Craving Fulfillment

We discussed acceptance with the Sunday School children last time.  I read this morning His example, a little too late.  This conversation reads like a novel with a thread of unconditional love and acceptance.  The woman is taken aback.  I can see her, one hand holding her bucket and the other fingertips barely touching her throat as Jesus speaks to her.  She is a known outcast.  Her voice is shaky with disbelief at His invitation and unspoken complete acceptance.

John Chapter 4:3 – 26  The Message:

So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.

To get there, he had to pass through Samaria.  He cane into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph.  Jacob’s well was still there.  Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well.  It was noon.

A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water.  Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?”  (His disciples had gone into the village to buy food for lunch.)

The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan Woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”

The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep.  So how are you going to get this ‘living water’?  Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”

Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again.  Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst – not ever.  The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”

The woman said, “Sir give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”

He said, “Go call your husband and then come back.”

“I have no husband,” she said,

“That’s nicely put:  “I have no husband.”  You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband.  You spoke the truth there, sure enough.”

“Oh, so you’re a prophet!  Well, tell me this:  Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?”

“Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem.  You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day.  God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews.  But the time is coming – it has, if fact, come – when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.

“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God.  Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth.  That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before Him in their worship. God is sheer being itself – Spirit.  Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”

The woman said, “I don’t know about that.  I do know that the Messiah is coming.  When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story.”

“I am he,” said Jesus.  “You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”

I remember when my relationship with God was detached; before Jesus was personal.  I tried to be good for God, the assumed unreachable being, beyond my ability to please.   I am still getting it at a deeper level.

…The Father is looking for those who are simply and honestly themselves before Him…

As I read it, my shoulders relax, my eyes show less of their wrinkles and my being rests in His acceptance.

Hugs and blessings,

Jane