Living Water John 4

There are a few basics to have in mind about Jesus' story.
Jesus was on earth with a purpose—it's clear in the gospel of John that he was here for a reason. He came to live—to heal and teach bringing the kingdom of God with him every where he went. But there was going to be so much more to his story than just living and teaching in his story. He came to die and to rise breaking the power of sin, death, and evil in the process.

And along the way he met people. Like a woman at a well in John 4. He met her by Jacobs well. They were in Samaria—a place named for a very distinct group of people. They shared a great deal in common with Jesus and his people—but their were distinctions. Divisions that had existed for 1000 years. Distrust and prejudice were clear. And Jesus met her.
It was noon. She was alone at the well. Just think of this moment. This moment when this strange man from that other group says, Give me a drink. Alone at the well she looks at Jesus. She doesn't know him from Adam. She can tell immediately, from how he sounds and looks that He's just some man from that other group of people who would never be caught either dead or alive talking to her kind of people. And she says back to him.

How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink? John 4 MSG

There's a undercurrent of disbelief and mistrust here that is so thick you can cut it. The mutual distrust permeated the lives of every Jew and every Samaritan in Roman controlled Palestine. And Jesus new it. But he came with a mission. The divisions were so real to the people in Jesus day. And there are divisions in our day too.

There are so many divisions. Some created by fear. Some exploited by those who want to be in power. And some divisions that thank God are surmounted. There have always been ways to try to separate people one from the other, and the way it looks, human nature will always find a reason for one group of people to look down on another group.

• Gentile or Jew
• slave or free
• North or south,
• Packer or Viking,
• Black or white,
• Hockey or Basketball,
• protestant or catholic,
• East or west,
•  rich or poor,
• rural or urban.

And Jesus crossed one of the dividing lines that existed in his time.
He didn't need to meet her, this woman at the well, at least not as she looked at the world. But Jesus was there with an offer. Living water. For her and all the world. May that living water of grace and new life flow today in a moment of fear. May we overcome division and work for the dignity of all.
Peace, and thanks for reading.
John