34. Believe Me, Woman (John 4:19-26)
Posted by:
SeLahGirl on
January 8, 2008 at
1:21PM EST
Believe Me, Woman
(John 4:19-26)
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our
fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place
where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
Not only was the
spiritual thirst of this woman apparent, but here we see her great
hunger for acceptance by the people of God as well. In other words she
is saying,
"Okay, I am convinced that you are a preacher
that is really honest about trying to help people understand what God
says is Truth. I trust you and your opinion. So let me ask you
something. I was raised in a church where we worshiped God a little
differently than that powerhouse church over there. What they claim
seems to be more accepted, but I love God just as much. Is there any
chance that God would accept my worship of him even tho I go about it a
little differently than them?
I'm feeling kinda rejected by his people, is there anyway that he would accept me and my expression of worship?"
I would attempt to answer that, but Christ does it so much better.
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will
worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You
Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know,
for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet 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. 24God is spirit,
and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Basically, Jesus is saying, how or where you worship him is less of an
issue. What matters is that you worship the right God and accept who he
is as he reveals himself to you -- that you worship the one True God,
which is the God of the Jews (Israel). No matter how much animosity may
exist between your peoples, no matter how imperfect they may be at
times, they remain the people that God will fulfill his promises
through.
We may not get that he was speaking about recognizing the Messiah... but she understood.
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
And she acknowledged that she believed in Messiah, the Christ, and was
watching for him. That she was passionate and committed about serving
him and obeying him. But she had no idea who he was or when he would
come or how he would reveal himself to her (or that he would be a Jew).
She felt very ignorant about the specifics, she felt very
cut off from the people who seemed to have the answers about Messiah
directly from God. How could she ask them about him when they
considered her and her people too unclean to approach him or to know
him? How could she know hope, if she was made to think that she was
unworthy to know Christ?
That Samaritan woman was not so
foreign to many who are hungry and thirsty, even today. There are those
that feel rejected and unworthy, especially when they measure
themselves to certain regulations laid out by the very people that are
supposed to tell them about Christ.
Kinda breaks your heart, doesn't it.
Kinda grieves your spirit.
Kinda leaves you sick and nauseated.
Kinda makes you wanna go examine yourself and check for the slightest
judgmental, legalistic imperfection that may have attached itself to
those secret places, those covered places, those places of the heart
that no one sees but you and God and the Samaritans that encounter you
along the way...
How will they know him if we do not GO to them...
How will they know if we do not tell them.
6 Therefore my people will know my name;
therefore in that day they will know
that it is I who foretold it.
Yes, it is I."
7 How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
"Your God reigns!"
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the LORD returns to Zion,
they will see it with their own eyes.
(Isaiah 52:6-8)
There were solid, loving, voices of humility that shared the good news
with Samaritans like you and me despite our quirkiness and our
weirdness. Now it is our duty and our command to become those voices
for others. Voices that are so grateful for the loving kindness that
they have come to know in Christ that they remain humble in all that
they do in his name. Loving God and Loving People.
But even if men fail, Christ does not.
Jesus speaks with this woman face to face, just as he will speak with
anyone that calls upon him at any given moment in time. Those who pray
and ask to encounter him, to learn of him, to know him... will not be
disappointed. He will find a way to answer you, and you will hear him
just as this precious woman did at the well that day. He WILL reveal
himself to you... intimately.... boldly... by sitting down beside you
from no where, by speaking about things you thought no one knew, by
guiding you and correcting you ever so gently with kindness, by
whispering assurance that you matter to him and that he loves you...
He will accept you though you think him a stranger --
until you realize just how present he has been all along.
He will accept the best you have to offer --
no matter how small or insignificant it may seem to you and others, and
he will cherish it so that it becomes glorious
because you are loved by him.
Your only part is to ask God to reveal himself to you,
and to believe the same truth that he spoke to this woman at the well...
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
