And Jesus Had To Pass Through Samaria

A Study of John 4:1–4

“Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria.”
‭‭John‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:

-Jesus: “Iēsous”, “Ἰησοῦς”, proper masculine noun — Jesus = ‘Jehovah is salvation’; Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of mankind, God incarnate.

-Learned: “ginōskō”, “γινώσκω”; verb — to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of.

-Pharisees: “Pharisaios”, “Φαρισαῖος”; masculine noun — A leading Jewish sect started after the return from exile. They sought for distinction and praise by the observance of external rites and by the outward forms of piety, such as ablutions, fastings, prayers, and alms-giving; and, comparatively negligent of genuine piety, they prided themselves on their fancied good works. They held strenuously to a belief in the existence of good and evil angels, and to the expectation of a Messiah; and they cherished the hope that the dead, after a preliminary experience either of reward or of penalty in Hades, would be recalled to life by him and be requited each according to his individual deeds. In opposition to the usurped dominion of the Herods and the rule of the Romans, they stoutly upheld the theocracy and their country’s cause, and possessed great influence with the common people. According to Josephus (Antiquities 17, 2, 4) they numbered more than 6,000. They were bitter enemies of Jesus and his cause; and were in turn severely rebuked by him for their avarice, ambition, hollow reliance on outward works, and affectation of piety in order to gain notoriety (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon).

-Was Making: “poieō”, “ποιέω”; verb — to produce, to (make i.e.) render one anything.

-Disciples: “mathētēs”, “μαθητής”; masculine noun — a learner, pupil, disciple.

-John (the Baptist): “Iōannēs”, “Ἰωάννης”; proper masculine noun — John = ‘Jehovah is a gracious giver’; John the Baptist was the son of Zacharias and Elisabeth, the forerunner of Christ. By order of Herod Antipas he was cast into prison and afterwards beheaded.

-He Left: “aphiēmi”, “ἀφίημι”; verb — to leave, go away from one, to depart from anyone, in order to go to another place.

-Judea: “Ioudaia”, “Ἰουδαία”; proper locative noun — Judea = ‘He shall be praised’; in a narrower sense, to the southern portion of Palestine lying on this side of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, to distinguish it from Samaria, Galilee, Peraea, and Idumaea; in a broader sense, referring to all Palestine.

-Departed (Went Away): “aperchomai”, “ἀπέρχομαι”; verb — to go away from a place.

-Again: “palin”, “πάλιν”; adverb — anew, again; joined to verbs of all sorts, it denotes the renewal or repetition of the action.

-Galilee: “Galilaia”, “Γαλιλαία”; proper locative noun — Galilee = ‘circuit’; the name of a region of northern Palestine, bounded on the north by Syria, on the west by Sidon, Tyre, Ptolemais and their territories and the promontory of Carmel, on the south by Samaria and on the east by the Jordan. It was divided into Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee.

-To Pass: “dierchomai”, “διέρχομαι”; verb — to go, walk, journey, pass through a place.

-Samaria: “Samareia”, “Σαμάρεια”; proper locative noun — Samaria = ‘guardianship’, a territory in Palestine which had Samaria as its capital.

Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):

After Jesus found out that the Pharisees had heard He was making and baptizing more disciples than even John the Baptist in the region of Judea, He left Judea to go to Galilee. Jesus did not baptize Himself, but rather, His disciples did so on His behalf. We also learn that in order to get to Galilee, He chose to travel through Samaria.

Implication (what does this mean to us):

In John 3:26, John the Baptist’s disciples told him Jesus and His disciples were baptizing in Judea and many were going to Him. Now, in John 4:1, we find out the Pharisees had also heard Jesus was making and baptizing many disciples, although Jesus Himself did not baptize, but rather, His disciples performed the baptisms on His behalf and in His name. The Pharisees, with very few exceptions, were hostile to the cause of Jesus, and He knew a confrontation would be imminent should He choose to remain in Judea. Therefore, when Jesus learned they knew about His ministry, and would try to stop Him, He decided it was time to go to Galilee. Jesus would one day stand His ground when the Pharisees came for Him, but the time for that had not yet come. His earthly ministry was still in progress, so He moved farther away from them to continue the work He came to do.

Verse 2 of this passage confirms Jesus was gaining an even larger following than John the Baptist (JB). Jesus carried on the work of JB in baptizing people as an outward symbol of repentance and the need for cleansing of sin to prepare for the Messiah. Jesus Himself did not baptize though. He likely focused more on preaching and gave the task of performing baptisms to His disciples. This baptism was a foretaste of the baptism that would be given to the followers of Jesus on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:41. This baptism of repentance and cleansing, relating to the ministry of the Messiah, pointed forward to the baptism all Christians are commanded to undergo after being saved to symbolize our baptism of the Holy Spirit and rebirth from being dead in our sin to alive in Christ Jesus. By performing these baptisms as He made disciples, Jesus confirmed His connection to JB as the promised forerunner who would be sent before the Messiah (John 3:28). And by not performing the baptisms Himself, He made His preeminence as the Son of God who is above all, including JB, more apparent.

As we read in verse 3 Jesus and His disciples went to Galilee to avoid the hostility of the Pharisees. This is an important detail that 1st century Jewish readers would have likely been shocked by. The shortest route between Jerusalem and Galilee was through Samaria, but the most pious Jews, including the Pharisees, almost never took this road. They would take a much longer road around Samaria rather than traveling through it. There was a deep and historic animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans. Not long after the reign of King Solomon, Israel split into two Kingdoms; one in the north and one in the south. In 722 BC, the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel, and they banished most of the Jewish population from the area with the exception of the absolute lowest classes of people in society. 136 years after this, the southern Kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians and they implemented a similar exiling of most of the people. The small groups of Jewish people left behind intermarried with the non-Jewish peoples who came to inhabit the newly emptied area. From this came the new ethnic and religious group of people known as “Samaritans.”

The reason many of the Jewish people in Jesus’ day detested the Samaritans is because their faith was a combination of Jewish Law and pagan superstitions. This twisting and corrupting of the Law of Yahweh caused the Jewish people to hate the Samaritans even more than the other Gentile peoples of the world. It was at least obvious that Gentiles did not worship Yahweh, but the Samaritans had developed an amalgamation of the Jewish religion and non-Jewish superstitions that sought to present itself as true worship of Yahweh. This “half-breed” faith was abhorrent to the Jews, and it was cause for even violent racism as they burned down the Samaritan temple to Yahweh on Mount Gerizim in about 128 BC. So, a Jew reading that Jesus, this holy Teacher, God Himself, would go through Samaria, is just as shocking as Jesus telling Nicodemus that all people of the world, including the Jews, must be born again to new Spiritual life to enter God’s Kingdom. Hearing that would have been one thing, but then to read or hear that Jesus also went into Samaria would bring the truth that “God so loved the world” into a new light. This would have been very challenging to the 1st century Jewish person’s worldview.

How many of the teachings of Jesus are just as challenging to our worldview today I wonder? What teachings of Jesus contradict the prevailing thoughts and values of our culture today?

Interestingly, verse 4 says Jesus “had to” pass through Samaria, and other translations say “needed to”. We already established there is a longer road around Samaria Jesus could have taken, and John has made it clear in his gospel up to this point that Jesus is not merely a pious teacher or prophet, He is God incarnate. So if the most pious Jews went around Samaria, and Jesus is God, why did He “have to” go through Samaria? He could have gone around, or used His miraculous power to travel through instantaneously, but He walked through Samaria. Jesus is God, so when the text says He “had to,” we know that means He chose to. No one can make Jesus do anything. Even His own life was not taken from Him, but rather, He gave it up. So why did He “have to” go through Samaria. Did He not tell His disciples in Matthew 10:5 to go only to the Jews and to avoid Samaria and the other Gentile towns?

The text says He “had to” go through Samaria because He had to go and teach the people there. We just learned in John 3 that God loves the whole world and gave His only Son so that people from every nation and ethnicity can be saved and adopted into His family. This is the loving plan of God for the world. This is the beginning of the restoration of what was lost at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. God’s plan was always to have a family of human image bearers united as one in devotion to Him as Father and Lord, but mankind rebelled. Humanity refused to obey God’s command to worship Him and to spread out and subdue the earth. Instead they gathered together as one in rebellion against God and tried to build a tower reaching to the heavens in an attempt to be their own gods. For this reason God confused their language, created the diverse nations of the world and scattered them abroad. The judgment being: if they did not want Yahweh as their God He would give them what they wanted as judgment. He would scatter the peoples and leave them to worship false gods and lesser, created, evil spiritual beings that would lead them further away from God in their willful rebellion.

After this, God started a new nation through Abraham (Genesis 12). And He promised that through Abraham’s descendents, the nation of Israel, all people (nations) of the world would be blessed and reclaimed as His own (Gen. 12:3). This is exactly what is about to begin right now as Jesus goes through Samaria. This is the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham a couple thousand years earlier to redeem and reclaim the nations who were scattered at the Tower of Babel incident as Yahweh’s very own children. Even when He told His disciples not to go to the Gentiles in Matthew 10:5, He only did so because the Word had to first be preached to the Jews, and then through the witness of Christian Jews many Gentile peoples would come to faith (see the book of Acts and all the Pauline epistles).

He “had to” go through Samaria to preach to the partly-Gentile, partly-Jewish Samaritans because of His love for all people and to reveal His glory and awesome power in fulfilling His promise to bless all the nations of the earth through Israel and reclaim the lost nations to Himself. He “had to” to go through Samaria to preach the truth just like He “had to” to go to the cross. He “had to” to do this because of His infinite love and ever abounding grace. This is our glorious Lord Jesus who “had to” to suffer, die and rise again because of His great love for all people from every nation.

Application (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):

After reading about Jesus’ love for and desire to save the whole world in John 3, John 4 opens by describing a demonstration of Jesus’ love for the whole world. He went to a people hated and despised by the people of Israel because He does not hate or despise anyone. Jesus loves the whole world so much that He willingly came to die and rise again to save it. Jesus’ love is for all people from all nations, and as His followers our love should be for all people from all nations, even those who are enemies of our own earthly nation.

This challenged the worldview and inherited prejudices of the people of Israel, and many of Jesus’ Words will have a similar effect on us because of the worldview and prejudice in our own culture. We must submit to the Word of Jesus without compromise, no matter how His Word may contradict our culture’s values and prevailing beliefs. We must live and love out of the overflow of His life and love in us. As we live in this way, following the example of Jesus by the power of His Spirit in us, we will exemplify His love and grace to a world in desperate need of salvation.

Self Reflection:

Are there any groups of people in the world that I do not love like Jesus loves?

What does Jesus’ journey to speak to a people group hated by His own nation tell me about how obedience to Him might look in my own cultural setting?

Are there any people groups I have been unwilling to love like Jesus does? Have I confessed this to the Lord in prayer and asked for help to love them?