Just Passing Through

Lesson What Jesus Changed

John 4:23-24 MSG

One day Jesus was passing through Samaria to get to Galilee and he sat down at a well to rest but he didn’t have a way (a cup) so he could get a drink. A Samaritan woman came at the same time to draw water at the well and he asked her for a drink.

She was shocked that a man, and especially a Jew would even speak to her.

As they spoke Jesus told her things about her as if he knew her.

The woman was shocked and she wondered how Jesus could know so much about her. She had never met him but he knew she had previously had five husbands and she was living with a man she had not married. The woman perceived Jesus was a prophet.

Jesus replied to her and revealed much more than she ever expected. He did not condemn her for her sin and he told her everything was about to change.

In John 4:23-24 we are told, “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”

Jesus spoke truth to her…truth about what God wants for her. The words Jesus spoke were shocking because no one had ever really told her what God wants to give her. Until that time others simply condemned her for her choices.

Jesus actually knew much more about the woman than he admitted in John 4. Jesus knew the history of the Samaritans people. When the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E. they intermarried with other people. Their focus on God centered solely on the first five books of the Hebrew Bible and they worshipped at Mount Gerizim. The Jews worshipped at the Temple and studied the entire Old Testament. They considered Samaritans as being impure.

Jesus offered the woman a completely new view of worshipping God that engage the Spirit and the truth of God.

Jesus spoke of offering living water that quenched thirst forever.

Jesus offered her love.

Jesus did not condemn her for her actions…he simple loved her. She walked away that day

telling everyone in town she met a man who knew everything about her.

When she told everything to other Samaritans many believed her and they followed Jesus.

In Jesus,

Deborah

acrazyjourney.com