I’m a task oriented person. When I am going from point A to point B, I go in a straight line and get frustrated if anything gets in my way. Sometimes when I’m barreling in a straight line towards my goal, God ‘gets in my way’ to get me to slow down and see something along the way. I’m learning to breathe and look around me. When I’m walking outside, rather than thinking about what I’m going to do when I get to my destination, I am learning to pay attention to nature or other people I meet on the way. Sometimes when I stop to take time with people, I end up with a great conversation, a chance to encourage someone or a chance to be encouraged by someone. God always encourages me with the natural beauty of birds, flowers, butterflies, or distant mountains.
Jesus met people on the way. Once when he was heading from Judea to Galilee, on the way through Samaria he stopped by Jacob’s well in Sychar and sat down for a rest. His disciples had gone on ahead into town to buy food. While Jesus was sitting there, a woman came to the well to draw water. It was well past the time when most women gathered at the well to draw their water for the day. It is a good guess that she was not welcome with the other women. Jesus asked her for some water. This really floored her. He was a Jew. She was a Samaritan, a woman, and the lowest of women as pecking orders go. He shouldn’t even be talking with her let alone asking her for a drink.
She asks him why. His response is, “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.” John 4:10. She missed the word ‘living’ as she focused on how he was going to get water with no vessel to put it in. ‘Living’ water is fresh, new, life-giving, and from the source. It is easy to see how she missed that because she thought the well she was drawing from had pretty good water.
Jesus, however, was not referring to H2O. He was once again moving from the physical to the spiritual. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14. The woman likes the idea of never having to come back to the well and deal with the sideways looks from the other women or the hard labor of carrying the water day after day. Jesus picks up on this and tells her to get her husband and come back.
Now the woman understands that Jesus ‘has her number’ and she believes him to be a prophet. So she tries to ask him the big question that has bothered Samaritans since way back – Is Jerusalem the only place where people can worship? This question also has to do with the prejudices and hatred of the Jews against the Samaritans.
Jesus again moves from the physical here and now and into the spiritual realm. His answer teaches us all much about worship and about our hang-ups regarding the proper way to worship. Do we put our hands up in the air, do we kneel, do we stand quietly, do we sing loud, do we pray, etc. Jesus says, “Believe me, woman, a time 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, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:21-24.
If all we are seeing is physical posture and if all we are hearing is what style of music is being used, we are missing true worship. Worship is a matter of the heart. It is a matter of the mind. Who do we understand God to be? Can we move from the physical (I can’t see him, I can’t hear him) to the spiritual (He is the awesome Creator of the universe, He is Holy, He is Righteous and I don’t deserve to be alive in His presence), I can humble myself and truly worship His Greatness.
The woman, who is still a bit confused, says to Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” John 4:25.
Jesus responded to her with, “I who speak to you am he.” John 4:26. This is one of the times that Jesus directly declares himself to be the Messiah. The woman can’t wait to tell others about her experience. She runs back to the town and tells everyone who will listen, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” John 4:29
As others came and heard for themselves, they asked Jesus to stay and teach them. And he did – for two days. And because of this many became believers, sure that he was indeed the Savior of the world.
I wonder if I could have changed my plans and taken two days to stop and teach willing listeners. And even more, I wonder how many blessings I have missed along the way because I was too task oriented.
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