Jesus and a Woman

The story of 'the woman at the well,' as it usually called, is very interesting, and very relevant for us today in many ways. I call this message: 'Jesus and a Woman.' It could have been any individual; it could have been you or me! It's amazing to see how Jesus cared for individuals, how He took time to relate to people and their personal and individual needs. Like a shepherd cares for His sheep, so Jesus cared for His, figuratively speaking, 'flock,' that is, His people - people He loved, and that would include each individual who ever lived. Of course, at one point in history Jesus was a man for some years and related specifically to the people in Israel at the time. However, how He related shows us His character - and the Being of God - and how He relates to us still today.

He came along Jacob's well and was tired from the journey between Judea (south) to Galilee (north): see it on the map. Well, unfortunatelty there was tension between Jews and Samaritans at the time, yet this was no hinderance for Jesus to relate to a Samaritan as a Jew. He crossed those racial boundaries set up by men as He reached out to a precious individual. The lady was surprised, to say the least (and so were His disciples once their returned from lunch).

The well, Jacob's well, proved a brilliant way of showing a greater spiritual reality behind the essential and indispensable resource of water in a desert place. Jesus came to bring a spiritual reality to people who asked for it; those who were hungry for it.

Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water [from Jacob's well] will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the [spiritual] water I give will never thirst - not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life" (MSG).

The pricture of the well served to illustrate a spiritual reality: God will give inner satisfaction that will last - forever! Some things have obviously gone wrong in the life of this woman: marriage, for example. She had 6 men and it didn't work for her. After six relationships one might be pretty hurt and dispair. It's an unfortunate reality that this is so in today's society. What people do, as a result, is to blame the institution of marriage. Yet that is not a wise conclusion, for who would altogether reject driving cars or travelling by plane because of car and plane crashes? It's not the driving or flying as a whole that is wrong, it's individual mistakes that make some journeys go wrong, sometimes fatal. In the same way, marriage is not the problem, but doing marriage wrong is the issue. It's obvious that some things make marriage work and other things destroy it. One cannot be selfish and only seek his or her own pleasure, but has to learn a great deal of respect, humility, servanthood, and sacrifice - all possible through genuine love!

The good thing was that the woman was honest about an area in her life that was obviously pearshaped, to say the least. Did Jesus condemn her? NO! He sought to offer her a way beyond the natural availabilities of life, a life filled with divinity, a dimension not-of-this-world. No, no alien stuff, but a God-reality that can transform an individual and turn something bad into something beautiful. It's the kind of power that breaks bondages and sets people free! There is tremendous satisfaction to be found in God. People don't have to try one empty thing after the other only to get hurt again and again, and more and more. There's an another way to live life - a life with the God-dimension!

Jesus used the illustration of water to make His point: water is essential, indispensible. People in Africa understand this much better than people in the West! 2.000 years ago in the Middle East water was a comodity (actually, it is one today, too, although most people don't value it as such). So just was water is indisensible for natural existence, so is the God-dimension for the spiritual, metaphysical, non-material part of life - we need God to be complete, fulfilled, and have meaning and purpose in life. That's what Jesus offered - the God-life inside a human being. It's a spiritual fountain that will never dry out, always satisfy - despite bad circumstances - and spring up into eterity!

All one needs to do is to ask God for it - it's that simple! Again, Jesus said:

"If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink [spiritually]. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says" (Jn 7:37 MSG)

He was, of course, speaking about God's Spirit whom those receive who believe in Him (v 39); and to believe in Him is to actually received Jesus in to our hearts and souls (Jn 1:12-13), an ever-present, eteral fountain of life. It's a satisfaction found nowhere else; one that cannot be compared to anyone or anything; one that those who find would never trade for anything else in this world! JESUS IS ETERNAL LIFE!


Shalom,
Gordon