Read John 4.
Even though "salvation comes from the Jews" (John 4:22), Jesus faces political pressure from these Jews and escapes to the home turf of the hated Samaritans (John 4:1-4). The Jews' contempt for the Samaritans was due to a few factors.
- Mixed Blood (Samaritans were Jews who had intermarried with Gentiles)
- Heretical Beliefs (Samaritans believed only the first five books of Scripture were truly sacred)
- Different "Holy" places of worship (John 4:19)
Jesus is unfazed by the cultural norms he is breaking. Truly, the main character (the woman), the backstory (Jew-Samaritan tension), the setting (Jacob's well), and the other characters (the townspeople, the disciples) provide the opportunity for an intricate object lesson that only God himself could orchestrate with such perfection.
First, the woman. Jesus knows of all her sins but is still eager to offer the "living water" of eternal life. He doesn't care who she has married (Mixed Blood). He desires true belief. He doesn't care about what she's believed about Scripture in the past (Heretical Beliefs). He wants her to know that He is the Messiah, the fulfillment of Scripture. He doesn't care which mountain is considered holy (Different places of worship). He desires that they worship a God not limited by space with hearts full of spirit and truth.
Next, the disciples come just as the woman leaves. They get to hear Jesus' claim to be "I AM" and see him with a peasant Samaritan divorcee. Jesus is eager to offer them the "food" of doing God's will - to join him in the harvest...
...and this harvest is on their way to Jesus as he speaks - the Samaritan townspeople. These people were indeed "ripe for the harvest" and "many believed"!
Turning the lens from the narrative back onto our lives in this Lent season...
In our relationships with others - What cultural/political/religious differences keep us from focusing on what really matters? Let us not be like the Jews of Jesus' time, whose pride kept them from extending God's salvation to ALL who will believe!
In our relationship with Jesus - Are there hiding sins that you need to confess? Or, alternatively, are you feeling lingering guilt about sins already confessed? We know in theory that Jesus knows and forgives all our sins, but do we know it in practice?
Starter Prayer:
Jesus,
I have a choice today to be proud or humble.
Help me to look upon you and also upon my sin.
Help me to see the chasm between the condemnation I deserve and the forgiveness you offer.
May I appreciate your grace even more.
Thank you for giving me the living water!
Help me to look upon my fellow man with love and compassion, not judgment.
Help me to offer him the forgiveness you've offered me.
May my extension of grace lead him to You.
Posts
Jesus,
ReplyDeleteYou know that I am an opinionate man. I like what I like. I think about what I like. I think about why I like what I like.
This can often lead me to perceive people who like different things as being wrong, not merely different.
I like being right.
Help to choose righteousness over being right when the two collide.
Amen.
The woman boldly and gladly exclaimed, "He told me everything I ever did!" Only someone who comes into the true Light is eager to confess sin. That is a mark of Jesus coming to town. Lord, I want to be as excited to come into the light as that Samaritan woman.
ReplyDeleteAmen
Sometimes the best possible place for evangelism is the grocery store before noon on a Sunday morning.
ReplyDeleteLots of awake people at that time.
Hungry.
Thirsty.
It's Sunday and they know it.
They should be somewhere. But where?
Ahhh....the grocery store! Hungry. Thirsty.
Jesus sees their need. He desires they were in fellowship with Him, just like this woman in John 4 so far away from the fold and genuinely reconciled to the fact that she is a sinner.
Who would really want her?
Who would care?
Jesus cares.
He sees and reaches.
She loves the love that reaches her. And her unashamed response goes far. Her exclamation that He is the Messiah and KNOWS her made people want what she had...truth, a well of water spring up to eternal life.