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“The Necessity of Samaria”

This Sunday we’ll be looking at a well-known story from John 4, Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. Often this passage of Scripture has been used as a model of how to “do” evangelism. To be clear, there are certainly things we can learn from how Jesus interacts with this woman, even things we can implement in our own evangelistic efforts. The main point of the text, however, is not evangelism but rather that we are the Samaritan woman!

The picture these verses paint is the beautiful reality that Jesus came into the world—he descended into the depths of his broken creation—to seek after those who are broken. By divine appointment Jesus finds the un-savable and saves them!

This is good news for us! At no point in our lives, at our highest of highs or lowest of lows, is God waiting for us to win his love and approval. This story shows us the unconditional nature of God’s grace in salvation through sending his Son to those who don't deserve him. The truth is that even when we find ourselves in the midst of our deepest struggles, we are not too dirty or too far gone to be sought after by Jesus Christ. The greatest news in the world is that God desires to redeem his broken creation! Before the foundation of the world God had in his mind a master plan to recreate and redeem his broken, rebellious, and sin-ridden creatures. What is mind boggling is that this plan is set in place by his descending into the midst of this muck and mire and ministering to our broken souls—seeking after those who don’t make sense to seek!

Brothers and sisters, this is grace! Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman is our story! In fact, it’s the story of all those who have been redeemed, who have professed faith in Christ. And so, as we come together and see this picture of God’s grace and love for his broken creation, let us be reminded that “while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly, [and] God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:6–10).

I look forward to digging into this text with you. Read it over a few times and let’s come prepared to proclaim the glory of God together!

In Christ,

Tyler Kirkpatrick