RTW 2024

Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

John 4:21-24

“You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true.  I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”
John 4:37-38

• Jews generally avoided the route through Samaria, instead traveling along the eastern side. But Jesus chose to travel through the region of Samaria. He came to the small village of Sychar near Shechem, at the foot of Mount Gerizim, “near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph” (John 4:5 NIV)
• In ancient Israel, only a man could initiate a divorce. Men were legally allowed to divorce their wives for adultery, but they also could legally divorce their wives for being childless, or for other frivolous things.
• The rift between Samaritans and Jews went back as far as 722 B.C. when the king of Assyria forced his people to settle in Israel after most Israelites were exiled. The remaining Israelites intermarried with them, and their worship sometimes intermingled with pagan practices as well. 
• In the 4th century B.C. Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim and largely viewed themselves as faithful descendents of Israel. “The proper place of worship had long been a source of debate between Jews and Samaritans. Samaritans held that Mount Gerizim was especially sacred. They had built a temple there in about 400 B.C., which the Jews destroyed in 128 [B.C.]” “This act sealed a permanent rift between the two communities and to a large extent underlies the hostility between Jews and Samaritans reflected in the New Testament.” Archaeological Study Bible
• Jews would become ceremonially unclean if they used a drinking vessel handled by a Samaritan, since they held that all Samaritans were ‘unclean.’
• The Samaritan woman expressed the heartache of not being able to worship at the temple.
• Though Samaritans did not embrace the teaching beyond the Torah, they still had hopes in a coming Messiah who would restore them and their sanctuary. An ancient Samaritan document states, “Let the Restorer come safely and sacrifice a true offering. The Restorer will come in peace and reveal the truth.”  Archaeological Study Bible

Remember that nothing separates us from the love of God.