The night of our Savior’s birth, shepherds heard the angel say, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). Accordingly, this One was born to banish fear. Indeed, He would deal a death blow to man’s greatest fear of all – the wages of his sins, which is death itself (Rom 6:23; Heb 2:14-15)! The Savior came to remove this terror by paying the wages of sin in the place of transgressors; then, rising from the grave, He secured victory over sin and death for all who place their faith in Him. Indeed, the phrase that most surely calls for our attention is “to all people.” This Savior, born in the city of the Jewish king and bearing the title “Anointed One” was not born for Jews alone, but for all kinds of people, be they Jews or Gentiles, kings or subjects, slaves or free, men or women (Gal 3:28; Col 3:11), and yes, even the lowly and despised shepherds. Appropriately, those tending sheep for sin offerings in the Jewish temple were the first witnesses to the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). This is the message of the season, the good tidings “to all people” presented for us in the fourth chapter of the fourth gospel.
Jews, as the custom was at the time, had “no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9), especially a Samaritan woman, and, for that matter, a woman whose personal life had been woefully scarred by five failed marriages and fornication (vv. 16-18). The Samaritan people date back to the days of the Jews’ divided nation, with the northern kings worshiping idols in their apostate capital of Samaria (1 Kings 13:32; 16:32; 2 Kings 13:6). What’s more, when the Assyrians took over, they mixed native Jews with foreigners who brought their idols with them (2 Kings 17:24-41). The Samaritans thereby represented a blight on Israel’s history and were scorned for it (cf. John 8:48). When traveling from Judea to Galilee, some Jews even skirted the region. But Jesus, the Bible says, “needed to go through Samaria” (John 4:4). Surely, this was the most efficient route and He went through Samaria on other occasions as well (Luke 9:52; 17:11). But Jesus was thoroughly committed to the will of God (v. 32-34) and this time was compelled to go through Samaria.
The particulars of the account demonstrate that Jesus had an appointment. Wearied from His journey, Jesus stopped at “a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there…” (v. 5). Whereas He remained by the well, Jesus’ disciples went to get food. At that time, the lone Samaritan woman came to draw water (v. 8-9). Being tired and thirsty, He asked her for a drink, which ensuing conversation concluded with Jesus’ claim to be the Promised One. “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ),” she said, “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus replied, saying, “I who speak to you am He” (vv. 25-26). The despised Samaritan woman thus became the first person to whom Jesus revealed Himself as “Christ.” The result: this dear lady, used and abused by men, but loved by God, evangelized her entire city! Jesus inherently knew their souls were ready to receive the message of salvation for He described them as a field “already white for harvest!” (v. 35). A mere two days later, these dear people told the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (v. 42). This is why Jesus “needed to go through Samaria.”
This very purpose bound the Creator of the Universe to come into the world, conceived in a virgin’s womb, born in Bethlehem to a Jewish couple from Nazareth, laid in a lowly manger, announced by angels, and visited by shepherds. This much we glean from Luke’s account, but John goes even deeper. He came into the world, he writes, “and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him” (1:10). “World,” among the evangelist’s favorite terms, appears fifty-nine times in his gospel, more than any other book of the Bible. Jesus, he declares, made the world for “without Him nothing was made that was made” (1:3), and “world” also refers to the evil, anti-God, system under the control of “the ruler of this world” (12:31). But John primarily uses this word to speak of the world of people – all kinds of people, be they Jews, Samaritans, or Greeks (12:20). For this purpose, Jesus came into the world, for He said, “‘And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.’ This He said, signifying by what death He would die” (12:32-33; cf. 3:15).
Christ was born to die. His death would involve a lifting up on a cross, by which He became the sole Mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5). Three days later, He raised Himself from the dead (John 2:19-22), that whoever in the world would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. He needed to go through Samaria. They welcomed Him as Savior of the world and may we follow their example this Christmas.
Scriptures to Memorize: 1 John 4:14
