Why is everyone so shocked?
We enter Chapter four with Christ starting His trip
to Galilee, but He wanted to needed to go through Samaria. Why does John make this point that He had to
go through Samaria, because this even though it was the shorter path by three
days was not one the Jews would take.
The reason being is that they felt the Samaritans were not worthy of
them to even look upon. They looked down
on them, and detested their very existent.
That being the case the Jews would take an extra three days to get the
Galilee. This also explains the shock of the women at
the well when Christ talked to her and the shock of the His disciples when they
saw Him talking with her. This leaves
us with the question, why did Christ go through Samaria to just talk to women,
not just any women but one who had been rejected by her own community. We know she was rejected because she was at
the well by herself and it was around noon.
Normally the women would go in the morning or early evening when it was
cooler, and together for safety along with catching up with one another.
Christ wanted to show that He had come for everyone,
not just for the Jews, the rich, or the priest.
No He came so all may come to know the Love of God. He could have gone to the temple and debated
with the religious leaders of the time, and gone and handpicked the
brightest of all the Jews to be His
disciples when He became a rabbi. But
instead He chose those that had been overlooked, and rejected by society, and
He knew who was speaking to at the well that day. How often do we ourselves over look, ignore
those that we feel do not deserve our time.
How often instead of sharing Gods love do we look at someone and say
“how could someone like that even deserve to be saved?” That someone is the women at the well. She was the one God chose to work through in
reaching the Samaritans with His mighty life changing love.
Living Water and true worship:
Christ offers the women water that will quench her thirst;
she asks him how do you plan on getting me this water you have no rope or
bucket. But the type of thirst Christ
was speaking of was that of one’s soul.
People are looking for peace in their lives, I’m not talking about world
peace but peace in their souls. Many go
searching for it and find false religion believing that how they act and what
they do will create a karma in their lives, that if they do good things good
things will come their way. This just
isn’t true. The way to real peace in our
lives comes through Christ accepting His love and giving our lives to him. Paul in Romans 6:15-23 tells us we have a
choice to come and give our lives to God to no longer live our lives in
sin. We gain peace by giving our lives
to God, that doesn’t mean that the tough times hear on earth, go away, that our
past is no longer going haunt us. It
means that we have a new Master in God and that our hope is in heaven not on
earth.
She asks Christ about Worshiping God, where is the
correct place to worship she ask? His answer is “23 But the time is coming and is
already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in
truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him
must worship in spirit and in truth.”(John 4:23-24) What is Christ talking here He is saying that
true worship isn’t about where the building is located our looks like it is
from the heart of those worshipping. One
commentator says “Now those who believe on the Lord Jesus can worship God at
any time and in any place. True worship means that a believer enters the
presence of God by faith and their praises and worships Him. His body
may be in a den, prison, or field, but his spirit can draw near to God in the
heavenly sanctuary by faith. Jesus announced to the woman that from now on
worship of the Father would be in
spirit and truth. The Jewish people had reduced worship to outward forms
and ceremonies. They thought that by religiously adhering to the letter of the
law, and going through certain rituals, they were worshiping the Father. But
theirs was not a worship of the spirit. It was outward, not inward. Their
bodies might be bowed down on the ground but their hearts were not right before
God. Perhaps they were oppressing the poor, or using deceitful business
methods. [1]
But
why this woman and not someone in better standing?
The
question remains why did Christ choose to sit and talk with this woman, after
all He is God, He could choose whomever He wants to sit and talk to. But He chose her, I believe for two reasons,
one He loved her just like he loves us all, He wants us all to come to Him and
talk to Him and know that it is His love and sacrifice that sits us free from
sin. The other is that it is through her
testimony that many come to know who Christ is, She went back into town and
told others about who He was, they then went and asked Him to come and stay to
teach them. God uses the people that
society has given up on, He takes them shows them how much He loves them. We are to the same we are to go show the love
of God to all we meet, we are to go and tell others about who God is. We cannot just keep it to ourselves we must
be obedient and let other know as well.
[1]MacDonald,
W. 1997, c1995. Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments (Jn
4:23). Thomas Nelson: Nashville
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