No one is too…anything for Jesus to reach

John chapter 3 and 4 contain so many wonderful truths that books could be written about just those two chapters. One thing that I am thinking about from them is the stark contrast in the people Jesus speaks to in those chapters; Nicodemus, and the woman of Samaria. These two could not have been more different. Just look at the characteristics of each of them.

Nicodemus	Samaritan woman
A Jew- of the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, with the privilege of having the Word of God, the knowledge of the things of God, the ability to worship God in the temple.	A gentile. When Assyria conquered Israel in 722BC, they deported the Israeli people and brought in foreign people to live in the land. These new inhabitants mixed the worship of Jehovah with the worship of idols.
A man	A woman- during that time most of the world, and certainly Jewish culture, considered women far below men. Jewish men did not speak to women in public. Jewish men did not consider it correct to teach women the Scripture.
A Pharisee- trained and educated in the Scripture, and in Jewish religious traditions	A woman whose knowledge of God was incomplete, mixed with tradition and idolatry.
A ruler- respected, honored for his position and education	Rejected- having been divorced 5 times. Women did not have the right to divorce. Men could divorce wives for any reason. Since no children are mentioned, she may have been unable to have children, which would have been reason for divorce.
High morality-the Pharisees were at the top of the religious hierarchy, who lived very strictly according to the Jewish law, even adding many restrictions to the law given by God to Moses	After being divorced 5 times, this woman was living with a man who was not her husband.
He sought Jesus, went to him at night to question him.	Jesus reached out to this woman, addressed her at the well
Nicodemus called Jesus teacher, acknowledged that he had power that must be from God.	This woman had no idea who Jesus was.
He came to Jesus as an equal, one Jewish man to another	She was shocked that Jesus would speak to her, a woman and a Samaritan
He came to Jesus to learn	She just wanted water
Jesus revealed wonderful truths to Nicodemus, of God’s love, of regeneration and justification	Jesus revealed that he was the source of living water in her spirit, and that he was the Messiah. This is the first time recorded that Jesus told anyone that he was the Messiah.
The story ends with Jesus discourse to Nicodemus	The woman immediately went to her village and told her people that she had met the Christ.

When we look at the great differences between these two people, we see that Jesus came to the great and the low, the good and the bad, the seekers and the oblivious, the knowledgeable and the ignorant, those you would expect and the least expected. 

I so love this principle. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. A person’s deep lostness does not disqualify them. I especially love the story of the Samaritan woman. 

Throughout ancient history, women were despised. The Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, almost everyone considered women as inferior to men, just above the status of an animal. Without knowing the historical context, we cannot understand John 4:27, “Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?"

The disciples wanted to question him, but, after all, this was Jesus, so they just marveled. Jesus took time to speak to this woman, he treated her with respect, he even revealed something to her that he had not yet told anyone, that he was the Messiah. He did not hold back anything from her. She was not too low, to uneducated, too ignorant, too immoral, too anything for Jesus. This woman, despised and rejected, touched Jesus heart; maybe because he knew that he too would be despised and rejected.