Imagine walking up and down the length of a country such as Israel without the luxuries of today’s highway rest areas, numerous sleeping facilities and convenience stores where food and water can be easily obtained. Without the availability of such facilities, very few, except those promoting a cause, would consider traveling by foot. Yet, during the life and ministry of Christ, His mode of travel was almost exclusively by walking.
One of those traveling episodes is recorded in the gospel of John. “Now he [Jesus] had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour” (John 4:4-6 NIV). This account demands more than a cursory reading or the divine purpose of this journey will be overlooked.
First, and most unusual, is the word “had” as used by John in describing Jesus’s journey into Samaria. That was not the customary route taken by the Jews when going from Judea up into Galilee because of their prejudice against Samaritans. However, John notes that the thinking of Jesus was different.
In Samaria, like every other area of Palestine, there was a need to face the reality that Christ had come into the world to provide salvation for sinful man. Man’s faith, directed toward Christ, would result in a relationship with God. Secondly, the journey demonstrated the humanity of.