Smack Down [part 3]; The Price of Getting it Wrong ...

How you do something is nearly as important as what you do.  Imagine the chaos that would reign in the ring if there were truly no rules, no holes barred.  If suddenly a tightly choreographed ballet of wrestler-meets-wrestler became a fully unscripted, unrehearsed free-for-all of may the better, stronger, and more determined man win.  Imagine the shock and surprise.  Imagine the real injuries that would come from doing for real, what up till now was only part of that tightly choreographed ballet.  People would get hurt.  Seriously hurt.  And all of the sudden it is not fun anymore.  Not fun to do surely, but also, not fun to watch.  It is easy to watch a melee we know in our hearts is tightly controlled.  But to watch carnage is not what anyone truly tunes in for.  For the audience, no one wants to see real harm, real damage.  It makes it hard to sit still and just watch it.  You want to get up, you want to do something, you want to make it stop.  And as God watches this earth.  He knows it is not choreographed.  The war for mankind is very real.  And the damage is very real, pain is very real.  And He just wants it to stop.  But He cannot make us listen, or instead of humanity, He would have only created biological robots.  Instead man must choose his fate.

But what happens when we choose wrong?  Oh sure, it is easy for the Christian believer to sit back in the easy chair and just think, once you choose Jesus, you’re done.  And frankly that is sort of true.  The problem is that we package Jesus, with a whole list of doctrines that are supposed to be teachings of how to connect with Jesus better.  Sometimes those doctrines do a great and wonderful work.  And sometimes we just get it wrong.  We wind up teaching something that not only does not bring us closer to Jesus, it takes us farther away, pointing us in the wrong direction entirely.  That is not just an oh-well-moment.  That is more like a literal oh-my-God moment.  Turning away from Jesus is a sure-fire way of finding carnage that you are at the center of.  It is removing the rules of protection, and entering the ring outgunned only to find your opponent brought a chain-saw he already has running and completely intends to use … on you.  Doctrines that distract put us in this position.  Fanaticism of nearly every kind can do the same thing too.  And the carnage is not pretty, and it really hurts.

So what does God do?  He tries to warn us.  He sends us His messengers (imperfect as they may be) to warn us, and try to keep us away from the carnage.  And I am not talking about avoiding some after life hell everybody bemoans.  I am talking about avoiding real painful carnage in this life, in the here and now, that any given demon is all to happy to bring your way.  He sends us His people to try to keep us of group mind, and more importantly of a group heart, where love might help us avoid, what otherwise looks attractive.  God has written His love letter in the form of His word (the Bible).  In this book of love, He tries to tell us the story of how we got it wrong to start, and He has been working every day since to help us get back to what “right” looks like.  We can read it.  And through the lens of the life of Christ, where Jesus demonstrates every day what love looks like, we can understand better what His love letter might mean.  But for those of us given to extremes, it is easy to misinterpret that love letter to mean some predefined agenda.  We package up those thoughts and ideas, and brand them a doctrine.  Then we force feed everyone else the doctrine that might save them or get them lost, based on how they respond.  What started as a love letter degenerates into hate mail; all by altering the perspective of the reader to fit their own agenda instead of what He originally meant.

This danger is not new.  It did not start with us.  But it has a horrific tendency to be continued by us, in ways we may have become numb to.  Sometimes when we do become numb, it takes a spiritual smack-down by Jesus to wake us up, and begin to see the error of our ways.  To make us see, we got it wrong.  And ultimately to help us change course before the carnage heads our way (chainsaw rumbling in the distance).  Matthew continues the object lesson of Jesus, of our price for getting it wrong in chapter 23 of his gospel to the Hebrews.  He picks up with Jesus talking in verse 23 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. [verse 24] Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.”  Yikes.  The first woe issued here is about fanaticism in the church.

Our Pharisee forefathers knew the obligation of paying tithes back to God.  They did not see the love in it, because they did not use love as the lens through which to read God’s love letter.  So lacking love, they read only the obligation of paying tithes.  Apparently God was only another tax master.  And while God did not have a readily apparent tax agent to collect His due.  There was a history of monstrous things happening to Israel when their sins got bad.  So better to avoid captivity by paying God off with what he required.  10% of the increase is tithe.  We generally hold that to be 10% of our incomes from jobs.  So did they.  But they took the matter a step further.  The word “increase” could apply to flocks and sheep.  So why not to spices in the spice rack.  Therefore in an effort to be fully compliant (again note the lack of love), they actually taxed themselves 10% on literally anything that went into the kitchen.  Even the smallest things we would never even consider.  Straining at the gnat.

It is like going to a picnic to eat.  And to avoid eating unclean things, you carefully sift your pepper, to insure not a single gnat has died and fallen into the pile or container.  And while you meticulously sift each grain of pepper with your left hand, you hold a camel burger in your right hand eagerly munching away.  While perhaps the notion of not eating a dead bug accidentally is OK (extreme given the venue, and low likelihood it is even a risk, but OK); eating camel burgers is strictly prohibited, and horrible tasting as well (just a guess, you don’t see many camel-burger stands going up everywhere for 2 thousand years).  Without love as the driving motive, Pharisees had only corrupt and selfish judgments.  They handed out rulings and decisions that favored themselves, no matter who else it cost.  Sound familiar?  We vote for ideas that will benefit us, even if others must pay for what benefits us.  Even if those who pay can least afford to.  And we call this progressive, or disruptive thinking.  Its not.  Its simply walking where our Pharisee forefathers once walked, for the same reasons they did.

The disease of extremes must continue to be called out.  Jesus continues in verse 25 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. [verse 26] Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.”  Apparently a strange custom had developed so long ago, of washing the outsides (or bottoms if you prefer) of plates and cups.  But leaving the insides or tops alone.  I guess the idea would be to let the crumbs of the last meal, help flavor the current one.  While this might work once, or maybe even twice, over time it is not flavor that lasts, but mold that begins to grow.  It is then a “new” flavor that infects the new food you intend to eat from the old that for whatever reason you keep neglecting to clean.  And mold flavor brings with it, you guessed it, carnage.

So with a dishwasher in every home (we call ours “me”).  Perhaps we cannot relate to a dirty plate analogy.  But how about a more personal one.  What is the dress attire requirements at your church for worship services?  It used to be “the best we had to offer”.  Over time that became a three-piece-suit.  That evolved into a jacket, lose the vest, keep the tie.  Then perhaps it was lose the tie.  Then for the bold, it might become lose the jacket.  But wear a pair of cargo shorts and a tommy Bahama look alike short sleaved shirt, with tennis shoes, and see what happens.  I know (it is how I go to services now).  And just so you know, my decision was not one of disrespect.  Rather, I dress like I do, every other day of the week.  I would like to believe that I dress to be able to help those in need when I encounter them.  And as my disabilities make it very hard to dress any more formal than this, this is the least pain in getting presentable.  But does anyone bother to ask me about that?  Does anyone look past the cane with the four feet, and reason perhaps that had something to do with it?  Not where I go.  My church family is surprising accepting of me (that is, no one has had the nerve to say a single negative word).  But I expected it, and still do.  Cause how I package the outside of the plate, is still something most church goers pay more attention to, than what is on the inside.  And forget me, this is a phenomenon that has infected our sanctuaries for years, from our ancient roots right up to this day.  We focus on the packaging, and turn a blind eye to the insides, and how we love.

Jesus continues in verse 27 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. [verse 28] Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”  It is almost as if Jesus peered into any traditional church body in America.  Or perhaps into any executive office suite where serious money is made.  Looking the part, is a distinct part of our culture, in and out of the church.  We worry about our packaging, believing it says something about who we are.  It does.  It says we worry about our packaging, perhaps more than being fit for practical service.  And perhaps our assemblies are more inwardly facing, where we feed each other, you know, the already fat sheep; instead of assembling out of our normal comforts and going where the need is, to meet it.  Not because we have to, but because we are driven to, because we just cannot sit still and watch others in carnage for one more minute.

Service is rarely “pretty”.  When I do the dishes in my house, I look anything but pretty.  I struggle to stand, to balance, to get the job done right.  I am hunched over leaning on the sink to steady me.  And yes, we have an automatic dishwasher so why do I bother.  (Technically it is full of hoarded containers for some reason I am not allowed to throw out.)  But beyond the technicalities if I am able to do the dishes, my wife who works hard in her hospital trying to help patients facing life and death dilemmas get better or at least feel better, won’t have to come home to a dirty kitchen, and find even more work to do.  I am no saint.  Nor am I clean freak.  I make more than my share of mess as I am sure every husband does, that my wife without a word comes behind me and cleans.  We do what we can for each other, because we are afforded the opportunity to.  It is not a contest, it is a pleasure, the pleasure of trying to ease each other’s burden, even if only a little.  And what it leads to ultimately is time, more time we can spend together, which frankly is worth more than any place where serious money is made, or where euphoria over spiritual repetitions are recited ad nauseum.  We probably don’t look too pretty in our “house clothes”.  But as I said service is rarely ever pretty, at least on the outside.  But what I see when I look at her is a fire inside that is immune to age, health, or inability – and to me that is beautiful no matter whether it comes dressed in scrubs, 15-year-old house shorts, or a negligee from Vickie’s.

It is time for us all to see the beauty of service to others.  Not just to our families, but to any who have need.  Not for brownie points, or to earn heavenly demerits, but because the passion to sit still while carnage is ever present is just something we can no longer abide.  It is this passion that comes from transformation, and it is available without measure to any who seek it, in the form of submission to Jesus Christ.  My Pharisee forefathers refused to submit.  They preferred extremes of law, to extremes of love.  And they like we, cover the ears so as not to hear, even as God sent His messengers (imperfect as all of us are) to invite them back to love.  Jesus continues in verse 29 saying … “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, [verse 30] And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. [verse 31] Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. [verse 32] Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. [verse 33] Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”

Smack down.  To me.  To my generation.  Woe to us.  For we say … “if we had been in the days of Jesus, we would not have been partakers with them in His blood”.  And in our next breath, we deny His love, rely upon ourselves, and fail miserably.  Then we propagate our doctrine of self-reliance to our children, and our sphere of witness, to no effect.  We teach action without motive.  Because self-reliance may control action, but has no effect on motive.  So we try to act our way into heaven, fooling no one.  It will be our own damnation we cannot escape when by grace we walk His golden streets.  To know the time we wasted, and lost.  To see the lives we could have showed just a little more love to, but failed and lost the opportunity, sometimes forever.  It will be our own knowledge of perfect love that will perfectly condemn who we are today in our own eyes then.  That damnation is our inescapable fate, even on golden streets.  Unless we can begin our journey of submission to Jesus now, in the here and the now.  Only then can our feet move from well-trodden paths of failure, into the green grass of His direction.

Jesus calls out to them and us in verse 34 saying … “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: [verse 35] That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. [verse 36] Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.”  I am confused, is He talking to them, or is He talking to me.  When I ignore the prophets in His word.  When I deny the power of His gospel, by stubbornly holding to the image in the mirror to somehow find perfection when history would demonstrate this is impossible.  When my denial is as great as theirs, do I also share their fate, and the blood of those slain to try to recall me to the Feet of Love itself?

Listen to the ache in the voice of Jesus who so longs to love us, when still we reject Him.  Jesus continues in verse 37 saying … “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”  He is not just speaking to those long gone from the earth.  He is still speaking straight to me, and to you.  How He longs to gather us under His wings.  But we are too evolved for that.  We are modern, and educated, and well to do.  We have no need of a protector, let alone of a savior.  We intend to do that work ourselves, strengthened by our doctrines, and certain in their interpretation, with no room for error or mistake.  And still Jerusalem would not.  Not the city.  But us the group of believers who claim His name, yet know not His real power to change.  And so it comes, the price of getting it wrong.  The price of our arrogance, and pride.  The price of our hypocrisy and refusal to submit.  The self-imposed hell of separation from His Love He so longs to give.

Jesus writes the epitaph picking up in verse 38 saying … “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. [verse 39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  The smack down ends.  There is no point to more, if the message will never penetrate the person’s ear, because they refuse to let it.  Is this where our lineage to our Pharisee forefathers makes a break from their path of self-reliance?  Or do we too follow along blindly clinging to our doctrines, our hypocrisy, and our complete lack of passion for others on any level.  This is where I must rage against my heritage.  I wish to hear His words, open my ears, and my heart, and become someone other than who I would make of me.  There comes a point where forgiveness is just not enough.  Where a real change in behavior from a real change in motive is the goal we live for.  Forgiveness gets us started but it is not the end of the road, it is only the beginning.  A life past His transformation is the only thing we should seek with singular purpose.  To let Him remake how we think, how we love, and why we do what we do.  And Jesus will.  He does this to every willing seeker.  No matter your past, or your present, your future can still be something so much better.  It is worth more than anything.  Don’t ever let it go.  Let this smack-down be the last one we ever need …

 

Book of Signs - Samaritans (witness number six) ...

Those people.  Those folks who obviously do not have the truth, refuse to accept the light, choose to live in darkness.  You know the types, living fast and loose, ignoring all the rules, playing by their own ideas.  They claim to know the Lord, but really, how could they?  After all, they refuse to accept our doctrines of truth, therefore – they remain “those people”.  So am I referring to Catholics, or Baptists, or Adventists; perhaps it depends on who you are, and who “they” are.   For the Jews, “those people” referred to the Samaritans.  The historical tribes of Benjamin and Judah split with their other ten brothers just past the reign of Solomon many years earlier.  The northern kingdom of ten tribes had a dilemma, in that temple worship was conducted in Jerusalem.  This required them all to travel down there, and make southern kingdom priests fat with tithes and offerings; so one of the northern leaders decided to erect an “alternate” worship location.  Obviously it did not contain the Ark of the Covenant, or for that matter any other historically valuable artifacts of the temple worship system, but it was a place the northern tribes could gather without having to go to Jerusalem in the south to worship.

Of course the net result of trying to provide a “human” based alternative to the ideas that God had blessed, was inevitably decay.  It was not long before northern tribes were engaging in worship that had nothing to do with the God of Israel, and everything to do with the gods of sex.  Promiscuity, then and now, has been the downfall of many a believer.  The surrounding nations had seemingly awesome sexual practices wrapped up in their own ideas about worship.  They often included orgies, and sanctioned prostitution.  Going to “confess” in one of their temples usually meant paying the priest to have some “quality” time with the temple prostitutes.  And minus birth control, this often resulted in babies, many, many, babies.  Well, being the proprietor of a “worship” system that sells women to men, you don’t need too many boy babies, but you do keep the new crop of girl babies because they can grow up and become part of the revenue stream.  So, what to do with the boy babies?  Sacrifice to the gods of course, toss them in the fires of Molech, or Baal, or pick your fertility god that demands blood for his favor.  And so, the northern tribes participated in the sexual promiscuity of the surrounding nations, and did nothing when the fruits of their encounters were tossed into the fires, or turned into a new generation of sex slaves.  Isn’t life outside of God’s plans just grand?  Not for the kids I would guess.  And when life reached this point of depravity, God could just not take it anymore, and Israel would be invaded by a foreign nation.

Only after Israel repented, did the invasion cease.  But it would not be long before, the lure of unlimited sex, replaced the memory of a foreign invasion, and the cycle would begin all over again.  Most every historically wicked king, came from the northern tribes.  Ahab and his queen Jezebel came from this place.  So for the Jews in the south, who by the way, were not exactly squeaky clean themselves, when it came to sexual promiscuity, or walking away from the practices of God; the people of the north became known collectively as Samaritans.  Samaritans were looked down upon.  Samaritans were to be avoided at all costs.  An upstanding Jew does not want to find himself having anything to do with “those people”.  Samaritans had chosen to walk away from the light.  Samaritans had chosen to blend themselves with the surrounding nations, thus polluting the bloodlines of Abraham.  Samaritans were blatant about it.  Samaritans were “lesser” Jews, and generally “lesser” people.  It was against this historical and social context, that Christ travels directly in to the territory of the Samaritans.

What on earth could He have been thinking?  His disciples were not priests or leaders, but they were not ignorant of what the appearance of traveling into Samaria on purpose would look like for their leader.  They followed Christ where He went.  Perhaps if He was traveling to Samaria, it was to give “those people” the long awaited judgment for the wickedness of their past.  Samaritans had it coming after all.  Perhaps before we chase out the Romans, we start with purifying those errant, stubborn, stiff necked wicked workers we know to be Samaritans.  So if this was to be Jesus’ first trip to clean out the wickedness of the Samaritans, they would gladly go along and watch “those people” get what’s coming to them. 

Christ found himself by a well that Jacob dug a long time ago (no small feat in times past).  The discovery of water in a generally arid land is a pretty big deal.  How do you know where to look?  How do you know that the hole your digging would not just lead to more dirt?  So when Jacob is blessed to find water, he changes the economy of the entire area.  With water comes life.  With water comes commerce and trade, and income.  With water nearby, a city or community can begin.  So it was where Jesus had found himself.  His disciples were sent into the nearby city to purchase meat, as they were all hungry and tired from their journey there.  I’m certain they were not too happy to have to go “deal” with the Samaritans to buy food.  But better they should do it, than see their precious Master, tarnished by an encounter with “those people”.  And off they went.

But as Jesus is sitting there, a local Samaritan woman approaches the well to draw water.  At this time in history, women usually went to the well in groups, for social as well as practical purposes.  You are less likely to be hassled or robbed in a group, and it’s a good chance to catch up on all the local gossip.  But this woman came alone, likely because of “who” she was.  Even within “those people”, the town slut, was to be avoided.  Perhaps she knew better than to hang out with the other women that might see her as a threat.  Perhaps she just ran out of water that day, and needed more.  No matter the reason, she went to find water.  For with water, life is possible.

In the Gospel of John chapter 4 and verse 7 Jesus says to her … “Give me to drink.”  What!?  Really?!  A Jew is going to ask for water from a Samaritan woman, and inevitably drink from the same cup she uses.  This is unheard of.  “Those people” know what to expect from the Jews.  They know who they are.  And they know from personal experience, no self-respecting Jew, has anything to do with them if it can be avoided at all costs.  But here is Jesus with no bucket, and no cup, asking water from a Samaritan woman, of her.  In verse 9 she gets over her surprise and states the obvious … “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”  What’s the matter Jesus, did you forget the rules?  You guys don’t ask anything of us.  You should know that, we do.

Jesus responds in verse 10 … “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”  Here Jesus says something often overlooked, he prompts her that if she knew “the gift of God”.  The gift of God is salvation from WHO we are.  It is not the Samaritan in her, Jesus wishes to change.  It is the bondage to sin He wishes to free her from.  The gift of God is freedom from evil.  That gift is on the table for this woman who stands before Him.  Next He eludes to the idea, that “who” He is, is someone she would be thrilled to encounter.  For Christ has something for her, that no other man could ever offer her; Christ is offering her “living water”.  With water comes life.  Christ is offering her a renewal from within.  He is offering her a life free from the slavery of evil, and in its place a well spring of “living water” that will not run dry, expire, or go away.  It is a guarantee of salvation, from “who” she is, not because of being a Samaritan, but because of being bound to sin, and self-service.

In verse 11 she replies … “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? [verse 12] Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?”  She does not understand what He is referring to, and again is pointing out the obvious.  You have nothing to draw with, and it is a miracle to find water anywhere out here.  Could it be, you are able to do miracles, greater than finding a well in a desert?  Jesus tries again in verse 13 saying … “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: [verse 14] But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”  Again he puts freedom from evil on the table for this woman, a gift of Salvation that will see her fully and finally saved from herself.

Again, she misses the point, but the idea that she would never have to come to this well again and draw water sounds appealing.  At least then, she does not have deal with the other town’s women.  She does not have to be the butt of their jokes, or try to keep her private social life hidden from view.  After all, if one is to avoid a public stoning, one must be delicate and secretive about one’s indiscretions.  So in verse 15 she responds … “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”  Jesus responds to her again in a way she does not expect.  In verse 16 He says … “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.”  The gift of salvation is not exclusively just for you either.  Instead bring those who you love, your family, those you care about, and let’s have everyone enjoy what I am offering.  Here is Jesus asking not only to deal with her, and frankly to give her a gift, for no apparent reason.  Now here is Jesus inviting her to bring her family here and He will share this gift with everyone.  Here is a Jew actually asking to deal with even more Samaritans.  This is truly a unique encounter.  But, technically she has no husband at the moment, so …

In verse 17 she states the facts … “I have no husband.”  No need to discuss my past, and in my present, things are not where they should be, so she will keep this plain and simple.  Jesus replies … “Thou hast well said, I have no husband: [verse 18] For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.”  Busted!  Despite the fact that I have never met this man, he knows my entire history.  He knows things I have kept hidden from everyone.  He knows things frankly there is no way He could know, without divine intervention.  Therefore He must be a prophet.  It has been a long while since there was a prophet in Israel.  It has been a long while since there was someone who spoke for God, and relayed the messages of truth God needed to tell the people.  Since she has obviously found one, let’s get right down to the most divisive question of the day, the one that has separated Jews from Samaritans from the beginning.

In verse 20 she asks … “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”  Upon this question, hangs the entire basis of separation from the Jews from her perspective.  The sexual promiscuity is something both have been guilty of in the past, but the fundamental religious differences are enough to keep one group of believers referring to another group of believers as “those people” for eternity.  How poignant that in the Christian world of today, we are no better than our Jewish spiritual forefathers.  Because one group of believers who accept the salvation of Jesus Christ does not precisely agree with every other doctrine we hold sacred, each group of believers sees the other as “those people”.  Each Christian denomination looks upon its contemporaries as spiritual Samaritans.  Our doctrines have divided us, no less than this single question divided Jew from Samaritan.  She simply wants to know from God through the mouth of this “prophet”, who is really right.

In verse 21 Jesus answers her … “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.”  Heresy!  Had the Jewish leaders been standing nearby they would have likely stoned Jesus on the spot.  How on earth could Jesus deny that Jerusalem was “the” place to worship God?  The woman had to have been completely surprised by this answer, as Jesus did not state the historical Jewish position, nor did He concur with her forefathers.  In effect, Jesus was saying, both groups had it wrong, and that soon something completely different was going to take place.  Were Jesus here today, I wonder if His answers to our doctrinal differences would be any different – you both have it wrong.  Christ was trying to tell this woman that the divisions between the Samaritans and Jews over the location of worship were meaningless.  The “where” is less important than either of them think.  The “who” matters more.

In verse 22 Jesus goes on to debunk the claims of her forefathers … “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. [verse 23] But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: …”  Jesus is saying the claims of her forefathers had no basis in reality.  The Jews knew what they worshipped for their system of worship pointed forward to salvation.  But that is not the point.  The real meat and potatoes is in verse 23, the hour is coming, and frankly is here, when “true” worshippers shall worship in spirit and in truth.  What the Jews had missed was true worship.  Doing it in the right place, was not as important as doing it in right way.  Not just through the forms and rituals, but in the hearts and minds.  This was the key to true worship that Jesus was trying to share with both Jew and Samaritan.

Jesus continues … “for the Father seeketh such to worship him. [verse 24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”  It is the inside that counts.  It is the heart and the mind, the will and the emotion, the desire, this is where real worship comes from.  It comes from a renewed life, from a life that has been set free from the pain and bondage of evil.  This is what the Father is longing to give to the world, and what results in true worship.  How can we worship a God, who we have allowed to do NOTHING for us?  Our gratitude for temporal blessings is pale and empty.  It is not temporal blessings alone that God is longing to bestow on us, He is longing to show us what real freedom is like.  He is longing to re-create the core of who we are, changing and restoring our desires to be what they should be, instead of what we have made of them.  He longs to break our chains to self and the pain that comes from serving self, and show us the freedom of what it really means to truly love someone else.  It is this freedom that makes us grateful.  Our wealth, our health, our families are nothing next the freedom God offers to us from within.  Only then can we truly appreciate how much we love our families, how great it is to be healthy, what a wonderful opportunity our wealth allows us to share with those in need.  Before we are made free, we turn all these blessings inward, and treat God like a Santa-Clause, instead of a liberator.  Jesus cuts through the non-sense of a form of religion and zeroes in on the heart.

At this point the Holy Spirit has now grasped hold of the heart and mind of the woman at the well.  It does not matter to God that the Samaritan doctrine is not pure by Jewish standards.  It does not matter to God, that this particular Samaritan is no saint, and has a checkered past, where her secret life of chains to sex has always kept her in bondage.  God was not looking for perfection first, He was looking only for someone who would allow Him to fix the broken wreck of their lives, and offer them the perfection He so longs to give.  This woman now, has embraced this longing, and has decided to open herself to her Lord.  And so, the Holy Spirit is already hard at work within her, revealing to her, this is no ordinary prophet.  He is something more.  Should she dare bring it up?  Should she dare reveal what she is thinking?  Could this be the one who all of Israel and the world has so longed to see?

In verse 25 she hopes against hope and says … “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.”  No one has ever taught the doctrines of the heart that Jesus has just revealed to her.  In a few sentences He has destroyed the division between Jew and Samaritan.  He is willing to ask water of her, knowing full well who she is.  He still wants to offer her a living water she can barely grasp the concept of.  And now the Holy Spirit is prompting her as to who He really is.  Jesus Himself responds … “I that speak unto thee am he.”  Praise God.  It is God who she has been talking to.  She knows more about the Messiah than most of her Jewish contemporaries.  She knows He is not just man, but God in human form.  She has been conversing not with a mere prophet, but with the Son of God, who has personally promised to save her from herself.   A one-on-one audience with the Son of God, who despite her sin, has promised to save her.  He did not care that her doctrine was less than perfect.  He did not care that her past was less than stellar.  He only thinks to love her, and redeem her, and offer her a freedom from within that will never run dry, or expire.  Here life is transformed.  Here is living water enacted from within.

Water at the well is no longer important to either of them.  The woman appears to have forgotten Christ’s original request, drops her pot, and runs to the city to share what has just been revealed to her.  A transformed life CANNOT be silent.  A transformed life MUST share immediately the awesome news of what has just happened.  She needed no commission from the church to begin a formal class on how to witness to others.  She needed no ordination to become a formal minister destined to reach the lives of others.  Instead she drops what she is doing, and does the only thing that now fully consumes WHO she is.  She runs to the town, to tell everyone who will listen, the news that the Messiah is here.  Not just here on earth, but here in their town, at their well, waiting to offer every one of them, the same gift of transformation that now compels her to seek an audience with as many as will listen to her.  She is no longer hiding from the shame of who she was, salvation is bigger than that.  Salvation is more important than pride, or shame.  It is life altering.  And this is something the transformed life MUST share with others.  It is too important to sit still, let others do it, or wait for approval on.  It must be shared in real time with real people, right now, and right here.  This is what it truly means to witness.  It is to testify of a personal experience.  If it has not happened to you yet, you have nothing to say yet.  When it does, you will not be able to keep your mouth shut.

The passion of her testimony reveals the work of the Holy Spirit to those who she talks to, and it yields results.  For her this is no numbers game about how many converts she can add to the rosters of a church.  It is a reaction to a life altering experience which she is literally driven to share.  Those who hear her words, and see her passion, are not complacent, but are curious.  How could this person be so bold?  How could this person be so changed, unashamed, and on spiritual fire?  Her words could not be ignored, because they were more than theory and speculation, they were more than intellectual debate and thesis.  They were based on a passion that comes from having a life altering transformation with the only Son of God.  And in verse 30 are perhaps the most precious of results … “Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.”  They acted.  They listened and they acted.

Many Samaritans believed simply because of the words of this woman.  Her testimony was so powerful it was compelling, authentic, and true.  After speaking directly with Jesus they reach the same conclusion, and have him stay with them for two more days.  Two more days of interrupted time with the God of the Universe, and the Savior of mankind; and in verse 41 it says … “And many more believed because of his own word; [verse 42] And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”  Samaritans knew something the Jews had completely missed.  Samaritans knew a truth the very disciples of Jesus had completely missed.  Christ was not only the Savior of the Jews, He was the Savior of the world.  He was there to save them too.  Two days with Christ turned an entire field ripe for harvest, a harvest of souls for the kingdom.  When He left that city, they did not all start heading off to Jerusalem to observe temple rituals.  This was a doctrinal truth from the Jewish perspective.  Instead they did something even more important; they worshipped in Spirit and in Truth.  Messiah had come to Samaria, and did not walk away empty-handed. 

It was more important to Christ to redeem a single lost Samaritan woman, than it was to worry about her doctrinal purity, or personal weaknesses.  A belief in His ability to save her from herself, would reveal truth to her that neither Jew nor Samaritan had ever understood before that encounter.  An understanding of scriptures could not save her, but an acceptance of Jesus would lead her to a deeper understanding that she could have previously never imagined.  It is Jesus who saves us, not our doctrines, our education, or our ideas about truth interpreted from the scriptures.  It is Jesus alone.  This was the beauty of the gospel brought to “those people”.  As it turned out “those people” were actually His people.  He would save them like He saves us, despite what we think we know.  It is our arrogance to think we know the whole of truth, and that only our interpretation could be correct or complete.  It is Christ that reveals what is truly important.  It is Christ that alone is truth.

But this encounter, not only had a profound effect on the Samaritan community.  It also affected the disciples.  In verse 27 John records … “upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the woman:”  Here they had gone into town so that Christ would not have to sully Himself with dealing with Samaritan men, but they return to find Him speaking with a Samaritan woman no less.  They were too timid to give voice to their prejudice, but they were thinking it.  Deciding to just eat, they offer Him meat, but Jesus is no longer hungry.  Instead He will try to teach His disciples that the redemptive work of God means more to Him than even His basic human needs.  To do the will of God, is more invigorating, more rewarding, and more fulfilling than anything else on earth, even basic human functions.  In verses 33 through 38, Jesus elevates the conversation by reminding his disciples they are to work the harvest of souls.  From the eye of God, the fields were ripe and ready for harvest.  Christ would sow the seeds, and they would work the fields later.  What Jesus was saying to those who would follow Him, was … there is no such thing as “those people.”