Crossing Lines – February 8, 2026

Isaiah 56:1-8, John 4:1-30
February 1, 2026

If you don’t already know it, Artemis II was scheduled to fly this week.  And if you don’t know what that is, Artemis II will be the first crewed spaceflight, since 1972, to leave near-earth orbit and fly to the moon.  It got delayed until early March, but it is going to fly!

Of course I’ve been following this, because – as you know – I’m a space cadet!  I’ve been enthralled by space exploration ever since I was very young.  I’ll never forget my first grade teacher, Mrs. McConnell, wrapping a piece of red yarn around the classroom globe for every time John Glenn circled the earth!

As I think back on all that, I remember something the astronauts said looking back at the earth during the days of Apollo.  They said that, when you see the earth from space, the borders we fight over on the ground are simply not there.  The first to leave earth, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders of Apollo 8, saw the earth as a fragile, solitary home suspended in the darkness of space.

Humans have made the lines.  And of course humans have changed the lines over the years.  And they have fought over those lines – for as long as there have been humans!  When the Soviet Union broke up in December 1991, suddenly, everybody’s maps and globes became obsolete.  Instead of the vast USSR, there were now something like 15 separate countries in that part of the world.

So, I had this great idea then, to make “Colorform Globes.”  Do you remember “Colorform?”  It was that panel with a shiny surface that you could stick those rubbery figures on it and tell stories.  My Sunday school teacher used them!  So my idea was, if you had a globe made out of that material, you could get new countries to stick on it every so often when the borders changed!

So, we humans make the lines.  And humans don’t just make geographical lines.  They make other lines, too.  They make “religious lines,” and “gender lines,” and “moral and social lines.”  And in our story from John, we meet a woman who found herself on the other side of pretty much all of those lines.  Some of them she crossed herself.  Others were drawn around her by society.  And once drawn, they were hard to cross.

And this is yet another story that only John tells.  This is not in any of the other Gospels.  Here we have Jesus passing through Samaria on his way to Galilee.  And we know what the Jews felt about the Samaritans, don’t we!  We’ve talked about them before, how they had remained in the land while others were taken into exile.  And while they remained there, they had intermarried with the other people in that region.  And that was abhorrent to the Jews!

So this woman was on the other side of the “geographical line” between Israel and Samaria.  She had that strike against her.  And of course that meant that she was also on the other side of those “religious lines.”  And then, being a woman she was subject to “gender lines.”  It was a very patriarchal society in those days.  And finely, being a woman with five previous husbands, she had crossed some very serious “moral lines.”  And because of that, she had those “social lines” drawn around her!  Here she was at the well, drawing water at noon –a time after everybody else had already come and gone.

So this woman was subject to all of those lines – again, lines she had crossed herself, and lines that were imposed on her by her!  But the real power of this story is that she wasn’t the only one crossing lines that day.  Jesus himself crossed all of those lines in order to reach out to her.

He was in Samaria.  And this wasn’t the only time Jesus ventured outside of Israel.  But this time he found himself at Jacob’s well.  And I wonder if he was thinking about all of those lines that were drawn up when Jacob gave land to each of his 12 sons!  Maybe you’ve seen that before on one of your Bible maps.

But there was more going on here, of course.  Because Jesus had crossed what we might call “political lines.”  The Jews and the Samaritans did not get along.  And those political lines were often the same as those “religious lines.”  Because politics and religion were often the same.

Then, in even speaking to this woman, Jesus crossed the “gender lines.”  Men didn’t speak to women in public places like this.  It was considered improper.  When he asked her for a drink from the well, the woman herself pointed out the line he was crossing!  “How is it you, a Jew, ask of me, a woman of Samaria, for a drink?”  (Actually, there were several lines in that question!)

Well, Jesus answers her by telling her about the “living water” he could give her if she asked.  That’s almost a “spiritual line,” isn’t it.  Because, in those days, religion was often all about the physical acts of worship.  It was about sacrifices and other religious practices.  But Jesus was talking about the spirit and the heart.  He often did that whenever people tried to pin him down about doctrine and law.

Now, at this point in the conversation, Jesus changed things up.  He zeroed in on this woman and her personal life.  “Go call your husband,” he said.  And he knew what her answer was going to be, didn’t he!  And he was now a “moral line,” a line that this woman had abandoned long ago.

We can only imagine her embarrassment!  We can see a little of it in her response and how she tries to redirect the conversation.  She says, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet!”  And then she quickly tries to steer the conversation back to something else, something that wasn’t so personal or awkward!  She goes back to the geographic and religious lines.  “Where is the proper place to worship,” she asked.  “Is it in Jerusalem, like you say, or on our holy mountain?”

And I love Jesus’ answer here.  Because he actually challenges what all of the people believed in those times believed – both the Samaritans and the Jews.  They all believed that worship was all about the location and those physical acts of worship.  But Jesus said “No.”  And then he gives us this great statement, that “True worshippers worship God in spirit and in truth.”  In other words, “True worship is not about the physical acts of worship, or about the proper place to worship.  True worship is a matter of the heart.”

What Jesus was saying there wasn’t entirely new.  Centuries earlier, through the prophet Isaiah, God had already begun to push back against the idea that worship was limited by place or by who was allowed “inside the lines.”  In the passage we read, he said, “Do not let the foreigner say, ‘The Lord will surely separate me from his people.’”  And then, this remarkable promise: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”  True worship was never meant to be about the right location or the right people.  It was always meant to be about hearts turned toward God, in spirit and in truth.

Humans have struggled with that ever since – and not just in Jesus’ time!  For centuries – and even in our time – people have stubbornly held on to those beliefs that the location and the acts of worship are everything.  As one person I heard put it this way.  “People have come to worship the form of worship, rather than worshipping God!”

Jesus echoed Isaiah here, and he challenged the people in what they should have known all along!  Location, practice, doctrine – they’re all well and good.  But they’re not the worship itself!  Their function is to point us to true worship – the worship in spirit and truth.

Jesus crossed a lot of lines in this story.  And I think he would tell us, that, from heaven’s perspective – just like that view from space – lines that seem important to us disappear.  And that’s not easy for us humans to think about!  When we humans draw lines, we make them very important to us!  And crossing those lines can be very uncomfortable!  But we can never forget that we follow a Savior who crossed lines, and still crosses lines.

As we move closer to that introspective time of Lent, I challenge you to think about the lines in your own life.  Are they geographical lines?  Are they religious lines?  Are they gender lines, or moral lines, or social lines?  And think about what lines God would challenge you to cross, in order to reach to others out as Jesus did.  Are there any lines you’re struggling with even now, that you feel God is challenging you to cross?

Very soon, for the first time in over 50 years, humans will be looking back at the earth from deep space.  And they will be seeing the whole earth again, as a single globe – with no visible lines!  And maybe that can help us to remember all the lines we’ve been thinking about today, and how many are of human origin.  And maybe that can help us to think more seriously about the example Jesus gave, and how his love crossed lines, to reach out to those who couldn’t.

Jesus crossed lines.  And he invites us to follow him, and not by erasing every difference, but by refusing to let human-made lines stand in the way of love, and grace, and truth.  May we have the courage to notice the lines in our lives, the humility to question them, and the faith to cross the ones that keep us from being the kind of people God calls us to be.

Prayer

Eternal God, As we follow Jesus, give us the courage to cross the lines that keep us from seeing others as you see them.  Open our hearts to worship you in spirit and in truth, and shape our lives so that your love flows through us to those who feel forgotten, excluded, or unseen.  Grant us the wisdom and the courage to reach out to all of your children.  For these things we pray in your loving name, Amen.