In hearing the gospel reading today about the Samaritan woman the part of the story that really stood out today was that the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. (John 4:5-42)
This woman came to a well expecting to draw water, she found someone there from another place, a place that pretty much had an instruction not to go to that particular well for water – (simply speaking there were issues of ownership rights and a social structure that kept people from mingling with folks who weren’t ‘their own’) But Jesus, called and calls everyone to be ‘his own’ – and Jesus was always reaching out to people who were considered outcasts – this woman had three strikes against her – according to baseball rules she was definitely a “three strikes and your out” kind of person. First strike against her – she was a woman; Second strike against her – she was a Samaritan and Third Strike – She had been married 5 times but now had no husband. (Had all those previous husbands died? Had she been divorced? Was she an adulterous woman? Well – that’s not the point in question is it? And if it is for anyone the answer is probably found in the story about the men who wanted to stone a woman who had been caught in adultery – Jesus basically called them all adulterers when he said if anyone is without sin cast the first stone – they all left their stones behind.) The point is that this man Jesus knew everything about her and she was so astounded that she left the water jar behind, without getting what she came for. The underlying truth is – Jesus knows everything about each one of us, women and men, children and grown ups and Jesus Christ is filled with spiritual truth that wells up in and through him to us and when we continually drink from the water of life he freely pours out upon us and into us, then we speak with words full of eternal life to one another. We stop treating others as outcasts . . . we stop treating ourselves as outcasts, we have courage to let others know we’ve experienced a conversation with someone who considers us worthy to be in his presence and he in ours.
Have you ever gone to a place expecting to get something? Have you ever gone to a store or a restaurant or maybe a public well or spring expecting to get something and unexpectedly have someone say something to you that was so astounding you left what you came with behind, you left without getting what you came for, just to go tell people about Jesus and ask them to come and hear some spiritual word of truth?
Have you ever been called ‘out’ by the world? Can you hear Jesus calling you to ‘come into the presence of the Lord’?
Have you ever left the water jar behind? Have you been willing to let Jesus fill you with words of truth that give you life instead of tear you down? So that the words that come out of your own mouth build people up instead of tear them down?
I don’t know about you – but I know I can tell when I am spiritually dry and I don’t like the words that come out of my mouth during those times. It is then that I know I must return to Jesus for yet another filling.
Praying Our Way Through Stress 