Category: John 4

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John John 4

Taking Jesus at his word

John

In this passage, we see Jesus’ first miraculous healing, although one can guess that he had done other healings before this.  (John 2:23)

But the thing that strikes me here is this royal official’s response to Jesus.

This royal official was in great need.  His son was dying.  He had probably taken his son to all the doctors and there was nothing they could do for him.  Jesus was his last hope.

Yet when this official asked for help, Jesus answered,

Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders…you will never believe.  (John 4:48)

It seems an odd thing to say.  But perhaps Jesus was asking, “Are you coming to me because you actually believe in me?  Or will you only believe in me if I perform this miracle for you?”

It’s a very relevant question even to this day.  When we come to Jesus in prayer with our needs, do we pray because we really believe in him?  Or will we only believe if Jesus answers as we ask?

I wonder what the royal official was thinking.  How much did he truly believe at this point?

Whatever he felt, he cried out in desperation,

Sir, come down before my child dies.  (49)

At that point, Jesus gave him a test of faith.  He said,

You may go.  Your son will live.  (50)

Think about this for a minute.  This official was undoubtedly expecting for Jesus to come with him.  But Jesus tells him, “Just go home.  I don’t need to go.  Your son will live.  Trust me.”

Now the official had to make a choice.  “Do I trust Jesus?  If I do and he doesn’t come through, my son is dead.”

How long this official wavered, I don’t know.  Maybe it was an instantaneous choice.  Maybe it took a few seconds of looking into the eyes of Jesus.

But in the end, John tells us that,

The man took Jesus at his word and departed.  (50)

And while he was still on his way back, his servants told him his son had been healed right at the moment that Jesus had told him that his son would live.

Do we take Jesus at his word?  So often we pray for things, but then he speaks to us, and we don’t take him at his word.  Instead, we doubt.  We wonder if Jesus will really come through.

We pray for a job, and one is offered but requires us to miss church regularly, and we know God is telling us to let it go.  But we wonder, “Can I trust God?  If I let this opportunity go by, will he provide another?”

Or we pray for emotional healing in our lives, and we hear God tell us of a bitterness we need to release.  Of a person we need to forgive.  That if we just let go, we will find that healing.

But we question God, “Why should I let this go?  I have a right to feel hurt.”

How do we respond?  Are we willing to take Jesus at his word and obey him.

You will never find healing in your life, you will never find peace and joy until you settle this one question in your heart:  “Do I trust Jesus?  Will I take him at his word?”

How about you?  Do you take Jesus at his word?

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John John 4

Breaking down the barriers

John

The disciples’ reaction to Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman is very interesting. John writes,

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman.

But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” (John 4:27)

Now what does this mean exactly? Does it mean that they had become so used to Jesus’ ways that they accepted this as natural, though no other Rabbi would be caught dead talking to a Samaritan woman, especially in public?

Or does it mean that they wanted to ask these questions, but didn’t dare?

I tend to think it was the latter.

Remember the situation. Jews tended to see Samaritans as half-breeds who had perverted the Jewish faith by mixing it with other religions. As a result, they wanted nothing to do with them.

But as the Samaritans came up from the town to see Jesus, he told his disciples,

I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. (John 4:35)

In other words, “These are not dirty, filthy, outcasts. Sinners beyond any hope of repentance. These are people that God loves.

He has been working in their hearts in ways that you don’t know. Others have been sowing seeds in their heart, and you now have the privilege to reap the harvest.”

And that day, many Samaritans came to believe in Jesus.

Jesus smashed the cultural and religious barriers people had set up to reach a people that were lost. And he calls us to do the same.

How about you? How do you see the people around you?

I look at how many Christians treat gays, for example, and it seems they view gays the same way that Jews viewed Samaritans.

Many in the church almost seem to view them as the enemy. But whatever else they may be, they are not our enemies. They are people like us, in need of a Savior.

Or how many people do you know personally that you fail to share Christ with for other reasons?

Because of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. Or because of their character or personality. Or because you simply don’t like them.

Jesus says to us, “Don’t look at them as people beyond any hope of repentance. And most certainly, don’t look at them as people worthy of contempt.

Look at them as a field that needs sowing, and harvesting. Look at them as people who need me.”

You may be the sower. You may be the reaper.

But let us break down the barriers of culture and religion, and let us break down the barriers we have set up in our own hearts and reach a lost world for Christ.

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John John 4

True worship

John

In the midst of the dialogue between Jesus and the woman at the well, we see an interesting sidelight into worship.

The woman stung by the truth of her own life, tries to divert Jesus, saying, “I see you’re a prophet. You know, our ancestors worshiped God here, but you Jews say we have to worship in Jerusalem. What do you say?”

This argument was one of the big disputes between the Jews and the Samaritans, and perhaps this woman was looking to anger Jesus by bringing this topic up.

But instead Jesus answered compassionately, saying,

Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:21-24)

In short, Jesus said, “It doesn’t matter anymore where you worship. What matters now is how you worship.”

What did Jesus mean?

First, our worship needs to be based on God’s truth. The problem with the Samaritans’ way of worship was that they worshiped “what they didn’t know.”

Years before, when the northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered and exiled, other groups of people came to inhabit Israel and intermarried with the remaining Jews.

In doing so, however, they had not only mixed races, but had mixed religions. As a result, they had a confused view of God, and you can’t worship God that way.

But God also desires that we worship from our spirits. He’s not just interested in our “form.” He wants us to worship from our hearts.

More than that, he desires that our whole lives be praise to him. That as we live each day, living for him, and touching the lives around us, that our whole lives would sing out his glory. That’s what it means to worship in spirit.

How about you? Are you worshiping in truth?

You cannot worship in truth if you have a wrong view of God as the Samaritans did. You need to accept God as he has revealed himself, not as you want him to be.

How has God revealed himself? Through his written Word, and the living Word that is his Son.

The apostle Paul wrote,

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. (Colossians 2:9)

If you want to know who God is, look at Christ.

Are you worshiping God in spirit? Not just in song, but with your whole life?

A song my friend wrote has stuck with me throughout the years. One line. One prayer.

Let my life to You be praise.

May you worship God in spirit and in truth this day, and every day.

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John John 4

Brutal honesty? Or truth in love?

John

Someone once said that the problem with brutally honest people is that most of them are more interested in being brutal than they are in being honest.

And often times, I think that’s true. They tell the truth not because they really care, but because they secretly get some pleasure from hurting the people they nail with the truth.

Jesus was someone who could be brutally honest, as was John (the Baptist). You can’t look at their interactions with the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees and not conclude that they were being brutally honest with them.

I do wonder at times why Jesus and John were so brutally honest with them. The only thing I can think of is that their heads were so thick with pride, nothing else would get through.

As brutal as truth could be, however, most times Jesus used it with a touch of compassion. It’s something that I think is seriously lacking in the church today. But we see it here.

It’s interesting that it says in this passage that Jesus “had to” go through Samaria, because while technically it was faster to travel through there, most Jews didn’t.

Samaritans were considered half-bred Jews who had abandoned the true faith of the Jews, which was technically true on both counts.

But Jesus wasn’t one to live by cultural restrictions when it contradicted his Father’s will, so he blithely ignored them, probably to the disciples’ chagrin.

And when he got there, he sent them into the city to get some food, and tired as he was, he sat down for a rest when he saw a woman approaching.

If Jesus breached cultural norms by entering Samaria, he completely shattered them by talking with this woman in public, something no Rabbi would ever do. And he starts with an innocuous request, “Will you give me a drink?” (John 4:8)

I wonder what exactly this woman was thinking. For one thing, she was apparently a woman of ill-repute even among her own people.

Most women would never come to the well at midday when it was scorching, but this woman did, probably to avoid the other women.

Furthermore, we’ll see that she had a habit of starting love affairs that had bad endings, and was “living in sin” even at that point. Could it be she wondered if Jesus was looking for an affair with her.

It seems even she had her standards, because she spat out,

You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? (John 4:9)

But Jesus spoke to her with gentility, saying,

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. (John 4:10)

What was this living water? In John 7:37-39, Jesus uses the same term for the Holy Spirit.

But this woman could only think of the physical, and so she said, “How can you give me water when you have nothing to get it with?” (John 4:11)

Jesus answered,

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:13-14)

In other words, “I’m not talking about physical water. Physical water satisfies physical thirst for a short time, but I’ll give you a water that will give you life forever. You will never thirst spiritually again.”

Perhaps this woman was blind, or perhaps she just didn’t want to acknowledge her spiritual need because of how much it hurt (or perhaps both).

Whatever the case, she seems to mock Jesus, saying, “Well then, give me this water, so I don’t have to come here all the time.” (John 4:15)

And here Jesus hits her where it hurts.

Go, call your husband and come back. (John 4:16)

Perhaps the woman winced as she said,

I have no husband. (John 4:17a)

Jesus responded,

You are right when you say you have no husband. 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. (John 4:17b-18)

Ouch.

In one second, all her hurts are laid bare.

The years of seeking someone who would love her. Giving her body to man after man trying to attain that love, perhaps sometimes stealing him from another, but ultimately being rejected to the point where the man she was with now wouldn’t even commit himself to her even for a short time.

Why did Jesus do this? Because he wanted to see her hurt? No, because he cared.

When she tried to throw up theological smokescreen, he blew it away.

And when she tried to turn away and put off any more talk for “when Messiah would come”, he said to her, “Hey. Look at me. The one you’re looking for…I’m the one.” (John 4:26)

And as she looked in his eyes, she saw someone who knew her completely. Who knew the very inner part of her heart and soul. And loved her.

How often can the same be said of us?

When we tell people the truth, do they see Christ’s love in us. More than that, can we say from our hearts, “I really do care about you?”

Christ’s love turned the heart of this woman. Truth pointed the way. But love turned her heart.

Are you merely callous pointers of the way? Or is the love of Christ through you turning hearts?