When someone goes out of their way to do something kind for me, I am not only surprised, I am humbled. Jesus went out of his way to speak to a particular woman. We refer to her as the Samaritan Woman. He was going from Judea into Galilee, but instead of taking the direct route he headed to Samaria.
The Jews hated Samaritans. The people were thought of as “half-breeds”. The Jews in Samaria had married gentiles, which had been forbidden in Old Testament times. They had formed their own place of worship separate from Jerusalem. This civil war between the Tribes of Israel had centuries of tradition. But Jesus reached out across the boundaries to reach people who waited for him (John 4:1-25).
God’s love crosses all cultures and societies.
