true worship.

I love this interaction between Jesus and this woman. He is so patient with her and she seems so obstinate. It’s interesting that Jesus brings to mind things that are specific desires in the woman’s heart. First, He offers her living water. Her immediate response is that she wants it so she won’t have to thirst or better yet, so she won’t have to travel all the way to the well to get water. I can definitely relate to being weary and not wanting to labor tirelessly for something I need.

Even more than being weary and tired of laboring, I can relate to the deeper need of this woman, to be loved. Jesus points out that this woman has had five husbands and is currently living with a man who is not her husband. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it seems like this woman is desperately seeking love, at any cost.

As Jesus pries deeper into this woman’s life she tries to change the subject with an area of great debate between the Jews and the Samaritans - the true place of worship. Jesus ties all the areas of this woman’s life together when he tells her, "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”

If we are worshipping Jesus, He will be faithful to meet our physical and spiritual needs. He understands that she is weary, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28); and He can provide her everlasting love, “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

Created almost 2 years ago