Everyone, Everywhere

Our country owed all her troubles to him [Lincoln], and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment . . . and yet for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew I am looked upon as a common cutthroat. (Swanson, Manhunt, 389–90)

Many shared his contempt. Some families still hold an annual celebration on April 15 to commemorate the assassination of Lincoln and to honor Booth.

This same type of contempt marked the relationship between Jews and Samaritans. We get a taste of their deep-seated animosity in verse 9: “For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.” A footnote in the NIV provides an alternate translation of this same phrase: “[Jews] do not use dishes Samaritans have used.” The surprise on the part of the woman was not just that Jesus was talking to her—a woman, a sinner, and a Samaritan—but that he wanted to drink from a vessel a Samaritan had taken a drink from. The hatred of the Jews for the Samaritans was so strong they considered themselves unclean for even touching, much less drinking from the same cup as, a Samaritan.

The roots of this contempt were hundreds of years old. The nation of Israel had divided into two separate kingdoms, the northern and southern. In 722 BC the Assyrians captured the northern kingdom, whose capitol was Samaria. In the book of Kings, we read of the decision by the Assyrians to deport many of the Israelites from the northern kingdom, particularly from its capital Samaria. Many Assyrian and other foreigners settled in Samaria and intermarried with the remaining Jews. The result of these marriages was not only blended nationalities but also blended worship. The region of the northern kingdom, now known as Samaria, was a place that worshiped the true God along with false idols. Because of the mixed marriages and corrupt religion, the Jews from the southern kingdom treated the Samaritans with disgust. For centuries the contempt between Jews and Samaritans had grown.

Jesus had every reason not to talk with this woman, but just as he did with Nicodemus, he begins a conversation with her that penetrates to the root of the issue. He understands her heart. He understands her condition, and she doesn’t. Jesus reached out to the moral Pharisee and the immoral Samaritan. Both of them were in desperate need of salvation from sin—a salvation that could only come through Jesus.

We see this same pattern in a famous story Jesus told about two brothers (Luke 15). One brother—the younger one—was like the Samaritan woman. He selfishly left his family to go party with his friends. He lived a lifestyle of drunkenness and immorality. He was a rebel, looking for love in all the wrong places. The older brother was moral and religious like Nicodemus. He had a high opinion of himself. He was arrogant (though that was probably hidden under the guise of humility). He was self-righteous and blind to his own sin. He looked down on other people, especially his younger brother. Though he kept all the rules and lived morally, he was miserable and unhappy. Both brothers—just like the Samaritan woman and the Jewish leader—desperately needed Jesus to rescue them.

Everyone, everywhere needs Jesus. The moral can’t be saved by their morality; they can only be saved by Jesus. Also, the immoral are never too immoral to find salvation in Jesus.

An Israelite needs Jesus and so does a Gentile. Everyone, everywhere needs him. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a universal message. No matter who a person is, no matter what language he speaks, no matter where he calls home, every person needs Jesus. How does this story end? After Jesus dies and rises again, he sends his disciples to every nation, and they go. For two thousand years Christians have followed Jesus’s example and taken his message around the globe. First throughout the Roman Empire, then down into Africa and throughout Europe. After that Christian missionaries went east to India and China and west to the New World. I write this today as a testimony that the need for Jesus is universal. I’m a long way geographically from a well in Samaria, yet I’m in the same place spiritually as that sinful woman.

The spread of the message of Jesus will eventually culminate when people from every tribe, tongue, and nation gather around the throne of Jesus to worship and enjoy him forever (Rev 5). Someone from every people group on the planet will be in heaven.

This reality should fuel our missionary zeal. We should pray for the nations. We should give sacrificially to see the gospel spread. What better way to use your money than to partner in the spread of the gospel around the world? That investment will outlive a boat or beach house any day. We also should go—whether for a week or a lifetime—to be a part of the global plan of King Jesus.

Jesus could have appeared on Samaritan television to spread the message. He could have written a book and placed it in every bookstore in Samaria. He could have held a huge evangelistic crusade in Samaria’s capital city. But he didn’t. He went out of his way to find this one woman and show her her greatest need. He came to her personally.

Jesus is after your heart. He’s after your worship. He’s after your joy. He loves you and wants to make you whole. Whether you’re religious or an atheist, moral or immoral, an outcast or an insider, you need Jesus personally.

We often act as if the gospel can best be shared through big programs and events. We think it can be a large-scale, automated, impersonal process. God always works personally, and he sends us to individual people to tell them about Jesus. Jesus went to an everyday place—a well—and found a woman who needed him, and he told her the good news. Where’s your well? Maybe you need to go to the cafeteria at work and talk with someone. Maybe you need to lean over the fence in your backyard. Maybe you need to sit by someone at a sports practice this week. The gospel isn’t spread group to group but person to person. Every person you see shares the same need for Jesus. Jesus used this one conversation to change this woman’s life. Then she went into town and started telling others. What might God do if we would each engage the people around us personally?