Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Who do you think Jesus is?  

John 4 traces one woman’s progress in discovering who he was?  

When Jesus met her at a well and asked her for a drink, she identified him as a strange  Jewish male: “Jews like you don’t ask Samaritans like me for a drink” (Jn 4:9). 

Unlike her, I often forget that Jesus was a Jew. Born in Palestine in a Jewish family, he grew up honoring the law of Moses, wearing sandals and a robe, going to synagogue. But today he’s my savior, and I see him as a man like me, not someone from a vastly different time and place and culture.   

The well where Jesus met this woman was over a thousand years old, dug by Jacob, a father of the Jews. When Jesus offered to give her living water instead of Jacob’s well water, she said, “What are you going on about? You don’t even have a bucket. Are you better at well building than Jacob?” (Jn 4:11). 

How’s that for a put-down comparison! Jacob had been famous for two millenia, but who was this newcomer, offering a new source of water in a dry and desert land? But think: it was an apt comparison because Jesus offered something Jacob couldn’t.

John the Baptist heard and accepted Jesus’ big claims by calling him “Lord” – as in “Prepare the way of the Lord” (John 1:23). The woman at the well used the same word, Lord, for Jesus, but my Bible translates it as “sir”, as in “Sir, where can I get this living water?”, or “Sir, give me this water” (John 4:11, 15). 

Sir, or Lord, is an interesting word, suitable for John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord. And suitable for a carpenter asking his client, “Sir, do you want a table of olive wood or cedar?” 

Store clerks sometimes call me “Sir,” but never “Lord.” I want to tell them, “Sir is a term of respect for people with social status. If you knew my lowly status you wouldn’t call me Sir.” 

I think John uses the word as a double entendre. The woman’s respect for this random Jew was slowly growing. Calling him “sir” moves her a step toward “sir” with a capital S, which for her is the same as “Lord” with a capital L.  

And finally, when Jesus tells her that true worshippers worship in spirit and truth, she replies, “I don’t understand you, but when Messiah, the Christ, comes, he will explain this stuff clearly.” 

And Jesus says, “That’s me.”

What a story. Her estimation of Jesus morphed from random Jew to comparing him to Jacob, to a respectful Sir or Lord, and finally, a glimpse of the Messiah.

In the noonday sun by the well, Jesus led her on a pilgrimage of discovery.   

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, like the woman we struggle to grasp who you are. 

We read your many names—son of God, Messiah, savior, healer—but do we know you? Do we drink living water from your well? Or are we still drinking water from Jacob’s well?  

We worship at Jerusalem, we worship in our church. But how can we worship in spirit and truth?   

O Jesus, come to us and question us as you questioned the woman. Expose the truth of our lives. Quench our thirst with living water. Transform our lives with a vision of Messiah.  

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

John 3 is about Nicodemus, John 4 about a nameless woman Jesus met at a community well. 

Interesting contrasts between the two stories.
  – A man in one, a woman in the other.
  – He is named, she isn’t.
  – The man came to Jesus. Jesus approached the woman.
  – Nicodemus’ meeting was at midnight, the woman’s in the noontime heat. 
  – One was a respectable, well-educated leader, the other an ostracized social outcast.
  – One choked on Jesus’ born-again message, the other drank deeply of his living water.

Let’s look at the woman. 

When Jesus met her at Jacob’s well, he said, “Please give me a drink.” She replied, “You’re weird. Jewish men don’t ask Samaritan women for water!” (vv 7-9).

Jesus said, “You should ask me about God’s living water” (v 10).

She said, “Where’s your bucket? You can’t draw water without a bucket.” (v 11). 

He said, “Put water in your bucket, and you’ll thirst again. Dip your bucket in my living water, and you’ll never thirst again (v 13-14). 

She said, “Sold! Give me your living water” (v 15).

Jesus said, “Excellent. Why don’t you get your husband and come back?” (v 16). 

The woman replied, “No can do. I don’t have a husband” (v 17). 

Jesus said, “Exactly. You’ve had five, and your current partner isn’t your husband” (v 17-18).

The woman said, “Ouch, that hurts. You must be a prophet. Tell me where to worship–on our Samaritan mountain or at the Jerusalem temple?” (v 19-20).

He said, “Neither. Heart always trumps place. True worshipers worship God in spirit and truth” (vv 21-23). 

Confused, the woman exclaimed, “That sounds complicated. But when Messiah comes, he’ll untangle everything for us” (v 25). 

Jesus said, “Indeed he will. Because that’s me” (v 26). 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, like the woman we are bound by time and place and circumstance. We drink city water from the tap. We buy white bread at Superstore. Our lives are socially awkward. 

We try hard to understand your teaching–“be born again” and “drink living water”.

Speak to us as you spoke to the nameless woman. Invite us to your spring of living water. Teach us to worship in spirit and truth. Be the answer to our tangled relationships. Lead us to confess that you are Messiah, our savior. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Have you been born again? What does that mean? 

Jesus shocked Nicodemus when he lobbed a birth metaphor into his religious life. A member of the Jewish parliament, Nicodemus was a scholar who helped make laws and settle disputes. His religious colleagues hated Jesus, but Nicodemus wanted the facts. 

One night he came furtively to Jesus. “Your miracles suggest that God is with you” he said. “But you reject the religion God gave Moses. You confuse me. What’s the truth here?” (John 3:2). 

A great opportunity for Jesus to teach Nicodemus, to show him Old Testament prophecies that point to Christ.A chance for Jesus to start an ecumenical dialogue with the Jews. 

Nope! Jesus says, “You need to be born again” (John 3:3)

Not quite the answer Nicodemus was looking for. He wanted to understand the relationship between God, Jesus, and the Jewish religion. Instead Jesus criticizes Nicodemus’ first birth experience and says he should try again. 

“Really?” Nicodemus replies. “Go back into Momma’s womb and emerge again? Impossible. Ludicrous” (John 3:4).

Reminds me of Jesus’ earlier statement, “Destroy this temple and I’ll rebuild it in three days” (John 2:19). A mysterious saying, impossible to take literally. Jesus confused the Jews with building and birthing metaphors.

“Listen,” said Jesus to Nicodemus, “you must be born of water and the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:5-6). 

And you? Have you been born of water? Have you been born of the spirit? 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we don’t know born of water means, but we believe we have been born of the spirit Jesus mentions. 

Yet how little our lives seem to be born again. We work at jobs, read novels. Embrace social media, go to church. Activities that follow our physical birth. But where is our wellspring of life in the spirit? 

We are humans. We are physical bodies inhabited by invisible life forces–mind, soul, emotion, and spirit. Dwell in us by your spirit, until your goodness and power animates all our thoughts and actions. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube