No one in their right mind would want to live in the town of Barstow, California. It's hot. It's dirty. It's smack dab in the middle of the desert. Its one claim to fame is that it sits halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. A lot of travelers pass through Barstow as they drive between those two megacities. Some travelers even stop to fuel their SUVs or to grab a burger before continuing their journey. But Barstow doesn't have as much to offer as those other places, so people tend to make their visit a short one. You could say that Barstow puts the "pits" in pitstop.   

Back in Jesus' day there was another region, the region of Samaria, that was a little like Barstow. Samaria was a pitstop of sorts. It was situated midway between the lush northern region of Galilee and the bustling southern region of Judea, where Jerusalem was. Any respectable Jew traveling from one region to the other wouldn't have wanted to spend much time in Samaria. Unlike Barstow, it wasn't the geography or the small-town lifestyle that would have turned these Jews off. What made Samaria so undesirable in Jesus' day were the people living there--the Samaritans. 

The Samaritans were half-breeds: the descendants of Jews who had intermarried with Gentiles. They didn't believe the same way the Jews did. In fact, in the eyes of the Jews, they were heretics. Not exactly the type of people you'd want to spend time with if you were trying to honor God. So, if you were traveling through Samaria 2,000 years ago, you'd probably try to make your stay as brief as possible. That is, of course, unless you were Jesus.

In John chapter four, we have the account of one time when Jesus passed through Samaria with His disciples. We all know the story: Jesus sits by the well and evangelizes a sinful woman. But where were the disciples? We know from verse 8 that they had gone into the nearby town to buy food. (In Barstow fashion, they were fueling up and grabbing a burger.) If the disciples were typical Jews, they probably weren't too happy about being there. John points out to us in verse 9 that Jews don't associate with Samaritans. Moreover, when the disciples come back to Jesus and see Him talking to a Samaritan woman they get a bit indignant in verse 27. 

I can just imagine the disdain that the disciples must've felt walking down into the village to buy food. You can almost hear Peter turning to James and saying something like, "If we weren't so hungry, I'd say let's just skip this place. These Samaritans are downright creepy. Do you know the junk they believe?" Then you can picture the disciples coldly haggling with the first bread merchant they see and then quickly returning on their way so they can make better time on their way up to Galilee. "After all, we've got places to go and people to see." 

Do you ever feel like the disciples? Do you ever feel that unimportant tasks or unimportant people are taking up your precious time? Do you get annoyed that the Starbucks worker who makes your coffee every morning tries to start a conversation with you? After all, you've got to get to work. Do you ever wish you didn't have to run those papers by your homosexual co-worker in accounting? I mean, it's just downright awkward being in the same room, right? Do you ever roll your eyes when you know it's time to call your grandma? You know she's going to talk about her dog, Waldo, for 40 minutes.

Couldn't all of that time be spent in a better way? Isn't spending time on the "Samaratans" in our life wasted time? Jesus apparently didn't think so. It's funny that although Jesus only had three short years of public ministry before His crucifixion, He had time not only for the Samaritan woman, but also for the crowds who chased Him down. 

The disciples, on the other hand, were probably thinking of the ministry they had done in Judea or about their plans to minister to people up in Galillee. In doing so, they missed the chance to minister to the needy people in their "now."  Jesus corrects their thinking in verse 35 "Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest!"

The bottom line is this: God loves the people of Barstow, too. Jesus seized opportunities to love "insignificant" people. We also need to seize opportunities to love the people God has put right in front of our faces.

"Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil" --Ephesians 5:15-16