A Small, familiar passage has captured our hearts. To many, it is probably a verse to be read and forgotten.

“And he must needs go through Samaria.”
John 4:4

Jesus was traveling from Judea to Galilee, having just been in Jerusalem, and then at the Jordan river. He could have followed the Jordan river directly north, then into Galilee. Instead, Jesus cut directly west into Samaria, to the city of Sychar, stopping at Jacob’s well. He had to go through Samaria. Not around it.  Not skirting it just enough to touch it. He had to go through it.  He had to experience all that Samaria was. Its smells, buildings, travel, restaurants, politics and problems. He had to see its good things, bad things, strengths, weaknesses, perversions, sins and deceptions. In order to save them, He had to go to them and  be with them. A dissertation about them would not suffice. A report to the Father about the way they live would not work. He had to be touched by the heat of their  sun, the labor of their work and the bondage of their religion. So he went to the despised, forgotten region of Samaria, and met the people where they were.