes, which he named, were to stand on Mount Gerizim and proclaim the blessings, and the other six were to stand on Mount Ebal and proclaim the curses. In Joshua 8:33-35 we find the account of their doing exactly as Moses had commanded them.

A temple was built on Mount Gerizim which became a rival to the temple in Jerusalem. A hotly contested issue between the Jews and Samaritans was over which of these two temples was the central place for worship and sacrifice in the religion of Israel. Before the Jews began completely avoiding Samaria on their pilgrimages to Jerusalem, the Samaritans resented and were angered by the procession of Jews who bypassed the temple on Mount Gerizim as they made their way to the Temple in Jerusalem. Even when the temple on Mount Gerizim was destroyed by John Hyrcanus in 128 B.C. the Samaritans continued their loyalty to the site and built an altar there. “Jesus had to go through Samaria” to deal head-on with this issue. When He stopped to rest near the town of Sychar He was right at the base of Mount Gerizim.

While Jesus was resting by Jacobs Well a very unusual encounter took place between Him and a Samaritan woman. She had come to draw water in the middle of the day, which in itself was rare. Atypical for a Jewish man, Jesus initiated a conversation with this Samaritan woman. A veritable treasure trove of revelations and spiritual insights came from that conversation. As a result of what she had heard Jesus say the Samaritan woman perceived that He was a prophet. She immediately seized the opportunity to have Jesus settle the issue over which site was right once and for all.
“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim
that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” (John 4:20)

Jesus’ response was much more that she had expected.
“Believe Me woman the time is coming when you will worship
the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. …a time is
coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers
the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship
in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:21 & 23)

Not only had Jesus not taken sides, He had announced the dawn of a new day of worship that included neither Jerusalem nor Mount Garizim. With this announcement Jesus reduced to complete irrelevance the claims of the Jews and the counter-claims of the Samaritans over the supremacy of their places of worship. True worship, Jesus said, would not be authenticated by some so called sacred place, but rather by a Person. True worship from now on would be spiritual, not spatial. God, who is Spirit, seeks worshipers who worship Him in Spirit and Truth.

The Samaritan woman understandably was overwhelmed by all she had heard. She dealt with it by simply deferring everything to a future time when Messiah, Christ, would come and explain everything. The crowning comment of the entire conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman came with her reference to the Messiah and Jesus’ revelation, “I am He.”