Christlike Eyes for People
Demonstrated through a conversation at a drinking fountain.
The other gospels (Matthew, Mark, & Luke) really don’t have extended conversations like John has. In the last chapter (3), Jesus spoke extensively with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and Jewish community leader. In chapter 4, he speaks at length with an unknown Samaritan woman.
There’s a lot going on in this conversation and we could spend a week on it. Read it slowly. Perhaps you’d even imagine the setting - Jesus and the woman are alone at the well. It’s a place where many people often come for water, but at that moment, it’s just the two of them. Remember that Jesus is tired, but not withdrawn.
In today’s world of fact-checking, dodging the issue, and a presumed “don’t ask, don’t tell,” note how Jesus does not dismiss her in anyway. (Though he’s also not afraid to speak the truth.)
John 4:7-26
A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” His disciples had gone into the city to buy him some food.
The Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other.)
Jesus responded, “If you recognized God’s gift and who is saying to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would be asking him and he would give you living water.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave this well to us, and he drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty and will never need to come here to draw water!”
Jesus said to her, “Go, get your husband, and come back here.”
The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.”
“You are right to say, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus answered. “You’ve had five husbands, and the man you are with now isn’t your husband. You’ve spoken the truth.”
The woman said, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you and your people say that it is necessary to worship in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you and your people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You and your people worship what you don’t know; we worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. But the time is coming—and is here!—when true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth. The Father looks for those who worship him this way. God is spirit, and it is necessary to worship God in spirit and truth.”
The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one who is called the Christ. When he comes, he will teach everything to us.”
Jesus said to her, “I Am—the one who speaks with you.”
Psalm 63:1
God! My God! It’s you—I search for you! My whole being thirsts for you! My body desires you in a dry and tired land, no water anywhere.
Prayer
God,
Help me to see people as you do. Give me eyes of concern and compassion. But also give me a presence of hope and joy, as appropriate.
Help me to include my own self and life in this vision. But let me not be self-centered or overly drawn to my own inner self.
I guess I could just say: Help me be like Jesus.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.