John 4:1-26
Thank you for continuing this journey of The Gospel Project®
for Kids. In Sunday’s Bible account, Jesus sits down at a well in
Samaria and does the unthinkable: He talks with a Samaritan woman! At
the time Jesus was on earth, the social food chain went like this: Jews
don’t talk to Samaritans. The strife between the two groups stretched
back hundreds of years, to the Babylonian exile.
When
the Babylonians attacked Judah, they moved a large group of God’s
people away from their homes. But some of the people—the poorest, the
sickest, and the least able to work—were left behind in the region that
became known as Samaria. During the 70-year exile, those left in Samaria
intermarried with their northern neighbors and practiced foreign
customs. While the Samaritans still believed in God, they adapted their
beliefs. They set up their own place of worship on Mount Gerizim. (See 2
Kings 17:29-41; Ezra 9:1-2.)
The
Jews who returned home from Babylon to rebuild God’s temple in
Jerusalem were dedicated to obeying and worshiping God, and they didn’t
agree with the Samaritans’ practices. The Samaritans opposed the Jews’
efforts to reestablish their nation. In time, the Jews’ hate for the
Samaritans grew—so much so, that a Jew traveling from Judea to Galilee
would take a longer route to travel around Samaria rather than through
it.
Jesus
broke down social barriers when He traveled to Galilee by way of
Samaria and when He asked a Samaritan woman for a drink. Jewish men did
not speak to women in public. But Jesus was kind to the woman, and He
offered a gift. Jesus offered the woman something no one else could give
her—living water. She wasn’t quite sure what Jesus meant. Jesus wasn’t
talking about water that she could physically drink; Jesus was talking
about the Holy Spirit who would satisfy her spiritual thirst. Jesus
gives the Holy Spirit to those who come to Him by faith.
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