The Woman at the Well – John 4

There are many points we could make about the story of the woman at the well in John 4:

• The history of why Samaritans were disrespected and loathed by the Jews
• The fact that this woman is a social outcast
• The misunderstanding that this woman has in trying to get past the physical water and well and what Jesus is actually talking about
• We could talk about worship and how the Samaritans worshipped at Gerizim because they only believed in the first five books of the Old Testament and that was the authorized site for worship they came up with.
• We could also look at Jesus’ response to that inquiry and how worship is not about location but about whether or not it is done in Spirit and in truth.
• We could describe the differences between this woman who came to him at noon and Nicodemus who came to him at night and how this uneducated woman gets it while Nicodemus does not quite seem to be ready.

I want to focus on one thing and one thing only – Jesus does not always do what we expect him to. He does not always go to who we think he will go to, teach what we think he will teach, and do what we think he should do. He doesn’t toe our line because often our concerns don’t line up with his concerns, our agendas sometimes don’t line up with his agendas, and our compassion is often times not as full and rich as his. In this short conversation Jesus has broken all of the “rules” and in doing so receives a harvest that would have otherwise been abandoned.

Thank you God that you don’t live up to my very small expectations because if you did, things certainly wouldn’t happen as well as they do.