Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends on this middle weekend in March,
We’ve all had the experience… we are a part of something so significant our lives are marked by it, and we are never the same after that day. For years to come we remember the event, replaying it over and over in our memory. Sometimes we try and return to the place where it happened, just to refresh the experience. I wonder what some of those experiences have been for you in your life story, and how is your life marked by them?
This weekend we’re looking at one of those historic moments. It happened in a remote place, in an unexpected rendezvous between Jesus and a Samaritan woman who’d come to draw water from the town well. About 2000 years before, it had happened in almost the same way, at a well several miles south of this town of Sychar. That time the woman’s name was Hagar and she was running from her master Sarai, wife of Abraham. Hagar was pregnant by Abraham as a surrogate mother for Sarai, but Sarai had become deeply jealous and mistreated Hagar to the point that Hagar fled. Hot and thirsty, at a well, Hagar was met by ‘the angel of the LORD’.
Most Bible scholars understand Him to be an Old Testament appearance of Jesus. Genesis 16 gives us that remarkable story. The ‘angel of the LORD’ encouraged Hagar to understand that God saw and understood her pain, and that she would have a special son and should name him “ISHMAEL” which means “God hears”. Every time Hagar or Abraham called that name, they would be reminded that God hears our cry, God sees all that is going on in our lives and God cares. In fact Hagar gave God a new name on that occasion… El Roi, ‘the God who sees me.’
If that was Jesus who met Hagar at the well called Beer Lahai Roi, I wonder if He was thinking about that as He met with the Samaritan woman at the Sychar well in the heat of the day? While He used different words, do you see His message of hope and God’s love was essentially the same? If you’ve been with me on the “Walking with Jesus” journey for a while, you’ll remember only about two weeks ago we looked at Malachi 3:6 “I the LORD do not change.” Unchanging God is the connection between Genesis 16 Hagar and John 4 the Samaritan woman even though 2000 years of time separate them.
Jesus had shocked the Samaritan woman with several powerful statements He had not made to anyone before. In John 4:14 Jesus said “…the water I give will become in you a spring of living water welling up to eternal life.” Jews and other people felt strongly the Samaritans were disqualified from gaining any form of eternal life with God. But not Jesus! With Jesus, EVERYONE is eligible for His salvation!
The ‘spring of living water’ Jesus spoke of was the Holy Spirit. Jesus later explained to His disciples that the Holy Spirit would live within those He saved from their sin, and the vibrant, powerful, personal work of the Spirit in each person would be like a ‘spring of living water’. Amazing!
Jesus had told the Pharisee Nicodemus that the miracle of ‘born again’ was a Holy Spirit accomplished miracle, but here Jesus first speaks to a Samaritan woman of the indwelling Holy Spirit! In neither conversation were either Nicodemus or the woman sitting in a church! God met them in a powerful conversation when their hearts were open to learn and believe God’s truth! Do you have times and places where you meet with God like that? Especially alone?
To this Samaritan woman, Jesus unveiled a new truth… God the Father was searching for worshipers whose only qualification was that they believed in Him and would worship Him in spirit and in truth! Nothing else. No instructions about day or time or location or style of worship or attire for worship. God is most interested in the condition of the heart and mind of a worshiper! Suddenly a Samaritan woman found hope that perhaps God really did care about her, and would welcome her worship, even though she was a Samaritan!
A few days before Jesus had been in the Jerusalem Temple, a place this Samaritan woman would never have been welcome. Jesus had cleaned it out of the animals and the money changers. Then Jesus had shouted “How dare you turn My Father’s house into a market.” (John 2:16)
Now, only a few days later, at a well in Samaria of all places, Jesus makes an even clearer, more shocking statement. “I who speak to you am HE.“ (John 4:26) There could be no misunderstanding. The woman had said “When Messiah comes, He will explain everything to us.” Therefore Jesus’ response was undeniable. He was boldly, unashamedly claiming to BE the MESSIAH! No one had ever made such a statement without fear of being struck dead on the spot by declaring such blasphemy.
So, I have a question… why would Jesus make such a bold, clear statement to a Samaritan woman at a well, at midday, when no one else could hear Him? Could it be for the same reason the angels appeared to Shepherds rather than the high ranking officials of the land? Everyone matters to Jesus, everyone!
So within a few moments the unexpected well rendezvous of Jesus and one Samaritan woman, is turned into a crowd! Jesus’ disciples return from the shopping trip, and many of the Samaritan people from Sychar come running out with the woman anxious to meet this man about whom she had said “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.” (John 4:29)
John is silent about what happened in that unexpected contact between Jewish followers of Jesus and Samaritans.. .but John does tell us the end result: “So when the Samaritans came to see Jesus, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days! And because of His words, many more became believers.” (John 4:40,41)
Can you wrap your heart and head around how big of a miracle of changed attitudes and prejudices this is? My guess is those ‘disciples’ of Jesus laid down on their mats that night but sleep would not come. They had always thought they’d die before spending a night in Samaria, especially in a Samaritan town, at the invite of Samaritans! I doubt any of us can imagine how hard it was for these Jewish men to trust Jesus or to believe anything He said as they watched this unimaginable scene!
But it was happening, it wasn’t a nightmare. Jesus was making it clear, regardless of the past, God loved the Samaritans and wanted to be worshiped by them in spirit and in truth! Jesus wanted the Holy Spirit to reside in them like a spring of living water, and give them eternal life!
And then the Samaritans made a statement: “…we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.“ (John 4:41) Can you believe that?!! John the Baptist had said it… “Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:28) But no one in their right mind would have imagined that would include Samaritans of all people!!
What was it like the day Jesus walked out of Sychar to the waves and cheers of Samaritan’s whose lives were forever changed? What did Jesus and His men talk about as they walked the road north to Galilee, leaving Sychar behind them? John is silent, and I’m glad he is.
Much better we wrestle with the significance of what happened in Sychar, and we apply it to our cities and towns all around the world… the place where you live. Who are the “Samaritans” in your part of the world? The “untouchables”, the people everyone assumes are far from God and God has long overlooked them? And who are the people acting like Jesus in your part of the world, reaching to those ‘untouchables’, assuring them of God’s love, telling them the wonderful truths about God and how they can experience Jesus? And where are you in all that my friends?
John reports “After two days Jesus left Sychar for Galilee…When He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him. They had seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.” (John 4:43)
Are you encouraged by that statement? Do you see anything missing? It tells me those from Galilee who had been at the Passover returned home to Galilee as all good Jews normally would… AROUND Samaria. And when Jesus arrived, they welcomed Him, but there is no mention of His two days spent at Sychar!! They want to celebrate and thank Him for what they saw Him do in Jerusalem… but no one seems interested in what happened on His return trip through Samaria. I presume everyone assumed He had taken a different road than they had taken but no one gave any thought to the possibility that Jesus had actually gone into Samaritan territory, or heaven forbid actually stayed two nights at the invitation of the Samaritans!!
They simply weren’t prepared to consider that God loved the Samaritans too. That God had come to earth in the person of Jesus, to include Samaritans in God’s great plans for redeeming humanity!!
Is that us my friends? Are we limiting God and missing out on many great things God wants to accomplish in our world that is outside the boundaries of what we think fits with how we think God ought to work in our world?
This weekend, I invite you to look around… at all the people you see in person, on tv, on the internet etc. Check your heart. What will it take for you to see every human being the way Jesus sees them, and love them as Jesus loves them? Here’s a song to help you consider what Jesus was seeing in the hearts of the people of Sychar, Jerusalem and Galilee…and what He sees in your hearts and mine.
Today’s Scripture is John 4:14-42.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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