If you are related, you are connected.
We can be related by bloodline. We can relate by similar experiences. We cultivate RELATionships....and when we don't choose purposefully to do so, there is not much that connects us!!
Jesus was a Master at connecting with people....relating. I see some interesting examples of that in my study of John 4.
Jesus related to the Samaritan woman at the well by talking about water.
Jesus related to the royal official by demonstrating that just His 'say so' would be enough.
In both of these circumstances, Jesus took time and made deliberate effort to relate to them on familiar ground, drawing from their individual lives, things to use as teaching tools.
I first consider how Jesus related to the Samaritan woman.....
She had come to the well to get water, and in the heat of the day....a very unusual time to come, (most likely because she wanted to avoid the other women who would be there in the cooler morning or evening times).
It was a daily task, this getting water. Water wasn't piped into the kitchen sink...and it had to be replenished daily. (...you know what happenes to your dog's water in a couple day's time?...)
Jesus talked to her, which was huge....( any other Jewish man would have avoided contact, and in fact, Jesus' disciples might just have done that, as they probably passed her on the road as she was coming....see Luke 4:6-8...).
Then, Jesus drew her into a conversation about water. He says something about water that will permanetly get rid of thirst. She would be glad to find a way around coming to that well every day for water. But she didn't quite get what Jesus means with His talk about 'living water'.
Jesus continues to cultivate a way to relate to her Who He is.
Rather than accuse or condemn the wrong lifestyle He knew she was in, He presents an opportunity for her to confess to Him the wrong choices she had made and the wrong living situation she was in.
Oh boy...is that uncomfortable ! When Truth pricks thru, how do we respond?
Often, just like this woman. Change the subject !!
"Well, I went to church when I was growing up, but I never did like the preaching..."
"Well, my family went to XYZ church, my spouse was raised ABC, we couldn't agree where to go..."
"Well, we went to church where we lived, but then we moved and just never found a church home...."
She took the focus off personal sin and turned it around to focus on religion.
God and church have never been the same thing. Truth is not defined by religion. And religion does not change truth nor gaurantee truth.
Mere religion leaves us constantly thirsty, needing to drink and drink...trying to satisfy that horrible thirst that is the symptom of our sin-sickness. But if it relieves the dryness of soul at all, it is short lived.
You know ....
...the church-going habit for a while
... the 'I'm going to quit ___________' (fill in the blank with your own self-improvement issue)
... the list of good things we devote ourselves to doing.
All of it, a futile attempt to water ourselves from that well and relieve our dry parched spirit.
Jesus Christ tells the Samaritan woman (and US) that HE is The Living Water.
His mere Word does more to satiate our need than any denominational badge you care to wear. All the self improvements we can accomplish leave us as dirty as 'filthy rags' at best. (Isa. 64:6) All the good deeds and pew sitting we can manage won't do it.
Only Jesus. The Living Water.
Have you gone back to the old watering hole? Do you try to satisfy your need, over and over and over....with water that you labor over pulling up out of a man-made religious hole?
Or do you have the continuing bubble and flow of Living Water within?
And with that ever present flow, do you take that life-giving water to share with everyone in your realm of influence?
Do you have it with you Monday thru Friday, all day Saturday, AND Sunday when you assemble yourself with the family of God, whatever denominational badge that may be?
I echo the Samaritan woman...I leave my old method and come to tell you...
Friend, don't just labor at the well, don't settle for stagnant, temporary sustanance.
One Word. Jesus.
"....leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did." (John 4:29)
I've drank from that well.
I now drink from the "...river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb." (Rev. 22:1)
No more stagnant welled up water for me...
