Welcome to the halfway point of our Journey to the Cross devotional. Today is day 20 of our 40-day devotional, and we examine the borderless love of Jesus.

When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), he left Judea and went again to Galilee. He had to travel through Samaria; so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.” “Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.” Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.” “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.” “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.” “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

John 4:1-26

In general, to travel internationally, you need to have acceptable documents and a valid visa. Often, the need for visas is waived between countries with good relations or significant travel. In that case, documents like a passport will suffice. But border officials retain significant leeway to detain and interview all travelers. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they process about a million people a day. They are on the lookout for human trafficking, drugs, other contraband, agricultural pests, fugitives and people who threaten national security. Today border crossings can be unsettling experiences. The in-between places that separate countries are not usually tourist attractions.

Things were quite different in Jesus’s day. Crossing between borders was not usually as difficult as it is today. Yet still, few sought out the borderlands. For the Jews, Samaria was the worst. It was full of Israelite people who had intermarried with regional pagans. They considered the people there to be halfbreeds, worse than pagans. Jesus had sought the borderlands between Samaria and Galilee before, when he healed the 10 lepers. Now he went beyond that border into Samaria itself as an ambassador of God’s divine love. He wanted to break the barriers of hatred between Jews and Samaritans, putting ancient prejudices to rest. God’s love is not restricted by nationality or ethnicity. God wanted to bless the whole world through the Israelites. He eventually did through His Son Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross. It demonstrates God’s love for the whole world. John 3:16 says, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus crossed the border between heaven and earth to be with us, to show us how to love like God loves, and to die for everyone. His love knows no borders. The apostle Paul called Christians ambassadors for Christ. We are to tell everyone about the great love of Jesus and call them to reconciliation with God in Christ Jesus.

Today as you pray, say something like: “Precious Lord, thank You for Your borderless love. Make me a better ambassador of Your divine love to the people I interact with this week.”

Thank you for joining me for Day 20. Come back tomorrow as we talk about unexpected places.