'Tempest'
Think back to a time in your “middle’ childhood (ages 8 to 12). If you
feel comfortable doing so, discuss with a small group the biggest storm you
faced at that time.
Jesus walked through Samaria. This was unusual because no Jew
deliberately chose that road from
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Judea to Galilee, going instead the “long way
around” traveling across the Jordan and up the east side. But Jesus had a mission. “He needed to go through
Samaria” (John 4:4), this need included a woman. Read John 4:6-26
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What storms are you facing that might cause you
to say, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove? I would fly away and be at rest”
(Psalm 55:6)?
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What did Jesus know about the woman? What did He
want her to know about Him in the midst of her storm? About God? How did Jesus
show that He loved this woman and that He cared about her daily life and her
spiritual life?
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Why has God chosen you? What does He know about
you? How has He shown His love for you and that He cares about your daily life
and your spiritual life?
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Read John 4. Sin separates us from God. When has
sin separated someone you know from God’s love and from yours? When has sin
separated you from God or from others?
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In verse 10, Jesus says, “If you knew the gift
of God and who it is that asks you for a drink…” God’s gift is no less that His
grace to us shown in Christ Jesus, a gift paid for by Jesus’ suffering and
death on the cross, a gift God gives freely.
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Like the woman at the well Jesus knows all about us too. Nothing is hidden from Him. And Jesus offers
that same redeeming fountain to us. He offers it in His word, in the bread and
wine of His Holy Supper. Through His death on the cross He gives us eternal
life, abundant life. Through His gift we are made alive in Him, made clean in
His blood---from the inside out. All our sin and guilt are washed away. What
does this gift mean to you? What is your response to it?
Jesus is not speaking of a physical thirst but rather a spiritual-eternal thirst. One that will satisfy our longings. One that will heal our wounds. One that will clean us from within.
ReplyDeleteSome of us have kept ‘skeletons in the closet’ (sins) because they are or were too ugly to share, even with Jesus. Jesus new all about the woman at the well even her ‘skeletons in the closet’. And still He came to her and offered His cup of eternal life to her. She didn’t have to go to a certain place to worship or seek forgiveness like she thought and neither do we (John 4:23). The Father sought her and spoke the words in John 4:10, “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.”
I am reminded of a time in my past when I saw myself in this picture image of the women on her knees in the storm with her hands covering her shame. Ashamed in the storm wondering how could this be that God would be willing and able to clean my darkest sins (my skeletons in the closed) with His forgiving Love and to offer His Spirit to me? Our words may have sounded like David’s words in Psalm 55:6, “Oh that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest--- I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, for from the tempest and storm.”
This describes many who have felt the tempest and storms overwhelm them to the point where there is doubt that it could be possible for anything or anyone to clean them from within.
Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:14b
We are washed clean though the waters of Holy Baptism. We are strengthened through His Holy Supper. We are forgiven by The blood through what He did on the cross. God – Father, Son and Spirit has sought us and we now find Him whenever we need Him. And His cup will be sufficient for us.
If you are feeling alone in your tempest and storms today, seek Christ. Ask a trusted friend or pastor who will pray with you. It won’t be easy to speak of the ‘skeletons in your closet’. You might even prefer to take your sins to the grave before letting anyone know of them. But God knows and He is willing and able to clean you from within even your darkest secrets.