’twas the day after Christmas

‘Twas the day after Christmas
and all through the house,
there was peace, joy and thanksgiving,
neither one of us groused,
for we were glad to be home
resting in our own bed
with Zoe, Chloe and Herc by our side
and finally out of our sled.
We gave thanks for the birth
of Jesus our King,
and sang the final few carols
while we piled up boxes to fling
to the trash, to be carried away
while the treasures we received
would be enjoyed day after day.
We were glad to be with family,
but happy to be home, too,
where we stayed in our pajamas
drinking coffee and eating fresh fruit.
And as we washed clothes from our trip
and tried to put our house right,
we said, “Next year, Christmas in Florida,
if my swim suit is not too tight!”

And they were still following the signs…

And they were still following the signs…

John 6

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

1Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. 3Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4The Jewish Passover Feast was near.

5When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

7Philip answered him, “Eight months’ wages^[a^] would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

8Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9″Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

10Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. 11Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

12When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

14After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

The feeding of the five thousand is one of the first miracles of Jesus I remember hearing about as a child.  I do not think I had any idea at that time of the hugeness of this miracle.  The thing I do remember is that a child was used to help perform this miracle, and he would be eating leftovers for a long time.

As an adult, I wonder just how large was the area where they met, that five thousand men could sit to eat, along with women and children?  I wonder why the young boy had five loaves of bread?  I wonder why the disciples still were so bound in the physical world that they could not anticipate the miracle to come? And I wonder who in that crowd needed a miracle beyond what they would eat for lunch?

Why do you follow the Christ?  Is it because you were raised in church?  Do you follow Him because of His saving power, or because there has been a real transformation in your life brought about by Jesus Christ?  Or do you follow Him hoping for a miracle?

Can you say, as the crowd that day so long ago, “Surely this is the Prophet who is come into the world.” Can you look beyond the physical miracles and see the miracle of salvation?  Do you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is the very Son of God, born into this world to seek and save the lost, to reconcile us to the Father, to give us new life?  If you cannot see the gospel of Jesus, then you are one of the five thousand simply looking for another miracle.  May you receive the miracle of salvation this holiday season.  May you repent of your sins, turn toward Jesus of Nazareth, ask Him into your heart, and turn from the darkness and into the light.

Seeing is Believing

Testimonies About Jesus

John 5:31″If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. 32There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid.

33″You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

36″I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. 37And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

41″I do not accept praise from men, 42but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

45″But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

There is a saying, “Seeing is believing.”  Yet, Jesus is surrounded by those who saw, but did not believe.  How is this possible?  The Jewish people knew the Scriptures, knew the Law of Moses, they had heard from the lips of John the Baptist that Jesus was the Christ, yet they remained clueless to His true identity.

Jesus says here in these passages that He could tell Israel about himself, but such testimony would not be valid.  It would appear to be boasting, or, worse yet, lying.  They did not believe John the Baptist, nor did they accept what Moses wrote about the Messiah.

The worst indictment is when Jesus said, “And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me.  You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell within you.”  These men knew the scriptures backwards and forward, but Jesus said God’s word did not dwell within them.

How can this be?  It is because the Word was in their heads, but never made it into their hearts.  They could recite the word, they could effectively teach the word, but the word was nothing more than letters scribbled on parchment.  The word had not been made flesh in their hearts.

Do you know who Jesus is?  Will you accept the One who came in the name of the Father to seek and save the lost?  Will you allow His Word to have a resting place in your heart?

This is the day the Lord has made, rejoice in it and be exceedingly glad  (Ps 118:24) for Jesus, Emmanuel, is God with us.

Heresy vs. truth

Life Through the Son

John 5:16So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” 18For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

19Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. 21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

24″I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

28″Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. 30By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

The truth is a strange phenomenon.  Take the truth of God, for instance.  The truth is that God exists.  If we do not accept the truth of His existence, neither the truth nor His existence is changed.  He still exists and that is the truth. In this passage, Jesus tells the truth of who He is and why He has come.  To some, the truth was like a soothing balm, to others it was iodine poured into an open wound.

The Jews who did not believe began by faulting Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, because He was breaking the Jewish Law. Then, they were offended because Jesus said His Father was working even to this day, and therefore, so was He.  Jesus came not to do His own works but the works of God, who sent Him.  “How can this be?” they must have thought.  How can Jesus call God His Father?  Is this heresy or is it truth?

If only they had known the Law did not come to save, but to show them their need for a Savior.  If only they had believed in spirit and in truth.  If only they had the faith to bridge the gap of disbelief.  If only they could have walked across the bridge from death to life.

Have you ever anticipated something, perhaps a vacation destination, but when you finally arrived it was not all you had hope it would be?  I think this is the predicament in which the Jewish leaders found themselves.  They knew the Scripture, they knew Isaiah had foretold a Messiah, they saw it in the Psalms, yet when He came He was not what they expected. Have you heard the truth?  Do you have he faith to believe the truth?  A man who brought his son possessed by an evil spirit to the disciples for healing left in the same predicament in which he arrived–his son was not healed.  When he reported this to Jesus, Jesus answered by saying they were an unbelieving generation.  The man answered, “I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” (Mark 9:24)

We are each given a measure of faith to help us believe.  If your faith is not strong enough, ask for more.  If that faith is still not strong enough, ask for yet more.  God is not some cruel jokester dangling eternal life in front of you, always just out of your reach.  God is a loving father and Jesus is His son, and we must only ask and salvation is ours, we must only believe and we have crossed over the bridge from eternal damnation to eternal life.  Ask…believe…live.

…and the truth will set you free

Days run together this time of year, when the celebration of the birth of our Savior is sometimes overshadowed by parties, and “holiday” symphonies, and other activities that would separate us from God’s Word.  Indeed, it has been five days since I have actively entered into a study of the Word.  Oh, I read the Word, doing the initial preparation yesterday for teaching this coming Sunday, but I have not actually studied the Word in about a week.  And I know better!

John 5

The Healing at the Pool

¹Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. ²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda^[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.^{[b] 5}One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well? ⁷“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

¹¹But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ “

¹²So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Can you even begin to imagine what it would be like to be an invalid for 38 years?  My mother-in-law wore an ileostomy bag for 38 years.  I have known people since then who had to wear a bag for 6 months following surgery, and it was almost more than they could tolerate.  Thirty-eight years of being an invalid.  How could anyone after that length of time hold out any hope for the future?

The invalid in this scripture had clearly lost hope that he could enter the waters and be healed, for others always made it into the water before him.  Yet, he continued to come to the pool each day, seeking his miracle.  And his miracle appeared in the form of a man named Jesus.  When Jesus inquired as to his health, the man said I have no one to help me into the pool, and Jesus replied, take up your mat and walk, for you are healed.  There was no need of the healing waters in the pool of Bethesda, for the great Healer was present.

The pool of Bethesda was near the Sheep Market Gate and the waters were said to be stirred by an angel.  When the waters stirred, people entered the pool to receive their healing.  In Hebrew, Bethesda means “House of Mercy” and in Greek it means “House of Grace.”  Either way, Bethesda was a place of hope, a place of healing, a place of grace.

The next important fact in this scripture is that the city officials were unconcerned about the healing of the invalid–instead, they were offended that the man picked up his mat on the Sabbath, an action prohibited under the Law.  Oh ye of little faith–what Jesus says is healed, is healed–what Jesus says is good, is good.  If Jesus healed on the Sabbath, that pretty much ends the discussion of what can be done on the Sabbath and what is prohibited.

Can you see beyond the Law into the House of Grace?  If not, go to your Lord in prayer today and ask that He fill you with a spirit of grace and mercy.

The Journey

I watched the Showtime special “Letting Go of God,” a 2 1/2 hour monologue by Julie Sweeney where she takes a journey of faith, and subsequently unbelief, in her quest for answers about God.  Raised a Catholic, she began by loving God, by trusting God, by believing bad times were made bearable through the love of God.

Julie attended a year long Bible study at her local parish and came face to face with some insurmountable evidence, for her, that we are not God’s creation, but instead, He is ours, something to help us make sense of our existence, indeed, our presence in this universe.  She concluded after much study and even searching out other religions that God cannot exist, or if He did why would we follow such a God who exacted His own son’s death in order to save flawed man whom He created?

The special was filled with Julie’s own brand of humor, and some of it was laugh out loud funny.  There were other times when her pain was palpable, as she struggled to make sense of the good, the bad and the ugly that is this thing called life.  Toward the end I thought perhaps she was going to come full circle, and finish by reconciling herself to God.

We have all questioned, if not the existence of God, at least the fundamental question of why bad things happen to good people.  I answer this by saying we are born into a world dominated by sin, and that sin colors everything around it, like washing a red sweater with white linens.  But then, I believe–I have always believed, and I always will believe in God.  I have not always followed, but I have always believed and am convinced I will leave this world tenaciously clinging to this faith I have held so dear.

Where the Bible does not make sense, I lay down the cloak of faith and walk right across the muddiness of what appears to be illogic or at least incontinuity.  Where God’s wrath seems to overshadow His love, I wrap myself in the blanket of hope, knowing that what I do not understand now will ultimately be made known to me.

I wrote the poem, “The Journey,” this morning and am posting it here today in lieu of my daily Bible reading.  Not that I won’t read the Bible today–I almost certainly will.  But then again, it is faith that drives me onward, and faith will ultimately lead me home.

The Journey

Written after watching “Letting Go of God”, a monologue by Julie Sweeney,

Stumbling through the darkness

of confusion,

tumbling into the light of reason

she questioned everything

she had been raised to believe.

She loved God, always had

but science taught

her to look elsewhere for answers

and no one told her some puzzles

have no ready solutions.

So she slipped silently

from her raft

of  faith and into the blue-black

waters of the intellect, where

faith takes a back seat to logic.

She turned her back on the God

of her father,

and set out on a journey of

self-actualization, a pilgrimmage

she continues to this day.

She still uses phrases like,

“Thank God,” although

more out of habit than belief.

She teaches her child we are each

some cosmic accident

and that is sad, I think,

but I believe

that children have the knowledge

of God even before they have reason

to believe, or the ability to reason.

I pray that she will find

her way, that God

will intervene some day

and she will return to that

first love a child has for her Father.

For the first love is

the best love,

and we should not be detoured

on the pathway to righteousness,

not by science, nor reason, nor anything.

Going Home

Jesus Heals the Official’s Son

^{John 4:43}After the two days he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) ⁴⁵When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.

⁴⁶Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

⁴⁸“Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

⁴⁹The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵²When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”

⁵³Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed.

⁵⁴This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.

Have you ever tried to return home after being away for a number of years?  I’m not sure whether home changes that much, or if our memories of home are skewed by sentimentality, but in any even, home is never quite the same when you return as it was when you left.  Thomas Wolfe said, “You can’t go home again.”  Jennifer Nettles and Jon Bon Jovi sang a song that asks the question, “Who says you can’t go back?”  Kathy Mattea sings, “I want to go back and wash my face, deep in the river of my old home place, I want to walk in the waters that once gave me life.”

Jesus knew the difficulties of returning home again.  He was fully man and fully God, so I would imagine as a boy,and as a teen, there were times He did things that did not point toward His being the Savior of the world.  His brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors undoubtedly would have a hard time as seeing Him as the Messiah.

When Jesus arrived in Galilee, He was welcomed, and soon approached by a man who asked that his son, who was near dying, be healed.  Jesus’ reply was, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will not believe.”  Does that response seem rather cruel to you?  I have to admit, this is not what I would expect Jesus to say.  Where is the compassion, where is the love we have come to expect?

Remember, though, that Jesus had just traveled through Samaria where the people believed on Him without any signs, without any miracles.  It must have been frustrating to Jesus that He came to do so much more than heal the sick and raise the dead, yet the crowds were clamoring for Jesus to heal the body, when He really came to heal the soul.

Are you sick in body and seek the healing touch of Jesus?  Then ask for His healing, but remember His primary mission upon this earth was to seek and save the lost.  That mission has not changed.  Does Jesus still heal today?  Of course He does, but He longs to reconcile you to the Father.  May that reconciliation, that redemption, be your primary focus as you seek after the Savior.

World Overcomer

Watching the Florida/Alabama game,  I noticed Tim Tebow has a Bible scripture taped across his face.   John 16:33, which in essence says that in this world we will have trouble, but be not dismayed, because Christ has come to overcome the trouble of the world and through Him we can be world overcomers.  What a great promise and what a great testimony!

I don’t watch nearly as much football as my husband.  I had, of course, heard of Tim Tebow because he won the Heisman Award a couple of years ago, winning against Darrin McFadden from Arkansas.  But what I did not know is that he often wears scripture while playing football.

When was the last time you shared your testimony with someone else?  How did you share your love of God?  Was it by passing out a tract with Scripture?  Probably not–I haven’t seen anyone do that in years, but I think we should start the practice anew. Did you share your story with another over a cup of coffee?  Or did you take someone a bag of groceries who would have gone hungry otherwise?

We pass up opportunities every day to share the gospel, but the good news is, there will be another opportunity tomorrow.  Will you take it?

Could this be the Christ?

Being raised in church from an infant, I never knew a time when I did not believe in Jesus Christ.  There have been times in my life when I have not followed Him, not allowed Him to be my Lord (my master), but I have always believed.

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

^{John 4:27}Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ^[a]?” ³⁰They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴²They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

In our Scripture today, John 4:27-42, we see the results of Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well.  Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel at the time the Assyrians captured that kingdom in 722 B.C.  More than 20,000 young men were carried off to be slaves (Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abdednigo among them) and the rest began to intermarry with the Assyrians.  The result was what the orthodox Jews believed to be an impure race who still used the Torah as their basis for religion, but worshipped other gods as well.

It is now 750 years later, and there is much animosity between Jews and Samaritans.  It is for this reason the Samaritan woman expresses surprise when Jesus, a Jew, speaks to her.  Although Samaria lay between Judea and Jerusalem, most Jews traveled out of their way to avoid going through Samaria.  Not so with Jesus.

In yesterday’s lesson we saw that Jesus confronts the woman with her past, and acknowledges to her that He is the Christ.  She leaves her water jar behind and goes to tell others of this man, and asks, “Could this be the Christ?”

Indeed, the disciples return with food and Jesus tells them He has no need of food–His food is to do the will of the One who sent Him.  As usual, the disciples are in the dark and wonder if someone else has brought Jesus food while they were away.  Jesus tells them the fields are white unto harvest, and it is time to reap what is sown.

In the meantime, the woman from the well has told many of her encounter with Jesus, with an interesting result.  Some people believe in Jesus, the Christ, just from her re-telling of the story.  Others go to Him and ask Him to remain in Samaria.  He does so for two days, and at the end of the His time there, they said to the woman that now they no longer believe just because of what she said, but because they have seen and heard for themselves that Jesus is the Christ.

What a wonderful revelation when we recognize that Jesus is the Christ!  And, if the fields were white unto harvest then, can you imagine how ready they are now to be harvested?  May we be as obedient as the woman at the well, who repented of her sins and went straight away to share the living waters with others.

Living Waters

John 4

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

¹The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

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.”

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.”

²⁵The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

Today we are reading John 4:1-26 where we see Jesus traveling through Samaria in order to reach Galilee.  Now most Jews did not take the direct route from Judea to Galilee because Samaritans (Jews who had mixed with many other nationalities) were considered unclean.  Therefore, most Jews went out of their way to avoid going through Samaria.  Jesus, however, was not like most Jews.

Jesus was traveling through Samaria around noon, it was hot, and He stopped at a well for water.  A woman was drawing water from Jacob’s Well, and Jesus asked her for a drink.  She was immediately taken aback because Jews did not mix with Samaritans.  Not only did Jesus ask the woman for a drink, he relayed her life’s story to her and then offered her a drink of living water.

There is something wonderful in the term “living water.”  Have you ever been around a pool of stagnant water?  If not, let me tell you what lurks there.

1. The surface of the water is not clear, but instead is covered with a film and in that film are the bodies of insects who, after drinking of the water, die.
2. Flies lay nests of eggs in stagnant water
3. Bacteria grows in stagnant water
4. There is often times an unpleasant odor emanating from stagnant water.

Conversely, living water has these characteristics:

1. The surface shimmers with the reflection of the sky, trees, clouds.
2. The water runs somewhere, and there is a source of fresh water
3. Life grows in these living waters
4. The waters are sweet to the smell and to the taste

Jesus told this woman that the place she worshipped did not matter, but the way she worshipped did, indeed, matter.  He said she, and indeed all people, are to worship God in spirit and in truth.  The Samaritans claimed the God of Joseph as their own, but in actuality worshipped an assortment of gods based upon all of the cultures into which they had married.  Jesus made a revelation to this woman that had as yet been unspoken, even to His disciples.  He said He was the Messiah upon whom the world had waited.

Do you know how huge this is?  First he explains that with physical water, thirst always reappears.  But the living water of the Spirit of God is self-replenishing and as long as we dip our cups into that water we will be renewed.  The next big thing that happens is that this woman, weighed down by her sins, saw Jesus for who He was, and asked to be given these living waters. Then Jesus admits to being the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  Jesus had always spoken in parables to prevent those outside of his realm of followers from knowing His identity lest His time be cut short, but here, in plain language, He admits that He is the Messiah.

Have you partaken of the living waters offered through the Holy Spirit or are you still trying to satisfy yourself with things of the world, things that hold no lasting pleasure, things procured not through the Spirit of the Living God but through your own endeavors?  If so, I urge you to dip your cup into the Living Waters.  Let Jesus satisfy your needs and your longings that you might, at long last, be saved.