John chapter 4 tells of the encounter of Jesus and the Samaritan women at the well.
The Samaritans were “half-breeds,” as 700 years earlier, the conquering empire had moved many people from afar to this area. They intermarried with the Jews. They also followed a practice that Jeroboam had started 900 years earlier. He didn’t want to lose the people’s loyalty so he had them worship on the high places instead of going to the temple in Jerusalem.
Because of both the practices and the mixed breeding of the Samaritan people, the Jews despised them.
Yet, Jesus purposely travels through their land and meets this woman mid-day at the well.
She is hung up on her form of worship and that a Jewish man is talking to her.
Jesus explains to her:
John 4:23-24
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
She tells of her hope that the Messiah will someday resolve these issues.
John 4:25-26
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
Jesus tells her flat out: “I am He.”
He had asked her to get her husband, knowing she was not currently married, had five husbands, and was now living with a man.
When He told her this, she was overwhelmed and realized there was no way He would know this unless – the Messiah had come.
She runs back into town, leaving her water jug behind.
John 4:29-30
“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
The people came to see what she was talking about. They take time to listen to Jesus and even plead with Him to stay longer.
John 4:42
They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
After spending time with Jesus, they conclude that He is the Messiah, the Christ, and the Saviour of the World.
To all mankind, to the broken, to the “half-breeds,” the rejected, those who got it wrong.
Jesus comes to us even today so that we, too, can worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
That we might be forgiven and find hope.
The Messiah has come.
