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Jesus (Woman at the Well)

People from all over the world read my columns. Many have no knowledge at all of the Bible and Holy Scripture so often I ask you to read the scripture before I comment. Why? Because if you have not been attending church or a Bible study you may have no idea of what this subject is about.

So please read the following and I will then comment.

John 4:3-43 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? “Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
The woman said to Him,
“Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’
“for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men,
“Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him. In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! “And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life,
that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. “For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”
So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
And many more believed because of His own word.
Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.

This is a beautiful story of Jesus and a woman whose name we do not know. She is often called ‘the woman at the well’.

Jesus made a decision to go through the land of the Samaritans. This group of people was mostly a mixed race of people from the Jews, the local tribes and invaders. They were despised by most of the religious Jews of that day. Note the woman’s response to Jesus request.

“How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Sound familiar? This land is now called the “West Bank’ and what is Israel doing? Building a wall around the area to separate the Jews from the ‘West Bank’ (Samaritans) Wow, how history repeats itself.
Most Jews of that day took a long walk around the area of the Samaritans so they would not have to deal with the problems. Jesus this time went through it and was with the people.
At the water well Jesus ask the Samaritan woman for water.
When I carried the cross through that area I spent the night at that very well! It was an awesome moment in my life.

The mission of Jesus was to give her ‘eternal life’. His sharing was loving yet probing.
Jesus led her from ‘water to living water!’
His conversation was one of the most revealing in the Gospels, declaring His mission and the Will of the Father.

Jesus broke through the ‘race’ barrier.

Jesus broke through the ‘religion’ barrier.

Jesus broke through the ‘gender’ barrier.

Jesus broke through the ‘moral’ barrier.

Jesus broke through the ‘cultural’ barrier.

Jesus and this woman spoke heart to heart and person to person.

Jesus showed His love for her.

In order for them to truly communicate she had to open her heart to Jesus. She had to get honest with Him. In the discussion about her husbands and the man she was now with she was playing a word game with Jesus.

“You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ “for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

Now, with her seeing her sin she could be led to ‘life’ and forgiveness.
But first she had to be led past the barrier of religion.
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Here the teaching of Jesus gets really deep and is needed for the modern day also.

Strong’s Definition 4352Â proskuneo (pros-koo-neh’-o);
from 4314 and a probable derivative of 2965 (meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand); to fawn or crouch to, i.e. (literally or figuratively) prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore): KJV– worship.

What is worship? See the definition above.
Today in many churches it is made to sound like worship is ‘singing or clapping or shouting or music.’
Perhaps someday I will do a column or a study on worship but this is about the woman and Jesus so I will not go off into the teaching but stick with the relationship.
Where are we to worship?

Jesus led this woman in worship at a well. Worship is like a dog liking his masters hand or lying flat on the floor before the Lord. Loving the Father, Loving Jesus, Loving the Holy Spirit, Worshiping God, the Lord of Host! Glory.

We can do this in church, in your home, on the road, serving food, caring for the hungry, being a friend to someone, lying in bed, driving.

You can worship God in many ways in many places.

Here we have in three verses the word ‘worship’ being used ‘Seven’ times! The greatest teaching on worship in the Bible was given to a woman!

“You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

How to worship’¦?

Jesus said “In Spirit and Truth’. That is ‘Spirit to spirit’.
Jesus said ‘God is Spirit’! You are a spirit and me too. Our spirit is to Worship God’s Spirit, this is the Glory of worship.

We are to worship in Truth.

What does this mean? Remember earlier Jesus had asked her to call her husband and she answered correctly but it was not the total or real truth. She did not lie but did not tell the truth.
In the Garden of Eden God walked and talked with Adam and Eve. Adam and his wife were naked in the Presence of God. Nothing was hidden until they sinned and tried to hide themselves. Humans have done this ever since. They try to hide from God.
Let’s not try to play word games with God nor try to hide ourselves from Him. Come before God naked in truth and pure in spirit. The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ).
“When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Jesus revealed to her what all of the religious leaders in Jerusalem and Israel were all seeking for.
The revelation came to a woman and a foreigner at that! Wow.

Then in her excitement she ‘Left her water pot’! He mind was no longer on what she had come for but she was now ‘Worshiping God’, she had met and now believed in the Messiah, Jesus the Christ.

She went into the city and spoke to the men. The other women probably would not even speak to such a sinful woman.

She was now an evangelist for Jesus and many came to believe in and follow Jesus.

This woman started a two day awaking in Sychar.

What will you let Jesus do in your life?

Pilgrim followers of Jesus,

Arthur and Denise Blessitt

Luke 18:1