I am a talker and when the girls were little, I would talk to any adult I could after spending all day with the girls. Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved being able to stay home with them, but adult conversation is nice. However, strangers are a little uneasy talking to someone they don’t know. It can be difficult starting a conversation with a complete stranger and to get theologically deep is rare in a first meeting. Not so rare for Jesus, but then again, his time on earth was short and he had a lot of people to reach.
One such conversation takes place with a Samaritan woman as he rested at a well while the disciples were off getting food. She comes at noon to draw water. Typically, most women would come in the cool of the morning. It was a great time to socialize and catch up on the most recent gossip. But she came at noon, alone, to the well. It is possible she came during the heat of the day because she was ostracized for her lifestyle or perhaps she didn’t want to get caught up in the morning gossip. We can only assume what her reasons might have been. But in arriving when she did, she came face to face with Jesus, the Son of God, who offered grace free from condemnation, speaking the truth in love. From a cultural perspective, this conversation should never have happened. He was male and she female; He a Jew and she a Samaritan. That didn’t matter to Jesus. He invited her into a conversation, offered her living water that leads to eternal life, called out her sin and revealed himself to her as the Messiah. She tried to avoid the conversation, but being drawn in by his statements of living water, she engaged with Jesus. When it came to her sin, she sidestepped the issue by bringing up religion instead of dealing with the relationship. It is easier to talk about the semantics of how one worships than to talk about why we worship and what happens in our hearts when we do. In this season of Lent, as we spend time fasting, let us make sure we are not going through the actions, but that we drink from the living water, worshiping in Spirit and in Truth. When confronted with our sins, we confess them before God, repent and rest in His grace. “For those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6) Are you hungry for more of God? Are you willing to engage in the difficult conversations? I challenge you to go deeper in your walk, seek after God and you will be filled. John 4:1-26 (NIV) Jesus talks with a Samaritan Woman Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a]) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThe Pastors of Cornerstone Wesleyan Church Archives
July 2017
Categories |