Chasing Truth™: Read the Bible Cover to CoverSample

Defying Man-made Rules

John 4:1-42

Jesus did what was unthinkable for a Jewish rabbi—He spoke to a Samaritan woman, asking her for a drink from the well. Jewish rabbis were extremely careful to avoid going near anything considered unclean. Samaritans were despised by the Jews, and Samaritan women were considered perpetually “unclean.” It was forbidden for a Jew to drink from a vessel a Samaritan woman had touched. Jesus wasn’t afraid to defy the man-made rules of the day. 

“You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can You ask me for a drink?” She knew the “rules,” and she knew He wasn’t following them. In a brief conversation with this Samaritan woman, Jesus gently, but supernaturally confronted her with her sin, which opened her heart to hear His message. 

Jesus revealed to her that He was the Messiah, who had come to bring salvation to those who would believe. He didn’t ignore her sin, but instead, pointed it out, as He so kindly and persistently does with each of us. She ran back into the village asking everyone to “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (John 4:29, NIV). Her testimony brought revival, and many Samaritans believed in Jesus as the Messiah that day. At the urging of the people, Jesus stayed two days in the Samaritan village. Most rabbis would have avoided even traveling through it. 

Jesus never misses an opportunity to reach out to the one lost sheep, the marginalized and the needy. He loves you and me that much. No matter what we’ve done, Jesus will go out of His way to speak to us and draw us into salvation and intimacy with Him. Take a moment today to thank Him for pursuing you. Tell Him the name of someone you know who needs His salvation, then trust Him to pursue them also.