Samaritans and Gentiles benefited from their proximity to the Jews.
In this article we learn that Jesus came to safe the lost sheep of Israel. Most of the Israelites did not accept him as a messiah, his miraculous powers and teachings. The Samaritans ended up benefiting one from their proximity to the Jews and two, from the fact that they believed in Christ.
Jesus asked ten lepers to go and let a priest examine them. On the way they realized that they were healed. Although they had been ten, only one, a Samaritan found it worthy to go back and thank Jesus for the good deed. The nine Jews who had received the same gift did not come back. They must have not found the need to thank him for what they considered rightfully theirs but the Samaritan man knew that he partook what belonged to the Jews just by the mercies of God. (Luke 17: 11-19)A woman who had faith got her wish met.
She wanted Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter. Jesus was insisting that he was sent for the lost sheep of Israel but she would not let him off. She informed him that even dogs eat leftovers that fell from their master's table. In other words she wanted to partake what the real owners had rejected. Jesus was amazed at her great faith and therefore decided to do her will. Her daughter was cured from the condition. (Mark 7: 24-30)There is an African proverb that says that a tree fall on those who are near.
Gentiles could also have benefited from miracles that Jesus performed just because they happened to be present in the same group that was to receive it. Therefore when Jesus fed four thousand people who had followed him for three days, this miracle occurred at a Gentile's area of Dalmanutha. It therefore means that there must have been some Gentiles who partook of this bread and fish miraculously supplied by Jesus. (Mark 8: 1-10)Some faith in him by Samaritans and Gentiles even took Jesus aback.
The Roman officer who had a sick servant at his home did not find himself worthy for a visit by Jesus. He appreciated that he was a Gentile who was not worthy to partake what belonged to the Jews. He told Jesus that he also had solders under him who readily took orders from him and therefore all Jesus had to do was give a word and his servant would be healed. The Roman solder's faith amazed Jesus who actually ended up doing the wish of the Roman officer so that his servant was healed back home without the need of Jesus having physically to go there. (Luke 7: 1-10)Palestinian land was tiring to walk through with its many different terrains.
The land of Palestine had clearly defined topographical features so that we had the Mediterranean Sea and a desert region to the East. Then there were the Lebanon Mountains to the North not forgetting the Jordan Valley and its massive river and also the Sea of Galilee. This means that Jesus the Saviour of our sins, with his disciples had to go through different land features in a very short distance travel especially noting the fact that they travelled a lot on foot. The source of the Samaritans.
Samaritans are as a result of intermarriages between Assyrian colonizers of Israel who moved most of Israelites to other regions after defeating them in a war. The remaining Jews intermarried with the colonizers to form the Samaritans. The Jews had always considered lowly of the Samaritans especially because they did not even worship in the temple in Jerusalem but set up their own on Mount Gerazin further separating their ideologies from those of the Jews. (John 4: 20)The Jews rejected what rightly was theirs leaving Samaritans to enjoy it.
Jesus was evidently tired from travel as he sat on the well Jacob had dug and given to his son Joseph. A Samaritan woman coming to draw water from the well was surprised when Jesus asked her to give him some water from the well. This is because Jews rarely conversed with Samaritans leave alone asking for favours from them. The woman was very well aware of the inferiority of Samaritans against the Jews. She was aware that the messiah would definitely come from the Jews but of course could not by any chance figure out that she was right there with him. She talked about the Samaritans' ancestors worshipping on a mountain while the Jews worshiped their God in Jerusalem therefore their marked difference. In the middle of the dialogue Jesus revealed to her the infidelity secrets that had all along been shaming her to the point of even being a loner. This amazed the woman so much that she went to the nearby village testifying great things about Jesus and in the process making many of the Samaritans believers from her statements and even more by the messages gave them by Jesus when they came to him. (John 4: 1-41) Noting that the Jews whom Jesus came to save had rejected his teachings (John 10: 22-41) Samaritans were actually reaping what did not belong to them but was rejected by the owners.
