The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”
-John 4:15-20 NRSV
The conversation goes on. The woman at the well presses Jesus about this water he can give that will quench her thirst forever. Then it gets personal. Jesus begins to speak to her of what is going on in her life. She quickly changes the subject. His prophetic insight is a bit too much for her. She did not want to speak of the man she was living with.
It is so like us ... like me ... to change the subject when things get uncomfortable. It is so much easier to speak about theology when I really need to talk about my pain and my troubles. I think that Jesus wanted to talk to this woman about how hard and painful her life had been but she couldn't get there then. But God had other plans for her.
God, I love how you interact with us and do not allow us to stay in dark places. Thank you for loving us that much.
... this devotion is part of an ongoing series on the Gospel of John.
No one can make us more uncomfortable than an Apostle or Prophet. Jesus of course was both, and much more. He was in fact, God Himself come in the flesh. The reason such people make us uncomfortable is that they speak truth and light into our lives. But men, even Believers many times, love darkness (their own ways) more than truth and light. Do you think this is why we do not have the five-fold ministry active in the Church today?
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts Del. I think that the five-fold ministry is alive and well in the church but not in the para-church that meets on Sunday mornings. ツ
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