There is a country song from several years back called Lookin’ for Love, sung by Johnny Lee. There is a line repeated in the chorus that goes “I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places, Lookin’ for love in too many faces.” This is a secular song, and naturally it doesn’t have any real answers to those who are searching for genuine love. In our Scripture passage today from the Gospel of John, we meet a woman who was also looking for love, and as we will see, she was looking in all the wrong places, too. Then she met Jesus and her life changed! Let’s look into our Scripture.
As our passage opens, Jesus had come to a well to rest as His disciples went into town to buy some lunch. While they were gone, a Samaritan woman came to get water from the well, and Jesus asked her for a drink of that water. The woman was surprised that this stranger would speak to a Samaritan. He then led her in a discussion that would change her life. Though Jesus had initially asked water from her, He told her that He could give her living water, water that would forever quench one’s thirst, and bring everlasting life (vs. 1-10).
The Samaritan woman asked for that water, thinking it was some kind of special water, so that she would never have to go out to the well again (vs. 15). She probably didn’t want to run into people anymore, as she had been terribly hurt in her life. Jesus told her to go get her husband, and she revealed she didn’t have one. Being the Son of God, Jesus knew that, and told her that she had already been married 5 times, and was now just living with someone (vs. 16-18). This woman’s life was all messed up with multiple divorces and was now living with a man. This woman had dipped her bucket repeatedly into the well of human love to get the acceptance that she hoped would make her whole. However, each experience left her thirsty. As the country song said, she had been looking for love in all the wrong places, and she really needed Jesus and the salvation He offered. Standing before Jesus, she was a broken soul and social outcast.
Many religious leaders, both back then and today, would have turned and condemned this woman for multiple divorces, and branded her a sinner. That would only make her feel more worthless and bad. Though Jesus would not approve of sin, He did not tear into her for her sinful past. As with us today, He sees beyond our failures and offers us a faithful future. We can’t do anything so bad that it will cause God to love us less.
Satan tries to convince people that happiness and fulfillment can be found only by getting enough love, success, revenge, etc. The truth is that only a relationship with Jesus can make a person whole. He can meet our every need in this life. The Living Word, Jesus Christ, and the written Word, the Bible, can satisfy our hungry and thirsty soul. The things of the world, the “water of the world”, can never satisfy the human heart and life. Only Jesus can do that (vs. 13-14). When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, our spiritual thirst is forever slaked with His perennial fountain. He is the source of all wisdom, and the fountain of all comfort He is a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.
Rather than condemning this woman, turning her away in disgust for her sins, Jesus welcomed her to turn to God in true worship. As He told her, God wanted her, and everyone, to worship Him in spirit and in truth (vs 23). God wants true worship, not lip-service, or worship done in any way we might choose. He wants worship that is Biblical.
God is not a physical being, limited to one place. He is present everywhere, and He can be worshiped anywhere, at any time. It is not where we worship that counts, but how we worship. It is only through Jesus, the Messiah, not any other religious leader or pagan god, that the world can find salvation.
No comments:
Post a Comment