Confession of Faith

The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." (John 4:25)

I just noticed this statement in a new light. This woman was actually confessing her faith in the coming of the Messiah just like we talk about belief in the coming of Jesus. We today often talk about looking forward to the coming of Jesus to this earth as our greatest hope. We view this belief as core to all our other beliefs, sometimes even to our own confusion. What I am now starting to see is that this woman also was clinging to a similar hope in the coming of Jesus as her way of helping her life have more sense. She was trusting that the coming Messiah might right many of the wrongs that tormented her life.

Yes, it is true that she didn't think of the Messiah using the name Jesus like we do. But the meaning is identical. In our case we don't often use the term Messiah because we have different notions about what that word means to us. But in the mind of people in that day, Messiah mostly meant a coming deliverer sent by God to fix all their problems and bring them hope and truth and life.

It is interesting to me that this hope was actually shared and embraced by a woman who wasn't even a Jew. We understand why Jews were looking forward to a Messiah even though their ideas about what that Messiah was supposed to do were very confused and self-centered. But to see a confession of faith in the coming Messiah by a Samaritan I believe is quite significant.