John 4(part 2)

Okay, so we’ve enumerated the social problems Jesus had in speaking with a person of questionable lineage in public. And not only was she one of “those” people, she was a she. The point is, if you’re trying to start a world-wide movement, you just don’t go around violating social customs like this. It just isn’t done. Like the time my mother stopped me at J.C. Penney’s just before I drank from the water fountain clearly marked “COLORED.” And I wasn’t even trying to start a movement. Shoot, I wasn’t even running for class president. I was only eight years old, for goodness sake. I just had a pure heart at the time.

Unfortunately for the defenders of social custom, Jesus isn’t finished shattering expectations. In addition to all the other problems with this woman’s resume, she was also a woman of – shall we say – questionable character. To be specific, this woman had been around the block a time or two. Married five times and currently “rooming” with a dude. Here in the South, we call this “shacking-up.

Now Jesus really is in trouble. You don’t have to read the Bible for too many days before you understand that women who slept around usually got stoned in his day. And I’m not talking about the Bob Dylan kind of stoned either. I’m talking death penalty here.

But there he was, right there in John chapter four not only speaking with but initiating intimate conversation with this half-breed whore. As my mother used to say, what was he thinking?

If you didn’t know your God so well, you might think that God’s son was opening the doors to the kingdom a whole lot wider than they used to be.

And so he begins to dangle the bait of the kingdom before her eyes. Go back and read it for yourself. The exchange is intriguing. Give me some water please - I thought you Jews hated us - If you knew me, you would ask ME, and I would give you living water – Sir, give me this living water, so I don’t have to keep coming to the well for it.

Finally, he gets to the point – You’ve got that right. You have had five husbands and you’re shacking up right now.

Ouch! That one had to hurt. To be honest with you, this woman did what I would have done – she changed the subject by posing a deep theological question about where the proper place to worship was - First Baptist or Third Presbyterian? That’s what I want to know. I know my life’s a wreck, but I’m dying to know which church is the one true church.

His answer? It might surprise you.