Seeking Jesus First Feb. 5, 2026 (Bonus Devotion)

Sent to the Lost Sheep

Supplemental Reading: Matthew 15:24; Luke 15:1–7
(Read alongside John 4:1–6.)

“But He answered and said, ‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’” (Matthew 15:24, NKJV)

When Jesus “needed” to go through Samaria, He was not stepping outside His mission—He was fulfilling it.

Later in His ministry, Jesus would clearly state that He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That declaration helps us understand the deeper necessity behind Samaria. The Samaritans were not Gentiles in the way Rome understood the term. They were a fractured people—descendants of Israel who had been scattered, compromised, intermarried, and separated from proper worship. They were covenantally broken, not covenantally excluded.

Samaria represented unfinished redemption.

This is where the parable of the lost sheep gives us language for Jesus’ movement. A shepherd does not abandon ownership because a sheep wanders. He leaves the ninety-nine and goes after the one—not because it is efficient, but because it belongs to him. The search is motivated by love, not convenience.

Jesus does the same.

He does not wait for the lost sheep to find its way back. He goes where it wandered. He crosses boundaries not to dismiss the Law, but to fulfill the promise embedded within it. The Law exposed loss; the Shepherd restores it.

This helps us see Samaria correctly. It was not enemy territory—it was wounded territory. It was not outside God’s concern—it was central to it. Jesus did not go to Samaria because Israel failed. He went because Israel still mattered.

The Gospel of John consistently reveals this pattern. Jesus comes to His own. He speaks to those who should recognize Him. And when they are fractured, distant, or confused, He does not discard them—He pursues them. The necessity of Samaria flows from covenant faithfulness, not missionary expansion.

This also reshapes how we understand God’s love. Love is not abstract compassion. It is commitment. God does not treat humanity like an experiment gone wrong. He does not throw away what is damaged. He redeems what belongs to Him. David wrote that God is mindful of us—but in Christ, we see that God goes searching for us.

Jesus’ journey into Samaria teaches us that love does not merely wait with open arms; sometimes it walks dusty roads and sits at forgotten wells. Love seeks. Love restores. Love reclaims what has wandered.

And there is something deeply personal here. Before the Samaritan woman ever speaks, before her story is revealed, before worship is redefined—Jesus is already there. He has already come for her. The Shepherd arrived before the sheep knew it was lost.

This devotion invites us to reconsider where we place the boundaries of God’s concern. Are there people, histories, or places we assume are too compromised to matter? Samaria tells us otherwise. The lost sheep are still sheep. And the Shepherd still comes for them.

Today, let this truth steady your heart: God’s redemptive plan is not reactive—it is intentional. Jesus did not wander into Samaria. He was sent there. And every step He took was guided by covenant love that refuses to forget its own.

The Shepherd goes where the sheep are.
The covenant still stands.
And grace never forgets its purpose.