¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I AM he.”
Deflection is human, but Grace is relentless.
Thoughts
- Truth as a Scalpel, Not a Sword (18): Jesus unflinchingly calls out the hard facts of her life—not as a weapon, but as an instrument of healing: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us… full of grace and truth. Joh 1:14. Despite all their differences (in the eyes of the world), Jesus invites her: I see you. Others may have abandoned you, but I won’t. Come closer. Isa 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”declares the LORD. This is Jesus: the Word-became-flesh pursues an outcast Samaritan woman and meets her where she’s at, not where she should be.
- Worship Wars (19-24): Maybe she feels that Jesus is getting a little too close, and so she pivots to a safer topic, maybe. But she’s got a point, too: her people were “stuck” in the Torah and knew Gerizim to be the mount of blessings Deut 11:29. Q. You Jews and we Samaritans disagree: so how can we draw near to God? Jesus doesn’t say, Come on Lady, don’t change the topic! Christ—who is always perfectly in tune with every one of his creatures—embraces the heart of the question, and goes deeper. All these worries about where to worship are about to be set aside, when we worship in the Spirit. רוּחַ (ru’ach) \= spirit \= breath \= wind. Hebrew envisions the wind as God’s breath. Acts 17:28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’* We breathe in the breath of life which is from Him; we are immersed in Him. God isn’t confined to a place: He is omnipresent in creation.
- The Prophet (25): The Samaritans awaited the fulfillment of God’s promise through Moses: I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him Deut 18:18 They called this one the Taheb (teacher) vs. Moshiach (redeemer).
- I AM (26): She knew Exo 3:13,14 Moses said to God, 'Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them? God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” And Jesus says to this woman “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” In effect, “I am the one you’ve been waiting for. I am knowable through personal encounter.” His “I am” (Ego eimi)—mirrors God’s very words to Moses. Jesus is proclaiming: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Rev 1:8. Jesus speaks of Himself in this absolute manner 10 times in this gospel: Joh 4:26; 6:20; 8:24; 8:28; 8:58; 9:9; 13:19; 18:5; 18:6; 18:8. How shockingly audacious—but what if it’s true that He is not merely prophet, nor merely Messiah—that He is the eternal, self-existent Living Message from God?
Reflections
- “I AM” breaks into your isolation with His presence. He meets you where you are, not where you should be. Does that move you? How does it affect you? Where do you need to work that into your heart?
