Jesus’ sojourn in the Samaritan village (John 4:1-42) continues to serve as a touchstone as He moves onto Galilee and then Jerusalem and ministers in both places. In dealing with and healing both a Roman official’s son in Galilee and an aged lame Jewish man in Jerusalem, Jesus’ displays of power are to draw people into a deeper understanding of His identity. The Samaritans quickly came to the conclusion that Jesus is the Savior of the World, without the need for miraculous proof. The others not only ask for signs before they believe, but leaders in Jerusalem fault Jesus over Sabbath technicalities and are not at all impacted by His miraculous power. In the end, Jesus indicts the leaders for being so concerned with precision in following the scriptures that they have missed the scriptures’ primary goal: to lead people to Him.
Jesus offers healing still, and the powerful Spirit that raised Him from the dead, through Whom He healed (and heals!) is with and within us even today. We sometimes wallow in our status quo, afraid of the effort that will be required of us if Jesus heals us and has His way with us. We must also beware the leaders’ fate in our zeal to follow the scriptures and ever remember that they will not save us, neither will the extra traditions we build up around them. Only Jesus saves.
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