In Matthew 10:5 we read “these twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans”.
Jesus had told His disciples not to enter into any Samaritan village because He wanted the gospel to be taken first to the Jews before other peoples. However, in John chapter four, Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at Sychar and after He had preached to her and converted her, she ran into the city and told the men there about Jesus and they came and met Him by the well and heard Him preach. After listening to Him verse 39 says “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”‘
Now, in the next verses we see something strange. Although Jesus had told His disciples not to enter into any of the Samaritan cities, we read from these verses that after the Samaritans believed in Jesus, they invited Him into their city.
Verse 40 reads “so when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days”. The reason Jesus agreed to enter and then stay in a Samaritan city was because the people of that city had believed in Him which gave Him so much pleasure He was willing to go against His own admonition to His disciples. God’s greatest pleasure is to be believed and God and His Jesus and will change the rules of the game for the man or woman with faith.
Reno Omokri is the pastor of the Mind of Christ Christian Center and the author of Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God. He tweets @renoomokri
