Why did Jesus have to go through Samaria?

In John 4:4, the apostle writes that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” in route to Galilee. In one sense, Jesus had to pass that way because it was the shortest distance between Judea and Galilee. In another sense, He had to pass that way because it was the Father’s will: “My food . . . is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34). Jesus’ unrelenting obedience to the Father is the reason He traveled through Samaria.

John’s Gospel was written to a diverse audience of Jews and Gentiles, revealing God’s intention to save all kinds of people (see John 10:16). Jesus’ trip though Samaria, then, is part and parcel of this divine plan. Earlier, John had related Jesus’ nighttime encounter with Nicodemus, a prominent Jewish leader (John 3:1–21). Now, he records Jesus’ midday encounter with a Samaritan woman, a social outcast (John 4:1–42). Both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman needed Jesus. Indeed, everyone needs Jesus.

Samaritans were partly Jewish and partly Gentile. For this reason, they were hated by both Jews and Gentiles (see Luke 10:33; 17:16; John 8:48). When Jesus stops at a well and asks a woman for a cup of water, she incredulously responds, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (John 4:9, ESV). The apostle adds the explanatory note that “Jews do not associate with Samaritans” (John 4:10). Unbeknownst to the Samaritan woman, Jesus was there to give her “living water” from a well that never runs dry—Himself (John 4:10).

The encounter at Jacob’s well is symbolically and theologically rich. Jesus uses water, a basic human need, as a metaphor for eternal life. The woman, however, interprets Jesus’ words in a literal way (John 4:11), but Jesus wants her to see beyond actual water to spiritual water—the water of life. Her greatest need is not water from Jacob’s well but water for her wearied soul.

Later, in John 7:38–39, the writer identifies this “living water” as the Holy Spirit: “‘Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.”

As the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman continues, Jesus makes an explicit statement about His identity (John 4:25–26). He reveals that He is not merely a prophet, as the woman had perceived (John 4:19), but He is the Messiah who all Samaritans anticipated would come (John 20:25–26; cf. verse 29).

After Jesus identifies Himself as the Messiah, the woman leaves to tell others about him: “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (John 4:29, ESV). Based on her testimony, the Samaritans “urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days” (John 4:40). As a result, “many more became believers” (John 4:41).

John 4:1–42 reveals the heart of the gospel—it is God’s message with the power to save all kinds of people: Jews, Gentiles, men, women, young, old, educated, uneducated, rich, and poor. Jesus had to go through Samaria because all people need to hear the gospel that saves.