Defining Reality

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." (John 4:10)

What is Jesus implying here to this woman? If you knew... What is this really saying about her from her perspective? How does this come across to her coming from a complete and suspicious stranger?

He is implying that she has a lack of knowing, understanding, perceiving. He is trying to tell her that she doesn't really know what she assumes she knows – what would seem to be so obvious to anyone who might view this situation around there. He claims that she is ignorant of at least two things here. She is unaware of some sort of gift connected with God somehow and she doesn't have a clue as to who He really is.

She assumed that she did know something about Him just as all of us make hundreds of unquestioned assumptions all the time. He was rather obviously a Jew. Jews were well known for being prejudiced, bigoted, aloof, self-centered, arrogant and often even spiteful. Jews hated Samaritans and she was one of those, so of course He must hate her. Besides, she was also a woman which gave Him double reason to despise and ignore her. All of this she assumed that she knew about Him.

And as far as something about a gift goes, well, she was also in the mindset like most of us, that you have to earn what you get. She had to scrap and hunt and calculate and work hard just to survive. Because life was not good to her and she was a social outcast even among her own people, she was enduring the heat of the day to come out to this well, laboring hard to get needed water for her existence. Then this Jew comes along and asks for a handout. What nerve. Why does he think he can just show up at a well in the middle of the day when usually no one is even around and then impose upon some poor woman who is weaker and less socially acceptable than He is to do Him a favor? Just who does He think He is anyway?

Is this guy the epitome of the arrogant Jew? Is He so elevated in His own opinion about Himself that He thinks He deserves special treatment even above all the other arrogant Jews who normally wouldn't even speak to her in the first place? Does He think He is better than everyone else? And who does He think she is anyway, His slave or something? Just suddenly asking a favor from a total stranger under these conditions is so bizarre and out of place that it shocks even her who thought that she had already seen everything.

But in spite of all this, in spite of all her assumptions that have been brought up for question, something about this man awakens curiosity in her soul. It is not just His unusual words that stir deep inside of her but the atmosphere surrounding Him. There is something that just can't be put into words that attracts her to want to know more about Him, that makes her feel strangely safe around Him, that pulls her into His presence. She is willing to play along in this bizarre conversation to see where it will take her. After all, she does have hidden deep inside her a spirit of compassion and kindness and she can obviously see His need for a drink. And even though it seems socially totally out of place for Him to ask her for a drink, she can't help but want to know more about Him and to possibly connect with Him at some level.

And what is this thing about living water that He is talking about? She never heard of such a thing before. Living water? Whatever could that be? It sounded exciting, full of potential, almost magical in a way. It sounded like something that maybe she had fantasized about, maybe even that morning. This business of hauling heavy containers of water every day to meet the needs of those she was looking out for was an awful lot of hard work. If only there was some other way to get it to her house – like indoor plumbing which was unheard of in her little village.

But connected to His words was a spirit that seemed to imply all sorts of other potential things related to His words that felt so compelling to a deeper part of her. The far more potent communications coming from His body language, His face, His tone of voice, His spirit of gentleness and kindness were irresistible. This idea of living water was just too intriguing to ignore. She just had to ask about it. But she didn't want to sound too gullible so she had to frame her response in the context of her skepticism. After all, this guy was a prejudiced Jew even if He was in desperate need of help. So she needed to point out the obvious to Him.

She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? (John 4:11)

Jesus had implied to her that she was ignorant of the facts of reality. Well, now it was her turn to point out what seemed to be the obvious oversight. If He might think she was stupid maybe it was time to remind Him of His own situation if she hadn't come along. He had said there were two things that she didn't know and so she tells Him that there are two things He evidently doesn't remember.

“You don't have the equipment or wherewithal to get water out of this well. You don't have a rope, you don't have a container and without those things there is no way to get water even if you could reach it with your hands.

“Which brings up the second point. If you hadn't noticed yet, this particular well is rather deep and the water is not very close to the surface. This is not a spring that pushes water right up to the surface like as found in other places around the country. This is a well, the only good well around here and this well is quite deep. If anyone wants to get water to drink from this well they have to be properly equipped or it simply cannot be done. So, given all these obvious and undeniable facts that You seem to be overlooking, just what in the heck are you talking about – this living water business? I am really curious now.”

How much am I arguing with God about what is real and what is relevant?

How often do I insist that God cannot do something because the circumstances just don't allow for it?

How willing am I to have my assumptions challenged, to allow my heart to think outside of the box, to respond to inferences about overcoming the impossible when God says that things are not the way that I perceive them to be?

In many ways I feel like a social misfit like this woman. I feel misunderstood and unloved and used at times. No, I have not endured the extremes of abuse or had the same sort of messed up life that quite possibly she had experienced. But inside, my heart can resonate with many of the things she felt.

Like her, I have a lot of assumptions about reality that still need to be replaced with God's perspective of what is real. I, like her, am busy going about trying to take care of myself, trying to procure my needs through hard work and self-dependence. I too, often feel sorry for myself and my own pain and my broken relationships and my emotional isolation. So what is Jesus saying to me that sounds bizarre and impossible? What in my thinking needs to be exposed as blocks to my believing that Jesus wants to share real life-giving water with me? And how aware am I of my own desperate thirst and need for this kind of water myself?

How long am I going to keep telling God that He doesn't have the ability or resources to take care of my deepest needs? Am I ready to lay aside my limitations on God and allow Him to love me, to provide for my needs, to draw me into much deeper intimacy with God, to bring me to experience genuine and authentic worship?

A New Kind of Soldier

The woman of Samaria said to him, Why do you, a Jew, make a request for water to me, a woman of Samaria? She said this because Jews have nothing to do with the people of Samaria. In answer Jesus said, If you had knowledge of what God gives freely and who it is who says to you, Give me water, you would make your prayer to him, and he would give you living water. (John 4:9-10 BBE)

One of the most common prayers that we pray in reaction to surprising or tragic situations is the “why” prayers. Nearly everyone has heard them. They come in different forms and sometimes using different words, but underlying all of them is this one word, why.

So I ask the next question, Why do we ask the why prayers? Why is it so important to us, so compelling for us to know why things happen the way they do?

Even more illusive is the deeply entrenched assumptions behind these kinds of prayers. When we emphatically demand to know why God allowed such terrible things to happen to us, implied in most of these prayers is the belief that God willed it to happen to us. Nearly everyone is quick to blame God for most of the bad things that happen to them while most of the good things of life are chalked up to rewards for our own ability to look out for ourselves, our skill to earn good things to enjoy or even just good luck. But when bad things happen that seem unexplainable, it is so natural to immediately blame God and demand to know why He is treating us this way.

But interestingly this is not exactly the case in this story. In fact, it seems that this woman is so used to bad things happening to her, to being rejected by others that she has come to the place in her life where the unusual and unexplainable are the good things or the affirmations that might come her way. She is so used to fear, rejection and shame that it has become the norm in her life, what is expected and unquestioned. So when a person comes along who is positioned to be the most likely to reject, ignore and shame her suddenly acts just the opposite, her surprise and shock elicits the why question in reverse.

Why is something positive happening to me?

Why is a man treating me with respect?

Why is a Jew not prejudiced against me as a Palestinian?

There must be a hidden motive here because everyone uses me for their advantage. So what's in it for Him? This is a new approach that I am not familiar with, so what is really going on here?

I have observed that over the years people generally have come up with their own answers for the why prayers both for themselves and for others around them. Unfortunately many of these answers are based on very distorted and sick pictures of God that further darken our heart's opinions about Him. Even though many of them appear on the surface to be plausible answers and maybe even complimentary for God, if the underlying assumptions are examined they actually portray God as having sadistic characteristics and motives.

God took your child in this tragic accident because He wanted them in heaven with Him.

God is teaching you a lesson. When you learn your lessons then things will be better again.

God is punishing you for something bad you have done. Repent or worse things will happen to you.

God is angry with you because you are a bad person.

God is showing you how worthless you are.

While most of us may not resonate with all of these concepts, yet they each have been used to justify opinions about what we believe is God's harsh dealings with us or why life seems so inexplicable at times. For some deep reason our minds demand to have a logical explanation for why things happen to us the way they do. And the more I think about this the more I wonder if it is not rooted in our desires to be in control of our own lives. And to be in control we have to know the logic and reasons for why things happen.

I am not implying that it is wrong to want to know why things are and how they fit together. Some have concluded that we should just give up wanting to figure anything out and just surrender to a fatalistic view of life. Whatever happens will happen. I have no control or influence over anything so I have to just take whatever comes lying down.

Implicit in that kind of reasoning can be the belief that because I have no control then it also doesn't matter what I do. This then allows our sinful desires to run rampant and ruin our lives because we feel there is no logic, no reason and no cause and effect relationships in place. This is simply another ploy of the enemy to destroy our lives and keep us outside of God's plans and love for us.

But most of us are still trying to figure things out so we can make sense of them. But the real question goes back to why we ask the why questions in the first place. What is our real motives, the gut-level cravings that cause us to demand to have answers even when those answers are often very flawed? Are we even willing to allow the Spirit of God to take us to those deeper places inside of us where our true motives try to hide under the logic and reasons and simplistic explanations that we operate under day by day?

I believe there are times when the why questions are actually authentic expressions of a readiness to accept new explanations, new views of what God is really like. And while most of the why questions are often rhetorical and are more along the line of expressions of anger against God, some why questions lead to an honest challenging of our current belief systems, a real questioning of our definitions of reality, an opening of the heart to think in totally new ways. We are sometimes ready to allow many of our previous conclusions to come up for genuine reexamination and to consider that maybe we are actually wrong about our opinions about life, about reality and most importantly about what God is like and how He feels about us.

I believe that this was the case with this woman of Sychar. Jesus knew her background because the Holy Spirit had revealed it to Him. He knew the abuse, the shame, the fears and the lies about God that filled her life and her soul. But He also could see her heart, the genuine heart-longings and the honesty that was so buried under everything else that no one else had noticed it. And through the inspiration of the Spirit of God that always controlled the Son of God, Jesus was able to find possibly the only tiny entrance into her strongly barricaded heart to draw out her deepest longings through the means of curiosity which circumvented her strong defenses. In essence Jesus made an end-run around her frontal defenses and was able to take her heart captive in a few minutes with His calculated assault of compassion and love.

When Christians talk about spiritual warfare I tend to cringe much of the time because the spirit that is inherent in much of that kind of talk is usually the spirit found in the kind of wars that nations fight with each other. Being a Christian soldier is too often assumed to mean that we launch aggressive assaults on “unbelievers”, that we use force and confrontation or worse yet heap condemnation and guilt onto sinners in the false belief that this is going to terrify them into repentance and belief in God. We use harsh punishments sometimes with our children or we use passivity and indulgent laxness which can produce even worse results at times. But our methods are almost always based on confused ideas about how God treats us and His attitude towards us. In effect, we very often try to promote truth and “righteousness” by using the spirit and methods of the enemy of righteousness and then wonder why the results are not terribly effective or long-lasting.

Our methods of Christian warfare are most often ineffective or have produced Christians with an experience based more on fear than on a genuine love-relationship with Jesus because we are using the wrong spirit in our methods. The very word “warfare” throws us off because our minds immediately go down the wrong path of logic and experience whenever we use that kind of terminology. I believe it is very important that we be willing to carefully reexamine our assumptions and our spirit about the true meaning of warfare as God intended it in the Scriptures.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV)

This encounter with the woman in Samaria was a classic illustration of how God wages war. Jesus launched an all out assault on the strongholds that held this woman's heart captive to lies about life and about God. The weapons He used were radically different than the weapons of fear, force and intimidation that the world uses and the results were also radically different. When Jesus takes people captive they become love slaves for Him – not the kind of “love” slaves that perverted men think of but slaves who are hopelessly in love with One who has loved them with ultimate respect, compassion and tenderness first. The chains that bind them to Him are the cords of love responding to the love they encountered when He first loved them.

Jesus executed a battle that succeeded in capturing this woman's heart in just a few minutes. The result was astounding and highly effective. Through her capture He quickly was able to take over the whole city with His truth and presence and grace as the power of love spread like a contagious infection from one person to another in short order. When the disciples finally caught on that something was happening most of the work had already been accomplished. The skirmish was nearly over and joy and celebration were igniting all over the place.

I want to learn to fight like that. I want the love and compassion and tenderness of Jesus to flow from my life and to use me as a captive turned into a soldier of Yahweh. I want to lay aside the weapons and methods of the world and to become a safe soldier who is a channel of love and real truth, a soldier that conquers by the word of his testimony and by the blood of the Lamb. I want to be a soldier of joy that takes down every stronghold and overcomes every argument and captures every thought. I want a much deeper knowledge of God at an intimate level so that my life becomes a compelling attraction to draw others into the army of God, an army of ultimate lovers.

Joseph's Land

So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob's well was there. (John 4:5-6)

I have read these verses over and over for maybe a week or two now and wondered if there was anything significant about them. But each time I just couldn't seem to see anything about the connection with Jacob and Joseph that seem relevant. So I thought that it must just be an item of detail given for those in that day who knew the terrain better than we do now to help them locate where this story took place.

But as I suspected, everything written in the Bible is usually significant and is often overlooked because of our own filters, not because it lacks content. The Bible is like strong, condensed, potent nutrition that simply needs re-hydration by the Holy Spirit to bring it back into vivid reality and make it life-giving. In discovering some of these more hidden insights I realize that many will think it is stretching things to see so much in so few words. But I remind myself that this is a dialogue between my heart and God, not a discourse that I must defend before a skeptical intellectual panel of critics.

So it is to my delight that I felt an impression this morning to dwell on these words about Jacob and Joseph to see what God might show me relevant to Jesus. As I think back over the stories of Jacob and Joseph and look at the cross-references that these verses have in my Bible, I am reminded that Joseph was one of the prominent figures in the Old Testament representing Jesus. His life in many ways reflected the spirit and character of Jesus and his experiences and relationships were symbolic in many ways of the life of Christ.

Even more significantly I remember one of the principles of inductive study, looking for connecting words and phrases within a passage. Suddenly out jumps strong links with the words of Jesus to Nicodemus earlier just a few verses. God sent His only begotten Son into this world to save the world, not to condemn it. And while Jacob did not knowingly send his son Joseph into Egypt in the same way, God had arranged circumstances so that even through the betrayal of brothers (Jesus was betrayed by one of His brethren) ultimately his mission became that of saving his whole family from a severe famine.

I also think about the fact that God the Father gave this world, this plot of earth to Jesus through His death on the cross thus taking back sovereign rights over this planet away from Satan in a similar way that Jacob gave Joseph sovereignty over this parcel of ground in the land of Canaan. What is even more compelling is that found in this parcel of ground is a well put there by the father of Joseph from which the surrounding residents could find life-giving water to fill their needs. And likewise Jesus came to help people in this very same place to discover the even more important Fountain of life-giving water in the gift of Himself revealed to this most privileged but unlikely woman.

Many, if not all of the stories of the Bible represent God's dealings and relationship with this world. But at the same time all of those stories in various ways are imperfect illustrations of the real truth about how God feels about us or relates to us. God is so much better than any illustration other than those revealed by Jesus Himself. But still, in most of these stories if we are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal hidden truths to us our hearts will be warmed and our minds energized by the unlimited insights and instructions and parallels that will be shown to us in our process of transformation.

So, this reference to the land belonging to Joseph is much more than just a technical detail helping to locate the context of the story physically. It also helps to orient a person to locate where they fit into the story themselves at the heart level. If I allow Him to, God will show me even more clearly why He sent His Son to this world, this plot of ground that He gave to His Son, and how there is a well available for me to find real, life-giving water. If I will recognize my own deep thirst and need for real water, the even more amazing promise that comes later in this story is that Jesus can make even me a spring of water to bring hope and life to those around me as they see Jesus dwelling in my own heart.

The more that happens in my life the closer my own experience will parallel the intense activity and enthusiasm of this woman when she became an unabashed missionary to her own village just a few minutes after her dramatic encounter with the true lover of her soul, the seventh man in her life.

Thirsty 2

...Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour (high noon). There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." For His disciples had gone away.... (John 4:6-8)

I am still exploring the different facets of thirst that I am finding in this passage. At the same time I am also feeling more thirsty myself as I come under conviction that I am much dryer than I thought I was when it comes to a real and intimate knowledge of God that is necessary to be prepared for judgment day.

I find some compelling things in these verses about Jesus' example of how to relate to thirst.

• Jesus had good reason to be thirsty. He was in the middle of a long trip on foot and it was high noon. He likely had not had a drink in some time and His human body was in need of refreshment and hydration.

• He was not ashamed of admitting His thirst. There was nothing about having a legitimate need that inhibited Him from asking for help. He was willing to express His needs to someone else; He does not keep them hidden or suppressed.

• Jesus felt no reluctance to seek assistance from someone out of the ordinary, someone not of His nationality, belief system, social status or even gender.

• Jesus was willing to freely admit His limitations and ask for help. His disciples had gone away so there was nobody else to help Him who normally might do so. If they had been there the situation would have been different. But He was all alone, was very thirsty and it was obvious that this woman had the resources and abilities that could meet Jesus' needs that He did not have at that point. It is implied that she had the equipment to draw water because that is what she was intending to do when she arrived.

There are some more things in these verses that I find pregnant with possible insights.

His disciples had gone away.

This is part of the transition to focusing on heart thirst. Soul, or heart thirst involves bonds, connections with other people at the heart level. Those involved in Jesus' life were away now and Jesus can feel His aloneness. A woman comes along and He is no longer alone. Or is He? That depends on how He feels toward women, toward Samaritans and how He perceives what is proper about these kinds of relationships and encounters.

Jesus breaks the taboo's.

He ignores and violates the accepted social rules. He startles the woman by breaking out of the box, by violating the norms that everyone strictly maintains. He ventures into the arena of the unexpected with His friendliness. She is so surprised by this that her immediate reaction is to point it out to Him. She wonders if maybe He is clueless or maybe doesn't realize who she is. Or maybe the sun really has gotten to Him too much. This is clearly unacceptable social interaction according to what everyone is expected to do on a number of levels.

He begins to synchronize with her.

As is seen later in the text, Jesus is using His own thirst as an access point to awaken this woman to her own condition, longings and desires. She is coming to draw water because she needs it. Jesus needs water too. As two thirsty people they have something in common. One of the best ways to connect with people is to focus on what you have in common with them instead of focusing on the differences. I see a number of things that they either share in common or things that are parallel between the physical and the spiritual.

Both Jesus and the woman are in need of water. They are together in this situation. They are also both exposed to the same heat of the day. But Jesus likely appears more tired than she is, more thirsty than she is and in greater need of help than her. He has walked much farther so is more tired and more thirsty than she is. But in the area of soul thirst things are just the opposite. She is exposed to the intense heat of human scorn, shame and even hatred. She is a despised object of most people's prejudices. She is a woman, less than human in most people's eyes of that time. She is also a Samaritan who were a people considered to be less valuable than dogs by the Jews. On top of that she had ruined her own reputation among even her own people by the life she had experienced and so she felt very alone and ostracized and misunderstood on every front.

This woman of Sychar feels separated socially from others, misunderstood and isolated. Jesus is also alone, without His friends at the moment. But much more than that, He is in this world completely misunderstood by everyone because no one believes the real truth about Him. (John 2:24) They do not see what is in His heart just as no one sees the true desires and longings of this woman's heart. But at this point she is still unaware of just how much they really do have in common and how much Jesus has to offer her. Yet Jesus sees something in her that no one else can see, an attitude and spirit that is potentially open to perceiving and accepting the truth about Him and connecting with Him at a level far deeper than anyone else on earth had done up to that point.

In this encounter, Jesus was physically in need of help and assistance. Emotionally and spiritually the woman was in need of help and assistance. The physical needs were easy to see and talk about. The emotional needs and available resources were much more nebulous, at least in her thinking. So Jesus starts with the obvious to engage and synchronize with her long enough so that she would be more open to listening and learning about the resources that He had to offer for her needs.

Jesus was very physically thirsty. She was very emotionally thirsty. She could minister to His thirst if she was willing. But would her own prejudice and fear preempt her from offering a simple kindness to meet His needs and prevent her from becoming aware of His resources? Would she allow Him to reveal to her His willingness and ability to address her needs which she was certain were far beyond help? Her response to a person in need would be the door she must choose that would determine what her future life would look like for eternity.

How often do we forget the clear words of Jesus to us that in the way we relate to those most vulnerable and most helpless we are relating to Him. How many opportunities do I pass up because of my own prejudice, fear or selfishness, overlooking Jesus again and again as I turn away from the homeless person, the elderly who are not very appealing, the ugly people who don't make me feel good or even through fear of what others might say about me if I get involved helping someone of the opposite gender? And yet it is in the way I relate to the most vulnerable and helpless that Jesus measures the way I really feel about Him, not by how good I feel in the middle of an inspiring, well-executed worship service full of music and praise.

By speaking to her in kindness and with full respect, Jesus was honoring her, valuing her, lifting her up emotionally and offering her an opportunity to connect with Him and to God Himself. But Jesus never forces anyone, He only makes offers and waits for a response. As she responded to His initial contacts and kindness He was able to continue to lift her even higher, to bring to her more hope and more of what she deeply thirsted for. But the choice was always hers as to how much she would be willing to interact and respond to His potential offers of real living water.

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How does Jesus try to connect with me? How does He bring me hope and express His great sense of value for me as one of His children? I am not talking about theological discourses that only stir around in the left brain but don't reach my heart. I am asking about how God tries to get those messages deep into the areas of my mind and heart that are walled in with fear, shame and prejudices that need to be exposed and healed like this woman had. How can I have a similar experience of incredible discovery and joy and bonding with Jesus like this woman experienced later in this story? Because that is exactly what I desire for myself and for those around me.