B8 - E3 Returning to Galilee
When the festival came to an end, Jesus and his companions made plans to return to Galilee. On this occasion, they had to travel through the region of Samaria which lay between Judea and Galilee. This was unusual because Samaria, and the Samaritan people, were despised by their Jewish neighbours so most routes from Judea in the south of the country to Galilee in the north skirted around its borders.
The hostility had arisen centuries before when the Samaritan people had built altars in their own land to worship foreign gods, rather than the one true God of Israel who was worshipped in the temple at Jerusalem. As they passed through the region, the group came to the town of Sychar which was near the area which Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, had given to his son, Joseph, when, well over a thousand years earlier, the people of Israel had returned from their long exile in Egypt.
Jacob’s well was to be found there and Jesus, tired out from the journey and still weakened by his forty days in the desert, stayed by the well to rest while his friends went to buy provisions. As he sat there in the shade, a woman from the town came to draw water from the well and Jesus struck up a conversation with her. That the woman came alone and in the heat of the day was unusual because the other women of the town would have come together in the cooler hours of the morning.
Jesus asked her for a drink of water. This would also have been highly unusual in those days, a man speaking to a woman he didn’t know, and a Samaritan woman at that, let alone asking her for a drink. They struck up a long conversation during which, all the details of her life which had caused her separation from society, came out into the open and her heart was changed forever. When they returned from the town, his companions were taken aback to find Jesus talking to the woman but felt unable to ask him about it.
She, herself, felt so liberated after her conversation with Jesus that, even forgetting to take her water jar with her, she went running back into the town to tell the people of the town about him. She recounted how they had talked about everything in her life, her fears of their opinion of her forgotten. They came back with her to see and listen to the man she had told them about, the man she thought might be the Messiah and came to believe in him for themselves.
They pressed him to stay with them for a while so the whole group spent a few days in the area. Jesus took time to talk to them freely and share his message with them, an indication that from the earliest days of his ministry, he was willing to reach out to all people, no matter where they lived, men and women, even the Samaritan people, if their hearts and minds were open to him,
Continuing on their journey, Jesus took the opportunity to visit Nazareth to see his mother and their relatives and friends before travelling on to the lakeside area of Galilee. Where better than his home town to share the good news of the coming of God’s kingdom, a kingdom of love and truth, of goodness, justice and mercy to the people of his home tow. Sadly though, he met with a very different reception.
He went to the town’s synagogue on the Sabbath as he usually did and, being invited to speak, he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found and began to read from the prophecy which lay before him. “God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to set prisoners free, to give sight to the blind, to rescue the oppressed and to announce that the time has come for God’s mercy to be shown to all people.” Rolling up the scroll, he gave it back and sat down.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on him as he began to speak. “Today,” he said, “these words are being fulfilled before your very eyes.” At first, most of the people present were full of wonder as he spoke to them, but after a while, some of them began to mutter among themselves. “Who does he think he is, coming here to tell us what is right and wrong! We know about him and his background. He’s Jesus, the son of Joseph, the carpenter.” Some of them even tried to hustle him out of town there and then.
His mother and friends were saddened by this reception but were to learn the truth that, as Jesus said to them, “A prophet is never recognised in his own country.” In sharp contrast, the group's arrival in Capernaum was met with huge enthusiasm. Jesus had relatives there who would always be happy to give him and his companions support and shelter in between their travels around Galilee. He and his, as yet, small band of followers were welcomed wherever they went.
Many people from Galilee had been in Jerusalem for the Passover and had seen and heard what Jesus had done there so they were delighted to see him in their own towns and villages. Wherever he went, he proclaimed the message that the kingdom of God was among them. His fervent desire was for people to turn away from all that was wrong in their lives and return to the forgiveness and love that was to be found in the outstretched arms of their Father in Heaven.
Centuries before, the prophet, Isaiah, had written that a time would come when, in this lakeside area, the people who ''lived in darkness would see a great light'' and ''on those who lived in the valley of the shadow of death, a light would dawn.” The light was dawning; the great mission to Galilee had begun.
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