WEBVTT
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Well, friends, welcome to Bible study this week.
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We are reading the Gospel of John, and we're starting right at John chapter 4.
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Jesus is going to have a little chat with the Samaritan woman.
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And so far in the Gospel of John and chapter 1, we discover that this Gospel is a little bit different than the Synoptic Gospels.
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John's version is being told with Genesis in his left hand.
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He wants to talk about he wants he wants us to understand that this Jesus is fully divine.
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That this Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, and that comes in this Jesus.
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And greater things than even the knowledge that uh that that God knows him through and through.
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He will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
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That some kind of bridge or portal or connection point between heaven and earth is coming together in this fully God, fully human, incarnate deity, Jesus Christ.
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And so the glory of God will be on display, and heaven will be pouring into earth in God in Christ's presence.
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And that's the whole book is then really about that, what's happening in this Jesus.
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And uh and so John uh describes to us a few signs that happen.
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We've read one of them so far, that Jesus changes water into wine.
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And that's you know, if if he's trying to tell us something about creation and recreation, water is one of those basic elements that's being transformed into something more.
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Water, a basic part of creation, becomes a more like wine, wine that gladdens the human heart, wine that makes the party really a lot better than any of us were thinking it was ever going to be.
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Um, and so that's the trajectory, but it's just the starting point.
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And all the signs that will be performed by Jesus, people call them miracles, John calls them signs, they will be in anticipation of some kind of a healed or remade uh creation that becomes more than it ever could have been without God's creative redeeming spirit.
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So Jesus changes water into the wine, he he then clears the temple cords, he teaches Nicodemus and has a great conversation about who he is and what's at stake.
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For God so loved the world that he sent his only son.
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This is a God who loves this creation.
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And God's not giving up on this world.
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Uh, some of our salvation theories that the church has claimed over the years have been world-denying salvation theories.
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This world is bad, it's utter rubbish, and we're gonna escape this world, and we're gonna go to heaven, some alternate dimension.
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And this Gospel of John seems to be saying actually, God really loves this creation and loves this world and wants to redeem this world and wants to heal this world and wants to right the wrongs and bring people back together and bring about goodness and shalom so that God's glory can be all in all.
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Now we get to John chapter four.
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Let's pray and then we'll start reading.
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Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for a book like this, written so long ago that these words could land in our laps and prompt us to wonder about who you are, could urge us to take our faith more seriously, could uh cultivate imagination and creativity and goodness within our hearts.
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And God point us to your own loving goodness as we read Scripture today.
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Amen.
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John chapter four.
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Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who was baptizing, but his disciples.
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So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
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So we have to know geography matters.
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Judea is uh what we would think of as like a county or a state, it's an area.
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And Galilee is a similar type of county or state.
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It's an area, it's a region.
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Um, it's not a particular village.
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So he's leaving one region and he's going north to another region.
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Now, Judea is uh a far more important region than Galilee.
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Judea is where the capital exists, Jerusalem.
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Those mountain ranges, uh all the way down from those mountains to the Dead Sea, that's all Judea.
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And uh and if you're gonna do anything significant historically, if you're gonna do anything important, you're gonna address matters at the capital city of Jerusalem.
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Uh so why does Jesus go to Galilee and do so much ministry in Galilee?
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Can anything good come from Galilee?
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Galilee really is like a po-dunk-nothing place.
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It's not significant.
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Um, and the region that he'll have to cross to get to Galilee, Samaria, even less significant.
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And it's interesting just to remind ourselves of that, that this Jesus, a lot of the ministry he does is up north in an area that's less special.
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Why is it considered less special?
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Well, historically, for the Jewish people, after King David establishes the empire, the largest the people of God has ever had an empire, uh, his son Solomon becomes the king.
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Solomon rules with wisdom, which means he holds together the empire as best as it ever had been.
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And you get David and you get Solomon, and all things are going pretty well.
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But when Solomon dies, that's when the problems start, because the kingdom breaks in half.
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And one king claims a southern kingdom, and one king claims a northern kingdom, and those kingdoms start to go their separate ways.
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The northern kingdom gets destroyed eventually in 722 BC by the Assyrian Empire.
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Uh, and and that's the um that's an empire that was absolutely brutal.
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What they did when they took over uh uh a nation or an area is they enslaved all their inhabitants and they shipped in or imported uh different people.
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And so uh what they would the reason that would work is one, they'd pick up a bunch of slaves and they'd g pick up a bunch of manual labor.
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Uh, and and then also those people would never be able to organize, right?
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They wouldn't be able to have any kind of a peasant revolt against the empire because they were all dispersed.
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They probably hardly spoke the same language as each other.
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They purposely interbred ethnicities to mix up family lineages and family lines.
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And so what gets imported into the northern kingdom, which would have included Samaria and Galilee, are foreigners, non-Jewish people.
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And these people in Samaria, in particular, by the time of Jesus, in you know, 700 years later, the Samarians are considered half-bloods.
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They're impure Jewish people.
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Because when the Southern Kingdom in Judea, uh, which was not conquered by the Assyrians, when the Southern Kingdom finally falls, it's to an entirely different empire.
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It's to Babylon.
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And the Babylonians, they operated completely differently than the Assyrians did.
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When the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, they took all of the Jewish people with them, and the Jewish people were actually able to go into Babylon and live their Jewish identity and live their lives and uh and eventually move back to Jerusalem with some integrity, with some semblance of their heritage still intact.
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In fact, that's when the Bible really started to get written down, was when they were in uh when they were exiles and they were kind of gathered together as people thinking we should probably write down our stories that we deem so significant, so that wherever we are, we can be God's people.
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And so historically, a lot of these stories get written down in the 5th century BC.
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Um, and that's what much of the Bible is really uh is really about.
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So Samaria is not pure blood Jewish, but Judea still has that pure blood Jewish lineage.
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Uh Samaria is half-bloods.
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Um the Jewish people do not like Samaria.
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And uh and so Jesus is gonna head north to Galilee, but he's gonna have to cross through Samaria to get there.
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Well, he doesn't have to.
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He purposely goes through that town, goes through that region.
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So Jesus uh now he had to go through Samaria.
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He could have gone around, but he had to go through.
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Why does he have to go through?
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Because this Jesus is going to be the king that reunites all 12 tribes of Israel.
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The ten northern tribes that got decimated by the Assyrians, their bloodlines all became impure, uh, they're lost to history.
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He's gonna reunite all of those people.
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He's also going to reunite the two tribes that were in Judea.
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He's gonna reunite everything, even after all the destruction.
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So he had to go through Samaria in verse 4.
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So he came to a town in Samaria called Sikar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
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And now John is just teasing us, right?
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John is adding a detail.
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You know, so much of the Old Testament has these significant spots, and the Jewish people would deem these significant spots.
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And guess what?
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Some of them are in Samaria.
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So if John's modern Jewish audience does not like Samaria, he's just kind of elbowing them a little bit and saying, don't forget, you know, some of what Jacob did was right in that spot you now deem to be impure or unholy or not good enough.
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Jacob's well was there.
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And Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.
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It was about noon.
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This is the second time John has connected us to the Jacob story from Genesis, isn't it?
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Here we have Jacob's well, and earlier when Jesus was calling Nathaniel, he said, You will see heaven open, and angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man, which is really Jacob's dream, right?
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The ladder, the stairway to heaven.
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Verse 7, when a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink?
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His disciples had gone into town to buy food.
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All right, rule number one.
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If you're a good Jewish man, you do not talk to Samarians, Samaritans.
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You just don't talk to them.
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Rule number two, in a patriarchal society like this traditional Jewish culture, you do not talk to a woman in public.
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You may as well ask her to marry her.
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You may as well ask her to take her top off, because you talking to her is so taboo.
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You just don't do it.
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And so Jesus is crossing cultural boundaries and expectations left and right in this story.
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When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus spoke to her.
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He said to her, Will you give me a drink?
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Nothing inappropriate in our reading, everything inappropriate in their reading.
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But how interesting, another story about water, another story about uh hospitality.
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His disciples had gone into town to buy food.
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Verse nine, the Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman.
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How can you ask me for a drink?
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For the Jews do not associate with Samaritans, nor do they use the dishes that a Samaritan would have with her, right?
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Jesus answered her, 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.
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Just like that water turned into wine could be something more, this Jesus has something more that he can offer this woman.
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Sir, the woman said, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
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Where can you get this living water?
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Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?
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You notice how a Samaritan woman just said our Father Jacob?
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By the way, they claim the same lineage as the Jewish people.
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They have their own version of worship at this point in time in history.
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They have their own kind of cultural remembrances of who their fathers are, the patriarchal system.
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I mean, they've got their own version of scripture, and it's not that far off from the Judean version, right?
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It's really pretty similar.
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Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?
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Now we know the answer.
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Is Jesus greater than Jacob?
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Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.
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But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.
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Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
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Okay, okay, okay.
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What would water be what kind of water could you drink in which you would never thirst again?
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If you're just thinking physiologically and biologically, what we would consider real.
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What what kind of water is this?
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Like Gatorade?
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Like what is this?
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It's hard.
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It doesn't fit categories.
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You know?
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Have you guys ever seen those little um like pouches you can put in your mouth if you're giving a public speech and you suffer from dry mouth syndrome?
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Do you know what those are?
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They're these like slimy pouches that you can put in your cheek and you don't get a dry mouth.
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You never thirst.
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You can be up there speaking, and if you're the type of person that gets nervous in front of a crowd and you would get that cotton mouth or that dry mouth, and your tongue, I don't know if you've ever tried to talk in front of people when you're that thirsty, but your tongue freezes up and you literally cannot make your voice come out.
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And they make these little things that you put in your mouth, and it keeps things lubricated and moist.
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And is that what Jesus is offering?
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Some kind of literal solution to the problem of thirst?
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Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.
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Indeed, the water I give them will be become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
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Yeah.
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The water is a metaphor.
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It's the water of life.
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It's something mystic, it's something maybe more real than creation.
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It's a it's a it's an evolution of creation itself.
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We can't think of it just purely in biological or physiological terms.
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Jesus isn't just offering her special little pouches where she won't actually thirst.
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No, he's talking about a different kind of thirst.
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What do you thirst for?
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Yeah.
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What else do you thirst for?
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You thirst for knowledge?
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You thirst for love?
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Yeah.
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I'm reading a book by Rowan Williams right now, The Passions of the Soul.
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And it's written by the Desert Fathers in the fourth century.
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Or he he's picking up on the wisdom from the desert fathers.
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And they talk about passion in the same way that the Greeks talked about passion.
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And for the Greeks, there were sort of two regions of passion.
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There's a region in your chest and a region in your guts.
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And for the Greeks, the gut region is kind of like thirst.
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What do you crave?
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What do you crave and why?
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Right?
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And and every human being has cravings.
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It's very natural to have cravings.
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And Jesus is inviting this woman to understand what is it that you actually thirst for?
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And did you know that I can offer you a well spring, a deep, everlasting spring that would address those deepest cravings from now until eternity?
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I mean, that's some pretty good stuff.
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Because when we try to address those cravings, the best we can cook up in our world is limited goods, right?
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And stuff that you might buy online, food that you might eat, literal food and drink, you know.
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I I'm a big guy.
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I I overeat.
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Sometimes I'm not necessarily eating because I'm actually physically hungry.
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Sometimes I'm grabbing that spoon of ice cream because my girlfriend in high school dumped me, you know, and I'm eating those feelings, baby.
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I've got thirst.
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I've got hunger.
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I've got deep need, and I'm trying to address them in any kind of coping skill that I can cultivate, right?
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That's just every human being does this.
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And Jesus is having a conversation with this woman now about something much more profound than just the water that we drink.
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He's asking her to understand that he can address her every thirst.
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And I don't even need to read anymore.
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I think sign me up.
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I think this is true.
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And I don't fully understand it.
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Maybe when I'm 80, I will.
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Right now, I don't fully understand it, but I really believe that the God of the universe has enough love and enough goodness and enough life to offer me a kind of everlasting spring that satisfies my cravings or my thirsts, the passions of my soul.
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And the more I can try to cultivate passion for God and understand that God can address my needs more deeply than I ever could on my own, I think I'm going to become a healthier person.
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I think I'm going to become a more Christ-like person.
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Because the goodness of God filling me up will just allow me to be a better person as I go about my day.
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I'll be nicer to my kids.
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I'll be more kind to my spouse.
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You know, I won't be walking around hungry or hangry.
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We say hangry in our house.
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Do you know what hangry is?
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It's when you're hungry and then you get a little angry.
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You know?
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And if you're satiated and you're satisfied by this, well, how does Jesus call it?
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Spring of water welling up in your heart or in your soul or in your guts to eternal life, you're gonna be a better person.
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And I'm just like, sign me up.
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That's what I'm after.
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The woman said to her to him, Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.
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And she doesn't understand what he's saying, does she?
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She thinks he's got some magic bullet, some silver spoon, some device, some product, some type of water that will solve her physiological and biological needs.
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That's not what Jesus is quite talking about.
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He says to her, Go, call your husband and come back.
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I have no husband, she replied.
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Uh-oh.
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Jesus sees that there's deeper thirsts in this woman, deeper needs, deeper issues.
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:20.480
Maybe coming to get water at noon is her way of avoiding the crowd of women who come first thing in the morning.
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:22.799
You think about that?
00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:28.000
Why is this woman coming to the well in the heat of the day?
00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:37.200
Why is she showing up at noon to draw water after the kids have already needed to brush their teeth in the morning and get off to school?
00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:40.400
And why is she showing up at noon?
00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:44.079
That well is busy at dawn.
00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:50.319
And it's not necessarily busy in a bad way that's crowded and you can't get your water.
00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:59.599
It's busy in a good way, like the pickup line at the bus, where you get an opportunity to talk to all the moms and find out: oh, shoot, we have that homework assignment.
00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:03.039
Oh, what's happening at school?
00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:05.359
What did that teacher say?
00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:09.680
It's a gossip center for the town.
00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:14.559
We can assume that this woman wants to avoid the gossip.
00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:17.759
She's not showing up at dawn to draw water.
00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:21.759
She's coming at noon in the heat of the day when nobody's there.
00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:23.039
She's like.
00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:29.359
She's like she doesn't want to be seen.
00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:31.519
She doesn't want to be seen.
00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:35.839
And this Jesus picks this woman and he sees her through and through.
00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:38.559
So he just gets right to the heart of the matter.
00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:40.480
Uh go call your husband and come back.
00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:42.960
I have no husband, she write, she replied.
00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:47.279
At verse 17, and Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband.
00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:54.079
The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.
00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:57.039
What you have just said is quite true.
00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:10.079
Now, there could be dozens of reasons why a woman in Samaria in this time period would have five different husbands and then ultimately settle on living with a guy who she's not married to.
00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:15.920
And some of those could be really good reasons, and some of those could be really sad reasons.
00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:21.359
It is quite possible that this woman is some kind of a victim, right?
00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:23.359
Shhew.
00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:32.000
It's quite possible that if you lined up those five husbands, some of them have not been good to her.
00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:38.400
You know, and and maybe this most recent boyfriend who's a living boyfriend is not taking care of her.
00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:40.960
Why would he not want to marry her?
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:41.519
Right?
00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:47.279
He wants maybe something on the side, but doesn't want the commitment or something along those lines.
00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:48.640
We don't know her story.
00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:49.839
Clearly, Jesus does.
00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:53.279
And clearly, Jesus is not afraid to talk to this woman.
00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:58.400
He's not like holding up his fingers saying, get away from me, sinful woman.
00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:02.400
No, he's having a real, authentic, honest, kind conversation.
00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:05.680
He just offered this woman living water, right?
00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:07.759
Water that could spring up in her soul.
00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:11.039
He's offering to address her deepest thirsts and hungers.
00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:12.559
He wants to help this woman.
00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:14.319
He's being good and kind to her.
00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:18.720
Well women went marrying the woman who wants to be already.
00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:22.480
I mean, not much.
00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:37.200
Like you in a patriarchal, honor-shamed society with really no what we would consider modern women's rights, there, you know, a woman is totally dependent upon the family system.
00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:39.359
So who is her family?
00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:47.519
You know, if her parents aren't taking care of her, uh, and then a husband's not taking care of her, what option does she have?
00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:54.400
She can't like put on different clothes and act like a man and go get a job as a carpenter, right?
00:24:54.640 --> 00:25:01.839
Like there was a role for women in this society, and it is to bear children, and it is to be within the house and manage a household.
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:12.640
And there's a whole behind the scenes, like this is your role, and then you get to go out in public during certain times of day to go get water, and that's your chance to go and gossip with the other ladies.
00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:16.880
And this woman is she's not even a part of that now, right?
00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:24.000
Whatever has happened to her, she's she's not even in the in-crowd with the other women.
00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:32.960
And trust me, the Bible is filled with stories where this type of woman is lifted up, is healed, is empowered.
00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:43.359
Some of the most bold and brave early Christians were women who convert their entire household to this Jesus who sees them with dignity and respect.
00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:51.119
Women who uh ask more of their husbands and end up converting their husbands, right?
00:25:51.279 --> 00:26:06.400
There's so many stories of brave women that hear this gospel message and help turn their whole household into an even better version of their household, a more kind version, a more generous version, a more thoughtful version.
00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:10.079
But yeah, in the ancient world, not a ton of opportunity for women.
00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:25.680
Um Jesus sees right through her, he knows her entire story, just like he knew Nathaniel, and he knows this woman is thirsty on a certain level, and it might just be thirsty for safety or for belonging or for what have you.
00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:31.839
So Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband.
00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:36.720
Verse 18, the fact is you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.
00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:38.960
What you have just said is quite true.
00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:44.079
Sir, verse 19, Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet.
00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:50.559
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.
00:26:50.720 --> 00:26:52.319
Ah, that gets to the heart of the issue.
00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:55.759
This really is a story about the northern kingdom versus the southern kingdom.
00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:07.759
The first thing that happens when the two kingdoms separate is well, the northerners can't go down to Jerusalem or go up to Jerusalem to worship, so the northern kingdom has to create their own holy places.
00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:10.480
And this is what she's identifying.
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:16.079
You Southerners used to say that we had to go to Jerusalem to worship at the temple.
00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:19.759
And we didn't necessarily think that.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:23.039
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain.
00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:25.440
Now, what's Jesus gonna do about that?
00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:28.720
She's she's challenging him.
00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:35.759
This woman is, she's got some pep, she's got some attitude, she's got some.
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:38.000
All right, you're gonna bring up my past.
00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:39.519
Let's talk about you.
00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:43.039
Are you a southerner who's pro-Jerusalem?
00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:45.759
Because this mountain used to be holy.
00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:47.279
Are are you a prophet?
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:49.839
Let's talk about who you are, Jesus.
00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:52.559
See how she turned the tables a little bit?
00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:54.480
I like this lady.
00:27:54.799 --> 00:27:55.920
Good for you.
00:27:56.240 --> 00:27:58.960
Ask these questions to Jesus.
00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:05.599
Don't just sit there and let Jesus do to you what he might want to do to you.
00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:08.400
Sit up and say, hold on a second.
00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:10.720
Who is it that you say you are?
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:16.400
Why is it that you're interested in giving me something to address my thirst?
00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:17.519
Right?
00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:20.000
I like that she asserts herself.
00:28:20.640 --> 00:28:30.400
Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:32.960
Whoa, she is not expecting that.
00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:42.400
You Samaritans worship what you do not know, we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:58.799
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:06.000
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.
00:29:06.160 --> 00:29:16.640
Now, if you're this woman, and for your entire life long, men have told you this is the church you go to over here, or this is the church you go to over here.
00:29:16.799 --> 00:29:24.960
And Jesus is saying there is a time when no human being can tell you where you must worship.
00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:36.559
There will be a time when location matters less than the human heart, and what God will be interested in is getting a hold of you in your heart.
00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:46.799
God's spirit is wild and free and readily available to everyone who might open themselves up to this spirit.
00:29:49.359 --> 00:30:03.279
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Galilee, these places that might compete with each other for holiness are all going to be transformed.
00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:28.160
You'll be able to live in Indiana someday, or Michigan, or Colorado, or Israel, or Iran, or China, or Russia, or Antarctica, and be in as holy a place as any other being or any other person might be.
00:30:29.759 --> 00:30:31.519
This is dangerous.
00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:35.440
This is dangerous theology.
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:50.720
Because it will disrupt the boundaries and the principalities and the powers that are so dug-in and rigid in this woman's world and in Jesus' world.
00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:56.880
So much of religion, when it becomes institutionalized, becomes about location.
00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:01.519
I mean, think about have you ever been to the Vatican?
00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:02.799
Any of you?
00:31:03.599 --> 00:31:04.079
Yeah.
00:31:04.640 --> 00:31:08.160
Can you just walk into the Vatican and go anywhere you want?
00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:24.559
There are places that are just off limits.
00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:32.880
If you're uh a Muslim person trying to visit the shrine on the Dome of the Rock, can you just go anywhere you want?
00:31:33.119 --> 00:31:36.160
If you're a Muslim woman, are you allowed to go anywhere you want?
00:31:37.119 --> 00:31:39.200
No, there are boundary lines.
00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:42.960
And you must not go to this spot because why?
00:31:43.279 --> 00:31:47.359
Because the institution is saying this spot is too holy for women?
00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:49.039
I mean, seriously?
00:31:49.279 --> 00:32:00.160
In in the temple, in the temple system, there are literal courts where Gentiles are allowed to go and Jewish people can go further up and deeper in.
00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:04.960
There's a court for women, and women are not allowed to go further up or deeper in.
00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:10.319
And then there's there's a section where only ordained clergy and priests are allowed to go.
00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:18.960
And then there's a section within that where only the high priest is allowed to go, and only on certain days of the year in the Holy of Holies.
00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:32.400
And then the most inner room, the Holy of Holies, when he would go in there, he would, the high priest would literally tie a rope around his ankle in case he died from experiencing the presence of God's glory in the most holy place.
00:32:32.559 --> 00:32:34.480
The other priests wouldn't have to go in and get him.
00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:36.240
They could just pull the rope out.
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:49.119
This idea that there are spots that are so pure and so holy, and only certain people get to achieve them or go to them or witness them.
00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:51.599
Jesus is totally debunking.
00:32:51.920 --> 00:33:15.279
I mean, here he's talking to a woman in Samaria and essentially saying to her, Listen, pal, there's gonna be a time when the full holiness of God is as readily available to you as it was to that great high priest Isaiah, as it is to the current chief priest.
00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:17.759
That's nuts.
00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:19.920
It's totally bonkers.
00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:29.119
It's so radically egalitarian, it is so radically equal and free and wonderful and wild and disruptive.
00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:40.160
Because the institution would like to control what we know about God, what we think about God, what we believe about God.
00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:57.200
And here he's saying, Sister, a time is coming and is has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth.
00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:00.960
For they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
00:34:01.279 --> 00:34:05.839
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.
00:34:06.079 --> 00:34:10.320
This isn't just wild and free spirit, this is actually true spirit as well.
00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:14.079
This is as real as it gets, and it's readily available for everyone.
00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:17.360
The time is coming and has now come.
00:34:17.840 --> 00:34:20.960
I mean, he's saying the fullness of time is now.
00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:29.360
This is we talk about John, one of his operative uh key words.
00:34:30.559 --> 00:34:34.320
Not just sight, not just belief, but time.
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:40.559
My time has not yet come, Jesus says before he turns the water into the wine.
00:34:40.719 --> 00:34:45.119
Now, as he's talking to the Samaritan woman, he's saying the time is coming and has come.
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:48.719
So it's both, it's a future and present reality.
00:34:49.119 --> 00:34:55.920
And then by the end of John's gospel, as Jesus goes to the cross, he will say, My hour is now.
00:34:56.639 --> 00:34:58.239
The time is here.
00:34:58.960 --> 00:35:12.000
And 2,000 years later, the the language we use is in the fullness of doc in the fullness of time, at the crisis point of historical linear time, God entered our world and saved humanity.
00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:19.760
How do you feel when you consider a conversation like this with the Samaritan at the well?
00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:24.079
Does it confuse you, excite you?
00:35:24.239 --> 00:35:28.880
Does it make you ask questions or wonder things?
00:35:31.119 --> 00:35:34.880
I thought he was gonna scold her for having too many husbands.
00:35:35.360 --> 00:35:36.960
And he didn't, did he?
00:35:37.519 --> 00:35:40.000
He's actually I know who you are.
00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:52.400
And I'm telling you that a person like you, a person like any of us, can have access to God in spirit and in truth.
00:35:52.639 --> 00:35:57.360
What God has always wanted is each of our hearts.
00:35:57.599 --> 00:35:59.360
That's what God's always wanted.
00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:02.480
He did not.
00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:09.440
He didn't judge her for having five husbands, he didn't judge her for being a Samaritan.
00:36:10.079 --> 00:36:15.039
Now, he he is critical of her exclusive theology.
00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:18.000
We worship over here, and y'all just want us to worship over there.
00:36:18.079 --> 00:36:22.159
And he goes, Hold on a second, don't lump me in with Judeans.
00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:23.920
Right?
00:36:25.199 --> 00:36:30.400
They've got some limitations, and you've got some limitations, and you're both gonna need to be transformed.
00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:31.360
Right?
00:36:33.119 --> 00:36:37.920
Verse 25, the woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming.
00:36:38.079 --> 00:36:38.960
Now she gets it.
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:40.079
He's not a prophet.
00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:42.079
She's using that word Messiah.
00:36:42.239 --> 00:36:58.320
That word, uh someday there will be a king, a son of David, a messianic figure who will redeem and save and drive out the pagans, and maybe even tie back together this empire that has frazzled.
00:36:59.199 --> 00:37:02.559
The woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming.
00:37:02.719 --> 00:37:08.159
When he comes, he will explain everything to us, then Jesus declared.
00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:14.559
I, the one speaking to you, I am he.
00:37:19.840 --> 00:37:27.280
Now, if this doesn't just blow your head wide open or crack open your heart, I don't know what will.
00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:33.840
He just told the first person he's going to tell that he is the Messiah.
00:37:34.400 --> 00:37:39.760
And who is the first person that is worthy of that information?
00:37:40.400 --> 00:37:46.559
Who is the first person that is worthy to know his real self?
00:37:48.159 --> 00:37:52.320
It's a Samaritan woman who's got five husbands and is living with some guy.
00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:54.480
I mean, come on.
00:37:55.599 --> 00:38:04.719
If you are a woman living in the ancient world and you're reading this story for the very first time, this gets you really excited.
00:38:05.360 --> 00:38:07.440
Because maybe it's true.
00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:17.280
Maybe it's true that God does not see some pecking order between male and female, or some pecking order between holy and unholy.
00:38:17.519 --> 00:38:29.519
Maybe God, God, this Jesus can stoop into any person's life and say, Yeah, yeah, this is who I am, and this is who I know that you are.
00:38:29.840 --> 00:38:32.000
And let's do this life together.
00:38:32.480 --> 00:38:33.760
My goodness.
00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:37.760
So we get our first I am statement.
00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:40.719
This is another thing John is gonna do with Jesus.
00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:49.119
Some of the most poignant, pressing, uh, high-stakes situations, and some of the quietest situations like this.
00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:52.480
Jesus is gonna say, I am ego a me.
00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:54.079
That's the Greek.
00:38:55.119 --> 00:39:02.880
John takes the name of God given to Moses at the burning bush.
00:39:03.119 --> 00:39:11.199
When Moses first encounters Yahweh, and it's such a holy, sacred thing that he has to take off his sandals.
00:39:11.360 --> 00:39:12.400
Remember that scene?
00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:19.199
And Moses steps closer to the burning bush and he asks this God who he is, what his name is.
00:39:19.360 --> 00:39:26.000
If you can learn the name of the God, then you have some kind of relationship now with this God, with this deity.
00:39:26.079 --> 00:39:36.079
And the name that Yahweh gives to Moses is in Hebrew, it's kind of a uh just the basic root verb to be.
00:39:36.400 --> 00:39:46.000
I exist, I am, I am, I am who was, who is, who always will be, the great I am.
00:39:46.719 --> 00:39:58.880
And John takes this Yahweh title, this name of God, the great I Am, and he just puts it on Jesus' lips again and again and again and again throughout this gospel.
00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:10.960
In case we don't get it, the God who liberated the slaves from Egypt, the God who shaped the people of God into who they are, this God is incarnate in Jesus.
00:40:11.119 --> 00:40:19.760
So he's walking around saying, I am, I am he, I am the one, I am ego a me, I am the Messiah.
00:40:25.280 --> 00:40:26.159
You didn't know.
00:40:26.800 --> 00:40:26.960
Yeah.
00:40:35.440 --> 00:40:38.000
Well, I don't I don't have the mind of Christ.
00:40:38.159 --> 00:40:54.880
I don't know exactly what he was thinking, but if I were him and I'm trying to prove a point that these Samaritan people matter, that I love them and I'm here for them just as much as I'm here for the folks in Jerusalem, I'm gonna look at that well.
00:40:55.119 --> 00:40:58.400
I'm gonna cross through that town and find Jacob's well.
00:40:58.719 --> 00:41:18.000
I'm gonna find the the most lowest rung of the social totem ladder, and I'm gonna pick that one to reveal myself because I want to prove the point that the gospels continue to prove that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
00:41:18.239 --> 00:41:25.199
So you've got to go and find the lost, whatever that means.
00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:29.599
You've got to go and find the wounded and heal them.
00:41:29.840 --> 00:41:37.119
You've got to go and find the sick and say, You deserve goodness and well-being.
00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:44.800
We don't, right, right, exactly.
00:41:48.559 --> 00:41:50.559
Well, she said she had five husbands.
00:41:50.880 --> 00:41:53.199
Or he said that, so yeah, I think so.
00:41:54.000 --> 00:42:01.840
Um let's let's try to finish some of this scene.
00:42:02.079 --> 00:42:05.679
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised.
00:42:05.920 --> 00:42:07.519
Understatement of the day.
00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:12.960
Surprised to find Jesus talking with a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman.
00:42:13.199 --> 00:42:17.679
But no one asked, What do you want, or why are you talking to her?
00:42:17.920 --> 00:42:25.199
Then, leaving the water jar, the woman went back to town and said to the people, Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.
00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:26.480
Could this be a man?
00:42:26.639 --> 00:42:27.599
Here's that repetition.
00:42:27.679 --> 00:42:29.840
Come and see, come and see, come and see.
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:36.639
She becomes quickly a disciple, just like the disciples Jesus was calling in John chapter 1.
00:42:36.800 --> 00:42:39.760
Come and see, Nathaniel, you've got to see this.
00:42:40.400 --> 00:42:43.039
This guy knew everything about me.
00:42:43.840 --> 00:42:47.360
My deepest secrets, the stuff I haven't even told you, Mom.
00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:48.800
He knows it all.
00:42:48.960 --> 00:42:50.639
This guy's gotta be the Messiah.
00:42:50.719 --> 00:42:55.679
And he's offering eternal water, living water, some kind of water you drink it and you never thirst.
00:42:55.760 --> 00:42:56.960
I mean, this is exciting.
00:42:57.199 --> 00:42:59.760
She does not fully understand who this Jesus is.
00:42:59.840 --> 00:43:03.840
And yet it's compelling enough for her to go and get the townspeople, come and see.
00:43:04.400 --> 00:43:06.880
See a man who told me everything I ever did.
00:43:07.280 --> 00:43:08.480
Could this be the Messiah?
00:43:08.559 --> 00:43:11.119
They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
00:43:11.360 --> 00:43:15.440
Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat something.
00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:18.960
But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about.
00:43:19.119 --> 00:43:28.159
The disciples, concerned about the ways of this world, concerned about a hungry belly, concerned about the passions of the soul, Jesus is saying, Ah, listen, food, come on.
00:43:28.719 --> 00:43:32.400
I've got other concerns, and I've got other food that I can eat.
00:43:34.559 --> 00:43:37.679
I have food to eat that you know nothing about.
00:43:38.239 --> 00:43:42.239
Then his disciples said to each other, Could someone have brought him food?
00:43:42.400 --> 00:43:46.559
Again, Jesus operating on a totally alternate level than these disciples.
00:43:46.639 --> 00:43:48.960
They've got the same ignorance that this woman had.
00:43:49.199 --> 00:43:52.320
Water that doesn't make you thirsty, that must be like real water, but better.
00:43:52.400 --> 00:43:53.360
It's like Gatorade.
00:43:53.679 --> 00:43:56.000
Food, food, did somebody feed him?
00:43:56.400 --> 00:43:57.280
They don't understand.
00:43:57.360 --> 00:44:01.119
He's talking about hunger and thirst on a deeper level.
00:44:01.440 --> 00:44:09.840
My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
00:44:10.079 --> 00:44:17.599
I mean, we should almost stop on this line because it's too good and we'll want we want to think about it this week.
00:44:17.920 --> 00:44:19.519
To finish his work.
00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:24.239
What is the work that God the Father began?
00:44:26.480 --> 00:44:30.960
In the beginning, what work does God first do?
00:44:32.960 --> 00:44:34.800
He created the world.
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:53.119
So when Jesus says, My job, my food, my calling, my the deepest passion of my soul is to do the will of God or the will of him who sent me and to finish his work, what does that mean to finish his work?
00:44:58.880 --> 00:45:29.039
Whatever the purpose of creation is or was, whatever God's reason for cultivating life and driving out chaos and proclaiming light into darkness, whatever God had in mind when God said, There shall be salamanders, there shall be mallard ducks, there shall be people with red hair, and some will be bald.
00:45:29.519 --> 00:45:55.360
Whatever God intended, when God began the work of creation and asked this creation to be fruitful and generative and creative themselves, when God began creation and gave creation permission to recreate and recreate and recreate, whatever that was, Jesus is here to fulfill it and finish it, to bring it to its fullness.
00:45:56.639 --> 00:46:00.400
This is not an escapist theology.
00:46:00.960 --> 00:46:02.400
This is shalom.
00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:16.480
This is wholeness, wholeheartedness, full on healing and goodness and love and light, readily available for you today and tomorrow and the next day and someday as well.
00:46:17.039 --> 00:46:21.840
We'll leave there, leave it there with the finish his work phrase, and we'll pick that up next week.
00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:23.199
Grace and peace, everybody.
00:46:23.360 --> 00:46:24.639
Have a wonderful week.
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.879
Well, friends, welcome to Bible study this week.
00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:08.480
We are reading the Gospel of John, and we're starting right at John chapter 4.
00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:11.919
Jesus is going to have a little chat with the Samaritan woman.
00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:19.199
And so far in the Gospel of John and chapter 1, we discover that this Gospel is a little bit different than the Synoptic Gospels.
00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:24.480
John's version is being told with Genesis in his left hand.
00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:34.000
He wants to talk about he wants he wants us to understand that this Jesus is fully divine.
00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:40.399
That this Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, and that comes in this Jesus.
00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:11.040
And greater things than even the knowledge that uh that that God knows him through and through.
00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:16.799
He will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:28.879
That some kind of bridge or portal or connection point between heaven and earth is coming together in this fully God, fully human, incarnate deity, Jesus Christ.
00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:35.680
And so the glory of God will be on display, and heaven will be pouring into earth in God in Christ's presence.
00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:41.359
And that's the whole book is then really about that, what's happening in this Jesus.
00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:47.200
And uh and so John uh describes to us a few signs that happen.
00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:51.760
We've read one of them so far, that Jesus changes water into wine.
00:01:51.920 --> 00:02:03.599
And that's you know, if if he's trying to tell us something about creation and recreation, water is one of those basic elements that's being transformed into something more.
00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:18.960
Water, a basic part of creation, becomes a more like wine, wine that gladdens the human heart, wine that makes the party really a lot better than any of us were thinking it was ever going to be.
00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:23.439
Um, and so that's the trajectory, but it's just the starting point.
00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:43.039
And all the signs that will be performed by Jesus, people call them miracles, John calls them signs, they will be in anticipation of some kind of a healed or remade uh creation that becomes more than it ever could have been without God's creative redeeming spirit.
00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:53.439
So Jesus changes water into the wine, he he then clears the temple cords, he teaches Nicodemus and has a great conversation about who he is and what's at stake.
00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:56.560
For God so loved the world that he sent his only son.
00:02:56.960 --> 00:02:59.199
This is a God who loves this creation.
00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:02.240
And God's not giving up on this world.
00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:09.919
Uh, some of our salvation theories that the church has claimed over the years have been world-denying salvation theories.
00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:16.400
This world is bad, it's utter rubbish, and we're gonna escape this world, and we're gonna go to heaven, some alternate dimension.
00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:33.759
And this Gospel of John seems to be saying actually, God really loves this creation and loves this world and wants to redeem this world and wants to heal this world and wants to right the wrongs and bring people back together and bring about goodness and shalom so that God's glory can be all in all.
00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:38.800
Now we get to John chapter four.
00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:41.840
Let's pray and then we'll start reading.
00:03:42.080 --> 00:04:07.919
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for a book like this, written so long ago that these words could land in our laps and prompt us to wonder about who you are, could urge us to take our faith more seriously, could uh cultivate imagination and creativity and goodness within our hearts.
00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:14.800
And God point us to your own loving goodness as we read Scripture today.
00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:15.759
Amen.
00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:17.920
John chapter four.
00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:29.199
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who was baptizing, but his disciples.
00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:34.720
So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:38.480
So we have to know geography matters.
00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:45.680
Judea is uh what we would think of as like a county or a state, it's an area.
00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:51.360
And Galilee is a similar type of county or state.
00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:53.199
It's an area, it's a region.
00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:55.920
Um, it's not a particular village.
00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:00.079
So he's leaving one region and he's going north to another region.
00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:05.120
Now, Judea is uh a far more important region than Galilee.
00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:09.519
Judea is where the capital exists, Jerusalem.
00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:16.480
Those mountain ranges, uh all the way down from those mountains to the Dead Sea, that's all Judea.
00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:26.240
And uh and if you're gonna do anything significant historically, if you're gonna do anything important, you're gonna address matters at the capital city of Jerusalem.
00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:32.000
Uh so why does Jesus go to Galilee and do so much ministry in Galilee?
00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:33.920
Can anything good come from Galilee?
00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:37.199
Galilee really is like a po-dunk-nothing place.
00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:39.040
It's not significant.
00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:48.000
Um, and the region that he'll have to cross to get to Galilee, Samaria, even less significant.
00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:59.600
And it's interesting just to remind ourselves of that, that this Jesus, a lot of the ministry he does is up north in an area that's less special.
00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:02.240
Why is it considered less special?
00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:14.319
Well, historically, for the Jewish people, after King David establishes the empire, the largest the people of God has ever had an empire, uh, his son Solomon becomes the king.
00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:20.480
Solomon rules with wisdom, which means he holds together the empire as best as it ever had been.
00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:24.879
And you get David and you get Solomon, and all things are going pretty well.
00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:31.439
But when Solomon dies, that's when the problems start, because the kingdom breaks in half.
00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:41.439
And one king claims a southern kingdom, and one king claims a northern kingdom, and those kingdoms start to go their separate ways.
00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:50.160
The northern kingdom gets destroyed eventually in 722 BC by the Assyrian Empire.
00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:57.920
Uh, and and that's the um that's an empire that was absolutely brutal.
00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:10.079
What they did when they took over uh uh a nation or an area is they enslaved all their inhabitants and they shipped in or imported uh different people.
00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:18.399
And so uh what they would the reason that would work is one, they'd pick up a bunch of slaves and they'd g pick up a bunch of manual labor.
00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:24.079
Uh, and and then also those people would never be able to organize, right?
00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:30.720
They wouldn't be able to have any kind of a peasant revolt against the empire because they were all dispersed.
00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:34.160
They probably hardly spoke the same language as each other.
00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:40.879
They purposely interbred ethnicities to mix up family lineages and family lines.
00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:50.560
And so what gets imported into the northern kingdom, which would have included Samaria and Galilee, are foreigners, non-Jewish people.
00:07:51.120 --> 00:08:01.759
And these people in Samaria, in particular, by the time of Jesus, in you know, 700 years later, the Samarians are considered half-bloods.
00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:04.319
They're impure Jewish people.
00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:14.319
Because when the Southern Kingdom in Judea, uh, which was not conquered by the Assyrians, when the Southern Kingdom finally falls, it's to an entirely different empire.
00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:15.759
It's to Babylon.
00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.480
And the Babylonians, they operated completely differently than the Assyrians did.
00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:43.039
When the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, they took all of the Jewish people with them, and the Jewish people were actually able to go into Babylon and live their Jewish identity and live their lives and uh and eventually move back to Jerusalem with some integrity, with some semblance of their heritage still intact.
00:08:43.279 --> 00:09:02.799
In fact, that's when the Bible really started to get written down, was when they were in uh when they were exiles and they were kind of gathered together as people thinking we should probably write down our stories that we deem so significant, so that wherever we are, we can be God's people.
00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:07.440
And so historically, a lot of these stories get written down in the 5th century BC.
00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:14.159
Um, and that's what much of the Bible is really uh is really about.
00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:22.799
So Samaria is not pure blood Jewish, but Judea still has that pure blood Jewish lineage.
00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:25.279
Uh Samaria is half-bloods.
00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:28.799
Um the Jewish people do not like Samaria.
00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:37.200
And uh and so Jesus is gonna head north to Galilee, but he's gonna have to cross through Samaria to get there.
00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:39.039
Well, he doesn't have to.
00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:43.440
He purposely goes through that town, goes through that region.
00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:47.279
So Jesus uh now he had to go through Samaria.
00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.879
He could have gone around, but he had to go through.
00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:53.360
Why does he have to go through?
00:09:53.679 --> 00:09:58.639
Because this Jesus is going to be the king that reunites all 12 tribes of Israel.
00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:07.120
The ten northern tribes that got decimated by the Assyrians, their bloodlines all became impure, uh, they're lost to history.
00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:09.759
He's gonna reunite all of those people.
00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:13.200
He's also going to reunite the two tribes that were in Judea.
00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:16.720
He's gonna reunite everything, even after all the destruction.
00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:20.320
So he had to go through Samaria in verse 4.
00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:29.759
So he came to a town in Samaria called Sikar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:32.559
And now John is just teasing us, right?
00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:35.120
John is adding a detail.
00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:42.799
You know, so much of the Old Testament has these significant spots, and the Jewish people would deem these significant spots.
00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:43.679
And guess what?
00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:45.440
Some of them are in Samaria.
00:10:45.919 --> 00:11:02.480
So if John's modern Jewish audience does not like Samaria, he's just kind of elbowing them a little bit and saying, don't forget, you know, some of what Jacob did was right in that spot you now deem to be impure or unholy or not good enough.
00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:05.279
Jacob's well was there.
00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:11.840
And Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.
00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:14.320
It was about noon.
00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:19.440
This is the second time John has connected us to the Jacob story from Genesis, isn't it?
00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:30.559
Here we have Jacob's well, and earlier when Jesus was calling Nathaniel, he said, You will see heaven open, and angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man, which is really Jacob's dream, right?
00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:33.120
The ladder, the stairway to heaven.
00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:42.000
Verse 7, when a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink?
00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:45.679
His disciples had gone into town to buy food.
00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:47.440
All right, rule number one.
00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:53.039
If you're a good Jewish man, you do not talk to Samarians, Samaritans.
00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:55.360
You just don't talk to them.
00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:03.360
Rule number two, in a patriarchal society like this traditional Jewish culture, you do not talk to a woman in public.
00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:05.919
You may as well ask her to marry her.
00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:11.759
You may as well ask her to take her top off, because you talking to her is so taboo.
00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:13.600
You just don't do it.
00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:20.480
And so Jesus is crossing cultural boundaries and expectations left and right in this story.
00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:26.000
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus spoke to her.
00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:30.480
He said to her, Will you give me a drink?
00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:37.120
Nothing inappropriate in our reading, everything inappropriate in their reading.
00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:45.120
But how interesting, another story about water, another story about uh hospitality.
00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:48.399
His disciples had gone into town to buy food.
00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:55.519
Verse nine, the Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman.
00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:59.200
How can you ask me for a drink?
00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:07.279
For the Jews do not associate with Samaritans, nor do they use the dishes that a Samaritan would have with her, right?
00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:22.639
Jesus answered her, 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.
00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:30.799
Just like that water turned into wine could be something more, this Jesus has something more that he can offer this woman.
00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:37.039
Sir, the woman said, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:40.480
Where can you get this living water?
00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:49.919
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?
00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:53.440
You notice how a Samaritan woman just said our Father Jacob?
00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:58.320
By the way, they claim the same lineage as the Jewish people.
00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:02.879
They have their own version of worship at this point in time in history.
00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:09.200
They have their own kind of cultural remembrances of who their fathers are, the patriarchal system.
00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:16.320
I mean, they've got their own version of scripture, and it's not that far off from the Judean version, right?
00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:18.320
It's really pretty similar.
00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:26.240
Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?
00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:29.600
Now we know the answer.
00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:31.840
Is Jesus greater than Jacob?
00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:40.480
Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.
00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:45.679
But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.
00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:51.679
Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:53.360
Okay, okay, okay.
00:14:53.840 --> 00:15:00.720
What would water be what kind of water could you drink in which you would never thirst again?
00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:08.240
If you're just thinking physiologically and biologically, what we would consider real.
00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:10.399
What what kind of water is this?
00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:11.600
Like Gatorade?
00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:12.879
Like what is this?
00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:15.360
It's hard.
00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:17.440
It doesn't fit categories.
00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:18.480
You know?
00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:28.080
Have you guys ever seen those little um like pouches you can put in your mouth if you're giving a public speech and you suffer from dry mouth syndrome?
00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:29.360
Do you know what those are?
00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:34.240
They're these like slimy pouches that you can put in your cheek and you don't get a dry mouth.
00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:35.279
You never thirst.
00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:50.159
You can be up there speaking, and if you're the type of person that gets nervous in front of a crowd and you would get that cotton mouth or that dry mouth, and your tongue, I don't know if you've ever tried to talk in front of people when you're that thirsty, but your tongue freezes up and you literally cannot make your voice come out.
00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:58.320
And they make these little things that you put in your mouth, and it keeps things lubricated and moist.
00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:01.759
And is that what Jesus is offering?
00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:05.679
Some kind of literal solution to the problem of thirst?
00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:09.840
Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.
00:16:09.919 --> 00:16:16.240
Indeed, the water I give them will be become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:23.919
Yeah.
00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:26.240
The water is a metaphor.
00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:28.080
It's the water of life.
00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:32.559
It's something mystic, it's something maybe more real than creation.
00:16:32.639 --> 00:16:35.360
It's a it's a it's an evolution of creation itself.
00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:39.279
We can't think of it just purely in biological or physiological terms.
00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:45.120
Jesus isn't just offering her special little pouches where she won't actually thirst.
00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:48.080
No, he's talking about a different kind of thirst.
00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:50.720
What do you thirst for?
00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:53.600
Yeah.
00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:55.440
What else do you thirst for?
00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:57.600
You thirst for knowledge?
00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:00.720
You thirst for love?
00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:02.639
Yeah.
00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:06.640
I'm reading a book by Rowan Williams right now, The Passions of the Soul.
00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:10.000
And it's written by the Desert Fathers in the fourth century.
00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:13.440
Or he he's picking up on the wisdom from the desert fathers.
00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:18.960
And they talk about passion in the same way that the Greeks talked about passion.
00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:22.319
And for the Greeks, there were sort of two regions of passion.
00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:24.880
There's a region in your chest and a region in your guts.
00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:30.319
And for the Greeks, the gut region is kind of like thirst.
00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:32.160
What do you crave?
00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:36.400
What do you crave and why?
00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:38.160
Right?
00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:40.640
And and every human being has cravings.
00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:42.720
It's very natural to have cravings.
00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:47.519
And Jesus is inviting this woman to understand what is it that you actually thirst for?
00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:57.599
And did you know that I can offer you a well spring, a deep, everlasting spring that would address those deepest cravings from now until eternity?
00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:00.000
I mean, that's some pretty good stuff.
00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:07.440
Because when we try to address those cravings, the best we can cook up in our world is limited goods, right?
00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:13.119
And stuff that you might buy online, food that you might eat, literal food and drink, you know.
00:18:13.440 --> 00:18:14.720
I I'm a big guy.
00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:16.079
I I overeat.
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:20.960
Sometimes I'm not necessarily eating because I'm actually physically hungry.
00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:29.039
Sometimes I'm grabbing that spoon of ice cream because my girlfriend in high school dumped me, you know, and I'm eating those feelings, baby.
00:18:29.279 --> 00:18:30.240
I've got thirst.
00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:31.279
I've got hunger.
00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:38.640
I've got deep need, and I'm trying to address them in any kind of coping skill that I can cultivate, right?
00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:40.880
That's just every human being does this.
00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:47.519
And Jesus is having a conversation with this woman now about something much more profound than just the water that we drink.
00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:52.319
He's asking her to understand that he can address her every thirst.
00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:55.759
And I don't even need to read anymore.
00:18:55.839 --> 00:18:57.200
I think sign me up.
00:18:57.359 --> 00:18:58.720
I think this is true.
00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:01.440
And I don't fully understand it.
00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:03.759
Maybe when I'm 80, I will.
00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:28.960
Right now, I don't fully understand it, but I really believe that the God of the universe has enough love and enough goodness and enough life to offer me a kind of everlasting spring that satisfies my cravings or my thirsts, the passions of my soul.
00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:43.759
And the more I can try to cultivate passion for God and understand that God can address my needs more deeply than I ever could on my own, I think I'm going to become a healthier person.
00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:46.400
I think I'm going to become a more Christ-like person.
00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:52.559
Because the goodness of God filling me up will just allow me to be a better person as I go about my day.
00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:54.079
I'll be nicer to my kids.
00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:56.160
I'll be more kind to my spouse.
00:19:56.319 --> 00:19:59.119
You know, I won't be walking around hungry or hangry.
00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:00.720
We say hangry in our house.
00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:02.079
Do you know what hangry is?
00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:04.720
It's when you're hungry and then you get a little angry.
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:05.279
You know?
00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:10.400
And if you're satiated and you're satisfied by this, well, how does Jesus call it?
00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:18.240
Spring of water welling up in your heart or in your soul or in your guts to eternal life, you're gonna be a better person.
00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:21.599
And I'm just like, sign me up.
00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:23.599
That's what I'm after.
00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:32.960
The woman said to her to him, Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.
00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:35.599
And she doesn't understand what he's saying, does she?
00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:49.519
She thinks he's got some magic bullet, some silver spoon, some device, some product, some type of water that will solve her physiological and biological needs.
00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:52.400
That's not what Jesus is quite talking about.
00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:58.480
He says to her, Go, call your husband and come back.
00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:01.200
I have no husband, she replied.
00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:01.920
Uh-oh.
00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:09.839
Jesus sees that there's deeper thirsts in this woman, deeper needs, deeper issues.
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:20.480
Maybe coming to get water at noon is her way of avoiding the crowd of women who come first thing in the morning.
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:22.799
You think about that?
00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:28.000
Why is this woman coming to the well in the heat of the day?
00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:37.200
Why is she showing up at noon to draw water after the kids have already needed to brush their teeth in the morning and get off to school?
00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:40.400
And why is she showing up at noon?
00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:44.079
That well is busy at dawn.
00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:50.319
And it's not necessarily busy in a bad way that's crowded and you can't get your water.
00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:59.599
It's busy in a good way, like the pickup line at the bus, where you get an opportunity to talk to all the moms and find out: oh, shoot, we have that homework assignment.
00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:03.039
Oh, what's happening at school?
00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:05.359
What did that teacher say?
00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:09.680
It's a gossip center for the town.
00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:14.559
We can assume that this woman wants to avoid the gossip.
00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:17.759
She's not showing up at dawn to draw water.
00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:21.759
She's coming at noon in the heat of the day when nobody's there.
00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:23.039
She's like.
00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:29.359
She's like she doesn't want to be seen.
00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:31.519
She doesn't want to be seen.
00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:35.839
And this Jesus picks this woman and he sees her through and through.
00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:38.559
So he just gets right to the heart of the matter.
00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:40.480
Uh go call your husband and come back.
00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:42.960
I have no husband, she write, she replied.
00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:47.279
At verse 17, and Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband.
00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:54.079
The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.
00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:57.039
What you have just said is quite true.
00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:10.079
Now, there could be dozens of reasons why a woman in Samaria in this time period would have five different husbands and then ultimately settle on living with a guy who she's not married to.
00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:15.920
And some of those could be really good reasons, and some of those could be really sad reasons.
00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:21.359
It is quite possible that this woman is some kind of a victim, right?
00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:23.359
Shhew.
00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:32.000
It's quite possible that if you lined up those five husbands, some of them have not been good to her.
00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:38.400
You know, and and maybe this most recent boyfriend who's a living boyfriend is not taking care of her.
00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:40.960
Why would he not want to marry her?
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:41.519
Right?
00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:47.279
He wants maybe something on the side, but doesn't want the commitment or something along those lines.
00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:48.640
We don't know her story.
00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:49.839
Clearly, Jesus does.
00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:53.279
And clearly, Jesus is not afraid to talk to this woman.
00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:58.400
He's not like holding up his fingers saying, get away from me, sinful woman.
00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:02.400
No, he's having a real, authentic, honest, kind conversation.
00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:05.680
He just offered this woman living water, right?
00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:07.759
Water that could spring up in her soul.
00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:11.039
He's offering to address her deepest thirsts and hungers.
00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:12.559
He wants to help this woman.
00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:14.319
He's being good and kind to her.
00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:18.720
Well women went marrying the woman who wants to be already.
00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:22.480
I mean, not much.
00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:37.200
Like you in a patriarchal, honor-shamed society with really no what we would consider modern women's rights, there, you know, a woman is totally dependent upon the family system.
00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:39.359
So who is her family?
00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:47.519
You know, if her parents aren't taking care of her, uh, and then a husband's not taking care of her, what option does she have?
00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:54.400
She can't like put on different clothes and act like a man and go get a job as a carpenter, right?
00:24:54.640 --> 00:25:01.839
Like there was a role for women in this society, and it is to bear children, and it is to be within the house and manage a household.
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:12.640
And there's a whole behind the scenes, like this is your role, and then you get to go out in public during certain times of day to go get water, and that's your chance to go and gossip with the other ladies.
00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:16.880
And this woman is she's not even a part of that now, right?
00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:24.000
Whatever has happened to her, she's she's not even in the in-crowd with the other women.
00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:32.960
And trust me, the Bible is filled with stories where this type of woman is lifted up, is healed, is empowered.
00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:43.359
Some of the most bold and brave early Christians were women who convert their entire household to this Jesus who sees them with dignity and respect.
00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:51.119
Women who uh ask more of their husbands and end up converting their husbands, right?
00:25:51.279 --> 00:26:06.400
There's so many stories of brave women that hear this gospel message and help turn their whole household into an even better version of their household, a more kind version, a more generous version, a more thoughtful version.
00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:10.079
But yeah, in the ancient world, not a ton of opportunity for women.
00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:25.680
Um Jesus sees right through her, he knows her entire story, just like he knew Nathaniel, and he knows this woman is thirsty on a certain level, and it might just be thirsty for safety or for belonging or for what have you.
00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:31.839
So Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband.
00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:36.720
Verse 18, the fact is you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.
00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:38.960
What you have just said is quite true.
00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:44.079
Sir, verse 19, Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet.
00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:50.559
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.
00:26:50.720 --> 00:26:52.319
Ah, that gets to the heart of the issue.
00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:55.759
This really is a story about the northern kingdom versus the southern kingdom.
00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:07.759
The first thing that happens when the two kingdoms separate is well, the northerners can't go down to Jerusalem or go up to Jerusalem to worship, so the northern kingdom has to create their own holy places.
00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:10.480
And this is what she's identifying.
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:16.079
You Southerners used to say that we had to go to Jerusalem to worship at the temple.
00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:19.759
And we didn't necessarily think that.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:23.039
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain.
00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:25.440
Now, what's Jesus gonna do about that?
00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:28.720
She's she's challenging him.
00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:35.759
This woman is, she's got some pep, she's got some attitude, she's got some.
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:38.000
All right, you're gonna bring up my past.
00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:39.519
Let's talk about you.
00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:43.039
Are you a southerner who's pro-Jerusalem?
00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:45.759
Because this mountain used to be holy.
00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:47.279
Are are you a prophet?
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:49.839
Let's talk about who you are, Jesus.
00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:52.559
See how she turned the tables a little bit?
00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:54.480
I like this lady.
00:27:54.799 --> 00:27:55.920
Good for you.
00:27:56.240 --> 00:27:58.960
Ask these questions to Jesus.
00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:05.599
Don't just sit there and let Jesus do to you what he might want to do to you.
00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:08.400
Sit up and say, hold on a second.
00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:10.720
Who is it that you say you are?
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:16.400
Why is it that you're interested in giving me something to address my thirst?
00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:17.519
Right?
00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:20.000
I like that she asserts herself.
00:28:20.640 --> 00:28:30.400
Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:32.960
Whoa, she is not expecting that.
00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:42.400
You Samaritans worship what you do not know, we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:58.799
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:06.000
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.
00:29:06.160 --> 00:29:16.640
Now, if you're this woman, and for your entire life long, men have told you this is the church you go to over here, or this is the church you go to over here.
00:29:16.799 --> 00:29:24.960
And Jesus is saying there is a time when no human being can tell you where you must worship.
00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:36.559
There will be a time when location matters less than the human heart, and what God will be interested in is getting a hold of you in your heart.
00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:46.799
God's spirit is wild and free and readily available to everyone who might open themselves up to this spirit.
00:29:49.359 --> 00:30:03.279
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Galilee, these places that might compete with each other for holiness are all going to be transformed.
00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:28.160
You'll be able to live in Indiana someday, or Michigan, or Colorado, or Israel, or Iran, or China, or Russia, or Antarctica, and be in as holy a place as any other being or any other person might be.
00:30:29.759 --> 00:30:31.519
This is dangerous.
00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:35.440
This is dangerous theology.
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:50.720
Because it will disrupt the boundaries and the principalities and the powers that are so dug-in and rigid in this woman's world and in Jesus' world.
00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:56.880
So much of religion, when it becomes institutionalized, becomes about location.
00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:01.519
I mean, think about have you ever been to the Vatican?
00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:02.799
Any of you?
00:31:03.599 --> 00:31:04.079
Yeah.
00:31:04.640 --> 00:31:08.160
Can you just walk into the Vatican and go anywhere you want?
00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:24.559
There are places that are just off limits.
00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:32.880
If you're uh a Muslim person trying to visit the shrine on the Dome of the Rock, can you just go anywhere you want?
00:31:33.119 --> 00:31:36.160
If you're a Muslim woman, are you allowed to go anywhere you want?
00:31:37.119 --> 00:31:39.200
No, there are boundary lines.
00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:42.960
And you must not go to this spot because why?
00:31:43.279 --> 00:31:47.359
Because the institution is saying this spot is too holy for women?
00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:49.039
I mean, seriously?
00:31:49.279 --> 00:32:00.160
In in the temple, in the temple system, there are literal courts where Gentiles are allowed to go and Jewish people can go further up and deeper in.
00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:04.960
There's a court for women, and women are not allowed to go further up or deeper in.
00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:10.319
And then there's there's a section where only ordained clergy and priests are allowed to go.
00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:18.960
And then there's a section within that where only the high priest is allowed to go, and only on certain days of the year in the Holy of Holies.
00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:32.400
And then the most inner room, the Holy of Holies, when he would go in there, he would, the high priest would literally tie a rope around his ankle in case he died from experiencing the presence of God's glory in the most holy place.
00:32:32.559 --> 00:32:34.480
The other priests wouldn't have to go in and get him.
00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:36.240
They could just pull the rope out.
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:49.119
This idea that there are spots that are so pure and so holy, and only certain people get to achieve them or go to them or witness them.
00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:51.599
Jesus is totally debunking.
00:32:51.920 --> 00:33:15.279
I mean, here he's talking to a woman in Samaria and essentially saying to her, Listen, pal, there's gonna be a time when the full holiness of God is as readily available to you as it was to that great high priest Isaiah, as it is to the current chief priest.
00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:17.759
That's nuts.
00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:19.920
It's totally bonkers.
00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:29.119
It's so radically egalitarian, it is so radically equal and free and wonderful and wild and disruptive.
00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:40.160
Because the institution would like to control what we know about God, what we think about God, what we believe about God.
00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:57.200
And here he's saying, Sister, a time is coming and is has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth.
00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:00.960
For they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
00:34:01.279 --> 00:34:05.839
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.
00:34:06.079 --> 00:34:10.320
This isn't just wild and free spirit, this is actually true spirit as well.
00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:14.079
This is as real as it gets, and it's readily available for everyone.
00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:17.360
The time is coming and has now come.
00:34:17.840 --> 00:34:20.960
I mean, he's saying the fullness of time is now.
00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:29.360
This is we talk about John, one of his operative uh key words.
00:34:30.559 --> 00:34:34.320
Not just sight, not just belief, but time.
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:40.559
My time has not yet come, Jesus says before he turns the water into the wine.
00:34:40.719 --> 00:34:45.119
Now, as he's talking to the Samaritan woman, he's saying the time is coming and has come.
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:48.719
So it's both, it's a future and present reality.
00:34:49.119 --> 00:34:55.920
And then by the end of John's gospel, as Jesus goes to the cross, he will say, My hour is now.
00:34:56.639 --> 00:34:58.239
The time is here.
00:34:58.960 --> 00:35:12.000
And 2,000 years later, the the language we use is in the fullness of doc in the fullness of time, at the crisis point of historical linear time, God entered our world and saved humanity.
00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:19.760
How do you feel when you consider a conversation like this with the Samaritan at the well?
00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:24.079
Does it confuse you, excite you?
00:35:24.239 --> 00:35:28.880
Does it make you ask questions or wonder things?
00:35:31.119 --> 00:35:34.880
I thought he was gonna scold her for having too many husbands.
00:35:35.360 --> 00:35:36.960
And he didn't, did he?
00:35:37.519 --> 00:35:40.000
He's actually I know who you are.
00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:52.400
And I'm telling you that a person like you, a person like any of us, can have access to God in spirit and in truth.
00:35:52.639 --> 00:35:57.360
What God has always wanted is each of our hearts.
00:35:57.599 --> 00:35:59.360
That's what God's always wanted.
00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:02.480
He did not.
00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:09.440
He didn't judge her for having five husbands, he didn't judge her for being a Samaritan.
00:36:10.079 --> 00:36:15.039
Now, he he is critical of her exclusive theology.
00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:18.000
We worship over here, and y'all just want us to worship over there.
00:36:18.079 --> 00:36:22.159
And he goes, Hold on a second, don't lump me in with Judeans.
00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:23.920
Right?
00:36:25.199 --> 00:36:30.400
They've got some limitations, and you've got some limitations, and you're both gonna need to be transformed.
00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:31.360
Right?
00:36:33.119 --> 00:36:37.920
Verse 25, the woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming.
00:36:38.079 --> 00:36:38.960
Now she gets it.
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:40.079
He's not a prophet.
00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:42.079
She's using that word Messiah.
00:36:42.239 --> 00:36:58.320
That word, uh someday there will be a king, a son of David, a messianic figure who will redeem and save and drive out the pagans, and maybe even tie back together this empire that has frazzled.
00:36:59.199 --> 00:37:02.559
The woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming.
00:37:02.719 --> 00:37:08.159
When he comes, he will explain everything to us, then Jesus declared.
00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:14.559
I, the one speaking to you, I am he.
00:37:19.840 --> 00:37:27.280
Now, if this doesn't just blow your head wide open or crack open your heart, I don't know what will.
00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:33.840
He just told the first person he's going to tell that he is the Messiah.
00:37:34.400 --> 00:37:39.760
And who is the first person that is worthy of that information?
00:37:40.400 --> 00:37:46.559
Who is the first person that is worthy to know his real self?
00:37:48.159 --> 00:37:52.320
It's a Samaritan woman who's got five husbands and is living with some guy.
00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:54.480
I mean, come on.
00:37:55.599 --> 00:38:04.719
If you are a woman living in the ancient world and you're reading this story for the very first time, this gets you really excited.
00:38:05.360 --> 00:38:07.440
Because maybe it's true.
00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:17.280
Maybe it's true that God does not see some pecking order between male and female, or some pecking order between holy and unholy.
00:38:17.519 --> 00:38:29.519
Maybe God, God, this Jesus can stoop into any person's life and say, Yeah, yeah, this is who I am, and this is who I know that you are.
00:38:29.840 --> 00:38:32.000
And let's do this life together.
00:38:32.480 --> 00:38:33.760
My goodness.
00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:37.760
So we get our first I am statement.
00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:40.719
This is another thing John is gonna do with Jesus.
00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:49.119
Some of the most poignant, pressing, uh, high-stakes situations, and some of the quietest situations like this.
00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:52.480
Jesus is gonna say, I am ego a me.
00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:54.079
That's the Greek.
00:38:55.119 --> 00:39:02.880
John takes the name of God given to Moses at the burning bush.
00:39:03.119 --> 00:39:11.199
When Moses first encounters Yahweh, and it's such a holy, sacred thing that he has to take off his sandals.
00:39:11.360 --> 00:39:12.400
Remember that scene?
00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:19.199
And Moses steps closer to the burning bush and he asks this God who he is, what his name is.
00:39:19.360 --> 00:39:26.000
If you can learn the name of the God, then you have some kind of relationship now with this God, with this deity.
00:39:26.079 --> 00:39:36.079
And the name that Yahweh gives to Moses is in Hebrew, it's kind of a uh just the basic root verb to be.
00:39:36.400 --> 00:39:46.000
I exist, I am, I am, I am who was, who is, who always will be, the great I am.
00:39:46.719 --> 00:39:58.880
And John takes this Yahweh title, this name of God, the great I Am, and he just puts it on Jesus' lips again and again and again and again throughout this gospel.
00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:10.960
In case we don't get it, the God who liberated the slaves from Egypt, the God who shaped the people of God into who they are, this God is incarnate in Jesus.
00:40:11.119 --> 00:40:19.760
So he's walking around saying, I am, I am he, I am the one, I am ego a me, I am the Messiah.
00:40:25.280 --> 00:40:26.159
You didn't know.
00:40:26.800 --> 00:40:26.960
Yeah.
00:40:35.440 --> 00:40:38.000
Well, I don't I don't have the mind of Christ.
00:40:38.159 --> 00:40:54.880
I don't know exactly what he was thinking, but if I were him and I'm trying to prove a point that these Samaritan people matter, that I love them and I'm here for them just as much as I'm here for the folks in Jerusalem, I'm gonna look at that well.
00:40:55.119 --> 00:40:58.400
I'm gonna cross through that town and find Jacob's well.
00:40:58.719 --> 00:41:18.000
I'm gonna find the the most lowest rung of the social totem ladder, and I'm gonna pick that one to reveal myself because I want to prove the point that the gospels continue to prove that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
00:41:18.239 --> 00:41:25.199
So you've got to go and find the lost, whatever that means.
00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:29.599
You've got to go and find the wounded and heal them.
00:41:29.840 --> 00:41:37.119
You've got to go and find the sick and say, You deserve goodness and well-being.
00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:44.800
We don't, right, right, exactly.
00:41:48.559 --> 00:41:50.559
Well, she said she had five husbands.
00:41:50.880 --> 00:41:53.199
Or he said that, so yeah, I think so.
00:41:54.000 --> 00:42:01.840
Um let's let's try to finish some of this scene.
00:42:02.079 --> 00:42:05.679
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised.
00:42:05.920 --> 00:42:07.519
Understatement of the day.
00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:12.960
Surprised to find Jesus talking with a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman.
00:42:13.199 --> 00:42:17.679
But no one asked, What do you want, or why are you talking to her?
00:42:17.920 --> 00:42:25.199
Then, leaving the water jar, the woman went back to town and said to the people, Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.
00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:26.480
Could this be a man?
00:42:26.639 --> 00:42:27.599
Here's that repetition.
00:42:27.679 --> 00:42:29.840
Come and see, come and see, come and see.
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:36.639
She becomes quickly a disciple, just like the disciples Jesus was calling in John chapter 1.
00:42:36.800 --> 00:42:39.760
Come and see, Nathaniel, you've got to see this.
00:42:40.400 --> 00:42:43.039
This guy knew everything about me.
00:42:43.840 --> 00:42:47.360
My deepest secrets, the stuff I haven't even told you, Mom.
00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:48.800
He knows it all.
00:42:48.960 --> 00:42:50.639
This guy's gotta be the Messiah.
00:42:50.719 --> 00:42:55.679
And he's offering eternal water, living water, some kind of water you drink it and you never thirst.
00:42:55.760 --> 00:42:56.960
I mean, this is exciting.
00:42:57.199 --> 00:42:59.760
She does not fully understand who this Jesus is.
00:42:59.840 --> 00:43:03.840
And yet it's compelling enough for her to go and get the townspeople, come and see.
00:43:04.400 --> 00:43:06.880
See a man who told me everything I ever did.
00:43:07.280 --> 00:43:08.480
Could this be the Messiah?
00:43:08.559 --> 00:43:11.119
They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
00:43:11.360 --> 00:43:15.440
Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat something.
00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:18.960
But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about.
00:43:19.119 --> 00:43:28.159
The disciples, concerned about the ways of this world, concerned about a hungry belly, concerned about the passions of the soul, Jesus is saying, Ah, listen, food, come on.
00:43:28.719 --> 00:43:32.400
I've got other concerns, and I've got other food that I can eat.
00:43:34.559 --> 00:43:37.679
I have food to eat that you know nothing about.
00:43:38.239 --> 00:43:42.239
Then his disciples said to each other, Could someone have brought him food?
00:43:42.400 --> 00:43:46.559
Again, Jesus operating on a totally alternate level than these disciples.
00:43:46.639 --> 00:43:48.960
They've got the same ignorance that this woman had.
00:43:49.199 --> 00:43:52.320
Water that doesn't make you thirsty, that must be like real water, but better.
00:43:52.400 --> 00:43:53.360
It's like Gatorade.
00:43:53.679 --> 00:43:56.000
Food, food, did somebody feed him?
00:43:56.400 --> 00:43:57.280
They don't understand.
00:43:57.360 --> 00:44:01.119
He's talking about hunger and thirst on a deeper level.
00:44:01.440 --> 00:44:09.840
My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
00:44:10.079 --> 00:44:17.599
I mean, we should almost stop on this line because it's too good and we'll want we want to think about it this week.
00:44:17.920 --> 00:44:19.519
To finish his work.
00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:24.239
What is the work that God the Father began?
00:44:26.480 --> 00:44:30.960
In the beginning, what work does God first do?
00:44:32.960 --> 00:44:34.800
He created the world.
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:53.119
So when Jesus says, My job, my food, my calling, my the deepest passion of my soul is to do the will of God or the will of him who sent me and to finish his work, what does that mean to finish his work?
00:44:58.880 --> 00:45:29.039
Whatever the purpose of creation is or was, whatever God's reason for cultivating life and driving out chaos and proclaiming light into darkness, whatever God had in mind when God said, There shall be salamanders, there shall be mallard ducks, there shall be people with red hair, and some will be bald.
00:45:29.519 --> 00:45:55.360
Whatever God intended, when God began the work of creation and asked this creation to be fruitful and generative and creative themselves, when God began creation and gave creation permission to recreate and recreate and recreate, whatever that was, Jesus is here to fulfill it and finish it, to bring it to its fullness.
00:45:56.639 --> 00:46:00.400
This is not an escapist theology.
00:46:00.960 --> 00:46:02.400
This is shalom.
00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:16.480
This is wholeness, wholeheartedness, full on healing and goodness and love and light, readily available for you today and tomorrow and the next day and someday as well.
00:46:17.039 --> 00:46:21.840
We'll leave there, leave it there with the finish his work phrase, and we'll pick that up next week.
00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:23.199
Grace and peace, everybody.
00:46:23.360 --> 00:46:24.639
Have a wonderful week.
