John 4:9-10 - The Samaritan woman said to Him [Jesus], "How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

This devotion pairs with this weekend's Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.

Almost without exception, Jews and Samaritans hated each other. To the Jews, the Samaritans were half-breeds and bad sports. They claimed kinship with the Jews when it served them but distanced themselves when it didn't. To the Samaritans, the Jews were pompous hypocrites who added books to the Bible (the Samaritan Bible had only five books, the first five written by Moses). And by the time that God's Son Jesus was born among us, the conflict between these two groups had reached a feverish pitch.

One source of contention was that Jewish neighborhoods were divided between north and south, and the Samaritans were in the middle. So, the Jews had to travel through Samaria regularly. Three times a year, Jews in the north had to travel south to Jerusalem for their holy days. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, many Jews, rather than going around, took the direct route through Samaria. Eventually, some Samaritans got fed up with these trespassing Jews. So, they ambushed their camp, raided their tents, murdered their people. The northern Jews appealed to the Roman governor for revenge, but the Samaritans bribed him, convinced him to stay out of it. So, the Jews took matters into their own hands. They raided and burned Samaritan villages. Then the Roman emperor got involved. Several Jews got crucified. Samaritans were slain. And one of the ringleaders was drug through the streets and slaughtered in the town square (see Josephus, Antiquities, 20.6).

So Jesus, like other northern Jews of His day, traveled through Samaria on His way to Jerusalem. But on this trip, Jesus takes a risk (humanly speaking). He doesn't just pass through, but He stops in Samaria, exposes Himself and His followers to grave danger, lingers at a well. It was a famous well dug over a thousand years ago by the Jewish patriarch Jacob—Jacob who'd received the promise of God that through his family all the families of the earth would be blessed—all of them, Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles, you, me, everyone. All would be blessed with new life through the Messiah, who would come from Jacob's descendants so that He could die and rise and rule and return one day, to quench a thirsty world and make us one. That's why Jesus strikes up a conversation with this woman and invites her to put all her trust in Him, which she does, and immediately joins Him in His unifying mission.

Jesus is doing the same for you today. He invites you into His life so that together we can cross borders, build bridges with people who are different from us, to do the things that make for unity, to participate with people from every tribe, language, and nation in a bigger mission, for a bigger harvest, to the praise of a bigger God, who will take all of us, no exceptions.

WE PRAY: Dear Jesus, even if our divisions remain for a time, make them smaller in the light of Your expansive love. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker for The Lutheran Hour.

Reflection Questions:

1. Have you had a recent, close interaction with someone from a different ethnicity? How did it go?

2. Read John 4. Why do you think the woman got involved with Jesus' mission so quickly?

3. Trusting in Jesus, what are some things you can do to help unify the divided people around you?

Today's Bible Readings: Genesis 33-35    Matthew 20:17-34

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