What’s Your Need?

What’s Your Need?

4 But He needed to go through Samaria.

John 4:4

 

Samaria has always interested me within the New Testament. In terms of location, it filled the land allotted for Ephraim and the western half of Manasseh. The name Samaria was actually the Greek version of the Hebrew name Shomron. Samarian was also the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.

It was not a welcome place for Jews and Jews didn’t like going there either. It was a place that most would see as the wrong side of the tracks. Jews avoided it unless they needed to go there for some reason otherwise they would walk around it.

But Jesus needed to go through Samaria.

It is such a small verse in this chapter and one that many people would read right over it. To most it simply sets up the story of the woman at the well. But there is something very important about this text.

The truth is, from a human standpoint, Jesus actually didn’t have to go through Samaria. He could have easily walked around it as so many other Jews did. There were other routes and there was nothing that Jesus needed within the borders for his mission.

When the Bible says that he needed to go through Samaria what it was actually saying is that God had sent him on that path and therefore he needed to follow God’s path. The need was a spiritual one and not physical.

Have you ever seen your life in those terms? Have you ever said to yourself that you needed to go or do something even though there was no human reason for it?

I have heard many people use the word ‘need’ in interesting and obviously not in literal ways. ‘I need to buy those shoes!’ ‘I need a burger so bad!’ ‘I need to watch that show!’

We use the word need very often in our speech and rarely does it actually fit the context. One could easily make the mistake that Jesus was doing the same thing but he wasn’t.

Was there another route? Yes. But did Jesus need to go through Samaria? Yes. Following God’s plan for his life was more than a want for Jesus. It was more than a good idea. It was more than something he just tried to do. Jesus truly needed to do it or else his mission would have failed.

Now the hard question. Following God’s plan in your life, is that just a good idea or is it a true need?

 

Blessings

 

Pr. Steven Couto