John chapter 4 is one of the most informative accounts in the New Testament. In this historical narrative Jesus destroys stereotypes, man-made traditions and rules, and removes barriers to salvation. This passage teaches us that everything we do as Christians, everything we do as a church should be through a missional filter. That simply means that everything should be focused on fulfilling the two great commandments to love God and love people, and the Great Commission to make disciples.

The Bible says in verse 3 that “And he had to pass through Samaria.”  He needed to go through Samaria. This is a key phrase for a couple of reasons. The Believer’s Bible Commentary says:

“Samaria was on the direct route from Judea to Galilee. But few Jews ever took this direct route. The region of Samaria was so despised by the Jewish people that they often took a very roundabout route through Perea to get north into Galilee. Thus, when it says that Jesus needed to go through Samaria, the thought is not so much that He was compelled to do so  by geographical considerations, but rather by the fact that there was a needy soul in Samaria He could help.”^[1]

Jews hated Samaritans for being only half Jewish rather than full-blood Jews. They hated Samaritans so much that they would rather take a round-about route than to walk through Samaria to get to Galilee. But before you laugh and criticize the Jews for being cold, calloused, absurd, or anything else, ask yourself, how often have you avoided certain people in your life?

How often have you said, “Those drunks ought to be behind bars,” “Hookers/Strippers are ruining our culture,” “Gays should be put on an island,” “Delinquents need taught a lesson”?

The point is that Jesus would go to the prison, visit the island, and seek these people out long before He ever came to your house or my house, or even our church. We would do well to remember that. And again to be reminded that Jesus didn’t see the lines that so often divides us as people, Jesus saw souls in need of redemption.

Back to John 4:5 and 6: “So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water.”

Here we need to understand something, the Bible says it was the sixth hour, which was noon in the Jewish work day. Noon was not the time the women came to gather water because it was the hottest part of the day. This woman was coming because she was ashamed. She was coming because she knew she was an immoral sinner and that no other women would be at the well to laugh, snicker, or judge her.

How often do lost people avoid Christians and church because they know all they will get are stares, insults, and judgment. Scores of people drive by our churches every day thinking they would rather die than be caught “in that place.” This woman altered her life to avoid people because of her shame. Jesus walked right through her shame and the cultural and religious obstacles in place just to show her love and grace.

A problem occurs whenever we try to convince people that human traditions are biblical doctrines. You want to know why many young people don’t want to come to established churches, and why church plants meeting in schools and other buildings are growing at incredible rates. It’s because young people don’t want other Christians trying to push their man-made traditions and rules on them and put them and God in a box. By the way, the Southern Baptist Convention says church plants are 16 times more effective at winning people to Jesus and making disciples than established churches.

Here’s what Jesus had to say about trying to make man-made traditions into biblical doctrines:

Matt. 15:7-9: “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Whenever we try to push man-made traditions in front of people we create barriers to salvation and discipleship.

John 4: 7 says: Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “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 is once again proving that He did indeed come to “seek and to save those who are lost.” (Luke 19:10). Jesus doesn’t care about absurd religious traditions. Jesus doesn’t care about man-made rules that have no basis in Scripture. Jesus doesn’t care what people think about Him. Jesus cares about saving souls. And He commands us to do the same.

Let’s be real for a minute. Lost people aren’t coming to church. Lost people don’t wake up on Sunday morning and say “Hmm, I think I’ll go to church today.” You want young people to come, you want young families to come? You want lost people to come? The only way they are coming is if you and I invite them in the same way Jesus invited this woman. But we can’t invite people if we refuse to talk to them or put a bunch of rules and traditions in their way.

I’d rather have a church full of drug and alcohol addicts, strippers and hookers, goth and hipsters with tattoos and earrings over a bunch of Pharisees any day. I’d be the first to welcome such people into my church with joy.

“The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.’”

Jesus met this woman’s need. I believe Christians would do better at witnessing and seeing lost people saved if we’d stop telling lost people how to live and start meeting their needs. Why are we surprised when lost people act like lost people?

The single mom doesn’t need your lecture on being a good mom, she needs someone to babysit so she can get out. The addict doesn’t need to hear about cleaning up his life and getting a job, he needs to know Jesus can set him free. The homosexual doesn’t need to hear about how much his lifestyle makes you sick, he needs to know Jesus loves him, today, right now.

This woman symbolizes many people today. This woman is worthless. In the eyes of her culture and her people she is worthless. She is a used up woman that no one wants and her self-worth and self-image are so low that she is willing to cohabitate with a man at a time when such actions could get you killed. But she doesn’t’ care because no one else cares. No one but Jesus. Jesus cared so much that He needed to go to Samaria. How many people do we know right now living in Samaria?

Jesus went to a place no one else wanted to go. To see a woman no one else wanted to see. And because of His love and grace towards her, an entire town came to see Jesus. When’s the last time the entire town came to see our Jesus? Could it be that we’ve distorted Jesus so much that no one knows it’s Jesus?

Here’s one thing we need to know about Jesus: Everything about Jesus was viewed through a missional filter.

Every person, event, place, every step had a purpose and was part of His mission.

What we cannot forget is that Jesus had one consuming passion for coming to earth which was to die on the cross. Everything He did was filtered through the lens of that purpose and mission. The result is that Jesus ignored anything that would not ultimately help Him achieve His goal of redeeming mankind on the cross. In this one undeniable fact the church can learn and become as singly focused as Jesus was.