The Woman at the Well

There’s a wonderful story of our Lord Jesus with a Samaritan woman that he met at the well

The Woman of Samaria – John chapter four

Verse 7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 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.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” 27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” 28 So the woman left her water pot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

I love the story of Jesus with the woman at the well. It’s another one of those wonderful occasions when God treats women with respect and as intellectual equals. It is a beautiful thing that he spoke with this Samaritan woman with whom all the Pharisees would have had nothing but contempt and shared the truth of his calling with her.

He spoke of living water of which she would never thirst and she said that if he gave that to her then she would have no reason to come all that way to draw water any longer. Then she spoke of her people worshipping at their mountain and the and the Jews saying Jerusalem was the only place where they should worship. In doing so she showed her understanding of the theology that Jesus was sharing with her. She was very astute. Then he spoke of his purpose and that the time would come and now is that men would worship in the Spirit and in truth.

Jesus asked her to get her husband and she said that she didn’t have a husband. He commended her honesty because she had had five husbands and the man she was now with was not her husband. Always he showed his Lord ship and yet always he encouraged and uplifted those he talked to and always the women he spoke with turned out to be the stars of the occasion and this was no exception.

The disciples arrived and true to the nature of Pharisees asked him why he was talking to the woman. While they were doing this she ran to the city and got the folk of her community saying quick come and see. Could this be the Christ? The folk came to see.

The Samaritans – Chapter Four

Verses 39 From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of His word; 42 and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Saviour of the world.”

Wow. What a wonderful result. Jesus converted that sweet Samaritan lady and because of her word that she testified, many believed. What’s more Jesus stayed with them two more days and they believed because they heard for themselves. While the Pharisees were planning how to put an end to the Messiah, Lord and Saviour that they should have been believing. Of course that is how we got to have our Saviour, Jesus Christ, crucified for our sins and that we might believe as the Samaritan woman did. What a wonderful loving God we have.

Key Points

1. Why did Jesus come by way of Samaria? No self respecting Jew would have gone near the place

• As on all of these occasions he came to find that which was lost.
• He came to prepare the way for the gospel to go wider than just Israel.

2. Why did he speak with the Samaritan woman? As good Jews we wouldn’t speak to a Samaritan as they are of a lesser social and spiritual standing than ourselves. We wouldn’t trouble ourselves with a woman at the best of times. Women had no rights and derived social standing through their husbands. So speak to a Samaritan woman. Really, why would you?

• The implied story is that through the Spirit Jesus knew of this woman. That she knew the law. That she had had a hard life and was now living out of covenant. He came today for her out of love and to set her back on the path.
• He came to reach this Samaritan community to start a work among them.
• They were Samaritan Jews who knew the law and were waiting for the Messiah and here he was.
• He came to share the illustration of the everlasting well pouring forth the living water.
• To us as Christians this might seem rather odd. To the Samaritan woman and these folk who knew the law. They would have known of the rock that Moses struck in the desert out of anger and that God caused water to pour forth from it. I understand the Israelite's carried the rock with them as they sojourned in the desert. Jesus called himself a rock and the water of living water pours out of him. To the Christian this calls to mind the river of Living Water pouring from the throne of the Lamb of God in Heaven (Revelation 21 1-2)

3. Why did he say what he did to the Samaritan woman?

• To show her that she may have fallen on hard times but she was a person of value.
• She had a good knowledge of the law and her history.
• She perceived that Jesus was a prophet. She was astute.
• She had righteous heart even though she was out of covenant at the moment.
• Because he loved this child of God and wanted to place her back on the road.
• To show her how God (He), viewed her. In love, part of a royal priesthood and possession belonging to God
• To show us (Christians), how he views us in the same way. In love, part of a royal priesthood and possession belonging to God. Regardless of how we see ourselves.

Finally just to round this up. In reaching this very special lady that Christians have been reading about for two thousand years. Jesus made and important disciple who immediately reached the people in her city. This caused them to seek God and to find out for themselves that Jesus was the Messiah and that men and women will worship in Spirit and in Truth. Something we are used too but that would have been a paradigm shift for people in following the Law.

So never underestimate the worth of a person based on what you perceive that you know about them. If the Spirit leads then follow his voice and in obedience approach that person. You never know what you may begin and how much of God’s blessing may be poured out through the work you were instrumental in beginning.

“An Emphasis on Keeping It Real”

As a Christian I have tended to avoid becoming a member of a Church throughout my life. I have always felt guilty about this because the apostle Paul says in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 “Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

 

I fall into the “forsaking assembling together as is the habit of some” part of that scripture. It has certainly been my way. I’ve always been a bit of a rough diamond from a Christian point of view and I have felt the need to be someone that I am not when attending Church. I must say that belonging to a television church is far easier than participating in a real church. It is far easier to fellowship beside a congregation than to fellowship in one. All of the relationship data that complicates the real life integration is missing from the online version. They don’t know me and I don’t know them.

 

The other dynamic with Christians is that because of the teachings in the bible about the world a lot of Christians become very narrow in their world view. So if someone in the church turns out to be guilty of a certain type of sin behaviour then the judgement and condemnation comes out. I know that most believers would say that’s not them or that’s not our church but if someone in the church turned out to be living in a homosexual relationship then what would be your response to that situation. Would you even care about the consequences to the person involved?

 

For this reason I have tended to protect myself and my family from the church environment. People tend to do the things that people do and churches just tend to trash them if that behaviour crosses the boundaries. Not all churches I know but in my experience the vast majority don’t look to embrace people that they view as living in sin or make any attempt to lovingly support them into a functioning relationship with Jesus Christ. Usually they drive them out and destroy that relationship to which the devil says a hearty “I told you so” to the person involved. Then you have a broken person baring the scars of a someone who has had a church prang and has never forgiven the church folk involved.

 

I guess that’s why Destiny has been so successful in New Zealand. You can attack Brian Tamaki on the basis of dining on the backs of his congregation but in general he lifts people out of poverty and lifts them into a relationship with Jesus Christ and he doesn’t care who they are or where they are from. The Salvation Army had a similar ministry with the folk of London’s East End in the Nineteenth Century. The Booth family decided to make the poor of the East End their people and worked tirelessly to bring them to salvation in Jesus Christ and to vastly improve their material circumstances by getting them into housing and bringing social services to them.

 

I notice with the Adventists in the United States that they have ministries like Cheri Peters “True Step Ministries” that work with addiction and poverty in America. A ministry made up of people whose backgrounds mirror the people that they are working with. It is very much conducted in a refreshingly honest way. No holds barred, warts and all ministry in much the same way as our saviour Jesus Christ conducted his ministry.

 

Luke chapter 19 verse 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

 

To me it’s about keeping it real. I may just continue to be the introvert I am and find other ways to get the gospel out there. I may just continue to worship beside Christians rather than among them. Unless of course I find a Church with a capital C where the congregation aren’t Pharisees and the real emphasis is on getting the truth out there to sinners who need salvation. Accepting them as they are with “An Emphasis on Keeping it Real.”

Blood Is Thicker Than Water

Matthew 10:35 “For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law”

I was thinking about this scripture in the light of the piece I wrote earlier on “Keeping It Real.” What was our Lord Jesus meaning when he spoke of turning people against their families. I know that basically we are looking at the idea of one person accepting Christ and another rejecting him and this resulting in a family split.

 

I think there is another implied deeper meaning that Jesus will become our brother and the Church our family. Now when I was talking about keeping it real this is what I’m talking about. I have many Christian friends and even Christian family members but if something is heavy on my heart my first stop is my wife and family and if it’s out of their scope then it’s a talk with my siblings and quite often a car ride to their place. My family are my closest supporters and blood is thicker than water.

 

I don’t think this is what Jesus intended. He meant the relationship we have with him and our brothers and sisters in Christ to be the closest relationships that we have. But answer honestly if that is the case with you and why do you think that is? Well I guess it comes down to trust. We don’t trust our fellow Christians to love us and to accept us the way that our family does.

 

Perhaps it comes down to what do you expect out of Church. It’s also a case of how honest are you with your fellow parishioners. Do they know you warts and all and accept you for who you are? Do you know them and accept them for who they are? Is Church just a means of fulfilling your social aspirations? It identifies with your religious affiliations and Christian values and achieves the spiritual aspirations you have for your children but to be accepted you pretend to be holy and consecrated by the Spirit in Christ Jesus. Just like everyone else you play the game. So when something real comes along and you need love and support you bypass Church because they just wouldn’t understand. Family here we come.

 

I dare say there are sins that each one of us have committed that on occasion make us blush with shame when we recollect them. The types of sins that even out families would struggle to accept even though they are so close to us that they know very well what those sins might be. There is the point that I am making. They know and yet although they might yearn to know what madness would tempt us to do such wicked things. They love us still! As does God!

 

I have recently watched the film Polycarp about a second century Christian Bishop in the city of Smyrna. What struck me about the film was that Christians under persecution unto death are a family of brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Because they were a broken up fellowship of believers from people dispersed around the Roman Empire. They only had their Christian brethren to rely on and to give love, understanding and support. They were a family of believers in Jesus Christ.

 

This is what a church should be in our time as well. It should not be a social hierarchy where we all pretend to be wonderful, lovable and acceptable people, when we are a congregation of saved sinners. There are many in this time who don’t have a family and are fortunate to have one person who cares about them in the whole world even in New Zealand. Our churches need to drop the pretense of religion and be toward those in need as our precious Saviour, Jesus Christ. Standing arms outstretched to embrace the lost which he has found and those who have need of Him.

 

For we are in essence a family of believers and as the apostle Peter put it in First Peter chapter two verse nine: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light...”

 

And as the apostle Paul said in Hebrews chapter twelve verse one: “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..”

 

We don’t need to be all self righteous and pious but rather to behave toward each other in honesty and humility and with dignity and love. Let us hear each other out with patience and understanding as brothers and sisters in the faith that is Christianity. In the Spirit and in Christ Jesus in encouragement and uplifting of each other. Let that be our humble prayer in Jesus name.

 

Reference List

 

All scriptures reproduced from Bible Gateway http://www.biblegateway.com and Biblehub http://www.biblehub.com NIV and NASB versions

Trough the Looking Glass

How we view life events depends very much on the lenses we look at life through. For instance the New Zealanders although traditionally having a centre right wing perspective on the economy but from a social standpoint are also particularly liberal toward social issues in our society. This has come from a basis of work hard and you will succeed attitude that followed WWII when there was considerable opportunity to have access to the materials of wealth creation and to move through the different schemas of social class.

 

In other words in the Western World there developed a large and affluent middle class that had access to owning their own houses, businesses and education for their children but as we have moved through to the close of the twentieth century and into the twenty first century this situation has changed radically. In the last thirty years the middle class has disintegrated mainly as a result of Neoliberal economic policies which have effectively transferred wealth to the top rung of our society and removed the middle class almost entirely.

 

The result is especially visible in the United States where a large but mostly disenfranchised group of mainly conservative Americans voted for President Donald Trump. The news media and political polling institutions were taken completely unaware by this conservative group of new poor people actually voting in the election and bringing Trump to power in a landslide. At the time there were reported to be forty nine million Americans on food stamps and forty seven million who were of working age but not in paid employment and not registered as unemployed, so not seeking a job. One assumes this situation was the new normal as a result of the transfer to China of much of the United States industrial capacity in the early years of this century.

 

In New Zealand we have a similar large social group who are not seeking work but who are mainly on a benefit of some kind. Despite social welfare a significant number of people are slipping through the system and becoming homeless and desperately poor. Addiction is becoming an increasingly influential factor in the social decline of people in this group. Obviously the daily realities of a person’s life will temper the way they view society and its inequalities. It wouldn’t surprise if left wing policies like the redistribution of wealth from the wealthy to the poor would be attractive to people in that situation.

 

Socialism is political philosophy that describes a large number of lenses that can explain how people view society, politics and life. For instance, those who are of a right wing leaning and who are independently wealthy or have had a successful business or career and have amassed some assets like a home and vehicles, or a second home, tend to view life through the capitalist lens or from a Neoliberal perspective. The fascist, social conservative and Christian lenses would fit on this side of the continuum as well. On this side of politics they might see relatively few people as being qualified to hold the reigns of power and as being able to govern. They feel that some should be leaders and most should be content with the working life.

 

Those of a left wing leaning often look at life through the secular lenses. These might include socialism, communism, LGBTQ+, humanism, evolution, feminism and liberalism. People on this side of the continuum see caring for your fellow man as important and the redistribution of wealth as a goal. Personal rights are also important to this group. They are competitive though and those who oppose their philosophies could well be seen by them as detrimental to society. They might argue that morality and religion are outmoded concepts holding mankind back from achieving his ultimate destiny. Therefore those who hold to outmoded ideals should be firmly dissuaded from pursuing them for the good of all mankind. It could be said that those who support conservative policies, who are right wing in their thinking, anti-vaccination or don’t believe in the conservation of native species or that man made climate change is a real thing could be seen by this group as a danger to society. These folk call themselves democrats and progressive liberals but are increasingly about controlling the dominant discourse in our time. Hate speech and curbing freedom of speech have become the focus of the far left agenda.

 

Increasingly the philosophy of the left is embedding the teachings of eastern mysticism into the secular humanist model. Interfaith mysticism which is not so much the new kid on the block as the return of the old system of spiritual darkness which has even invaded Christianity. New Age Mysticism which includes Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism has combined with the martial arts, yoga and so called eastern wisdom and is leading the whole world toward darkness and the devil. It is being touted as enlightenment when it is really a process of personal enslavement to self worship and Satan. This philosophy is a complex set of lenses with which to view the world and yet come out with the same lies that caused Adam and Eve to doubt Jehovah and enter into disobedience leading to eternal separation from God. It is similar to the worship of pagan idols that invaded Judaism in the time of the Kings of Israel. It is a blight on humanity.

 

Central to this way of thinking is Monism which holds the God is one with the Universe. They are the same thing. Hence in New Age mysticism the existence of the force is put forward as an energy field that links every living thing with the Universe. To know enlightenment is to grow in knowledge and wisdom from within and to increase the experience of unity within the force that binds all living things together. Spiritual darkness at its zenith and Self is God.

Dualism expands upon monism by adding opposing elements. In the Star Wars saga we see this concept brought forth in the light side and the dark side of the force. In Taoism we have yin and yang as the opposing force bringing balance to Universe. In Christianity we have Jehovah and Satan this is the real battle. This type of thinking pervades the pagan religions that oppose Jehovah in their various modern guises.

 

If we include all of this mystical thinking in secular living then we quickly become stuck fast in legalism. This is not the first time that Satan has used this approach to enslave people. Cuneiform cylinders have been found from the days of ancient Babylon that proscribe the jobs of workmen in the empire of that time. These things get right down to the nuts and bolts of skills required, standards expected, hours involved and pay scales offered. They represent a legislation by the government over the people groups of Babylon.

So when we see the United Nations put pressure on governments to give rights and education to secular groups and the people as a whole. When they say these rights give legal freedoms to the groups identified and when the rights enshrine that lens in law saying that a person who is of a certain race or religion or, sexual preference has a right to certain freedoms. We have to ask one pertinent question. Does the law ever set anyone free?

 

If the freedom legislated leads a person to break God’s law is that setting the person free? If the freedom states that other people must treat you in a certain way is that going to bring a change of heart in the person who is an oppressor. Or is this merely the sophistry of the Wiley Old Serpent that is Satan the Devil touting that his laws will bring you freedom from the laws of God when he is just bringing you enslavement and death. Just following the same model he used on Adam and Eve and has used to mislead foolish men throughout history. How many have perished by listening to his lies and how many have met death at the hands of those led to commit heinous crimes they believed were justified because of his lies.

 

It all comes down to how you look at things. A thief can justify his thievery if in his mind he was poor and had no choice. A husband can justify adultery if he has a perceived grievance with his wife that to his mind makes his actions acceptable to him. The devil has spent the whole of human history talking to people and then putting points of view that change the way they view important issues. For instance, “Why should I care about the poor and less fortunate than myself? Haven’t I gotten to be wealthy but my own talents and hard work? Satan has found ways to justify all manner of wickedness and has even developed a system of philosophy that educates men in how to view and understand the actions of their fellow men. Thus he justifies wars and persecution of all those whose thoughts contradict the philosophies of his followers.

 

Romans chapter 7 makes this point starting at verse 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

 

You see Satan seeks to develop a world full of the most prescriptive laws to control every human citizen to the intent of their thoughts. He shares a philosophy which teaches it’s followers how to evaluate and judge their fellow citizens by looking through lenses at each other. But God who wrote the Laws of Righteousness has given His only Son Jesus Christ to die for us and as the scripture above says “In the body of Christ we are able to die to the law that we might bear fruit for God. Now released from the law, no longer bound, serving in the newness of the Spirit.”

 

Christ Jesus fulfills the law and in him we are set free from the law, in that in the Spirit we can overcome the law and finally be the men and women the Jehovah envisioned before we were ever born.

 

Alter Call

 

Friends I want you to know that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever believes on him shall not perish but inherit eternal life. You need to understand that you are not alone in needing his forgiveness. Romans 3:10 “There is none righteous, not even one.” Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So won’t you believe on him that your sins may be forgiven and that you may receive the free gift of God which is eternal life Christ Jesus our Lord?

 

Reference List

 

All Scriptures Reproduced from BibleGateway.com http://www.biblegateway.com