Knowing and Being Known by God

Genesis 16:1-15

Psalm 139

John 4:1-26, 39-42

Imagine this: here is this Samaritan woman, who probably has been so ostracised by her community because of her numerous marital indiscretions. Now, she must avoid the crowds and go to the well to get water alone in the heat of the day to gather water. She is sweating and struggling with only her guilt and shame to keep her company when the last person she imagined speaks to her. A Jewish man, a historic enemy of the Samaritan people. The Samaritans and Jews have been at odds for so long that it has built itself into their social structure that they shouldn’t even talk to one another. Yet this Jewish man is asking her, a Samaritan woman for water. Sure, he could be dying of thirst, but that doesn’t seem to be it. What does he want from her? Why would he be crossing this barrier of her culture and her shame, especially now when she is so alone?

The conversation doesn’t stop there though, because after he asks for her help, he offers her something: Living Water. It might sound ridiculous, he doesn’t even have a bucket, but if there was water that meant she wouldn’t have to come out to this well in the heat, and her shame she wanted it. She wanted something, anything that would take away even a little bit of the pain and brokenness she lived in. He might have started by tearing down walls by asking her for something simple, but then he began to release her with a seemingly impossible hope.

He can’t realize what he is doing though, can he? She might be able to imagine someone asking for help from her because he is in need, but he says that he has more and better water than her. She might be able to imagine someone connecting with her if they don’t know who she is or what she has done. Then he asks her to fetch her husband. Instead of making this conversation awkward or stopping the one meaningful connection and hope she has had for a long time, she lies “I don’t have a husband”. Yet, this man seems to know more. “Your right the man you are currently with is not your husband, but you have had five before”. How could he know all of this? Okay, it's possible this Jewish stranger might know that I have been with five men that I gave my heart and life to and yet how could he know that I haven’t truly given myself to the man I am married to?

Then there is a spark of hope. Wait, how could this Jewish man know all of this and still be talking to me? Why would he be this wise, this devout, and yet care enough for me to be talking to a divorced and adulterous woman? He seems to be a prophet, he knows so much truth and he is speaking such wonderful things about God and hope. Maybe, there is hope for me, a sinful broken, ostracised, faulty, Samaritan woman who can’t even get herself out of her own problems. The biggest thing standing between us and maybe even between her and God is where we worship God - the mountain where God spoke and gave the law or the temple where God’s anointed King dedicated a house for God. It might seem like a fickle question in today’s world, but to a people and nation who held onto their faith as essential and true, it meant everything. Where they worshipped meant the difference between connecting with the source of life and goodness and not. It meant having hope and love from God vs. distance.

Now this man changes everything. First, he says that soon it won’t be the mountain or the temple. But where - what is more important than two of the greatest places where God has made himself known? He says that we Samaritans worship a God we do not know. This could easily feel like an insult, but it is true. Even before the Samaritan woman fell into a string of broken relationships there has always been a distance. It is too easy to feel like God is a far away God up in heaven. Yet, this man calls God the Father. Is it even possible to have that close of a relationship with God? I wonder what such a parental relationship with God could be like. I wonder what a love, a powerful creator, a powerful redeemer could do to change our lives, this broken life forever.

Then he says it, “salvation comes from the Jews”. Salvation! Suddenly, there arises in her this distant unimagined hope for the messiah, God’s anointed that would set everything right. Her problems were so close at hand that she couldn’t even imagine her own salvation and yet now he is talking about the salvation of the nations, possibly even the world. She has been given these tastes of hope and now she is offered a feast. Yet, she is resistant, how could such a hope be true or real? She has probably been hopeful many times and disappointed just as many. Yet, this man knows so much. There is something beyond describing about this interaction that speaks into her heart and soul. Can she actually hope for this?

He goes on to talk about a different kind of worship for true worshippers, those that will worship in Spirit and in truth. Does he mean the same godly Spirit that hovered and ordered the waters at creation? Does he mean the same Spirit that gave those 70 elders prophecy and wisdom in the desert? Does he mean the same Spirit that was breathed into those dry bones that will bring new life into dead and broken people? I need that order in my life. I need that purpose and wisdom in my life. I need that new life as I am as good as dead and broken. Could we be given this Spirit?

Yet, we also will worship in truth. I will be welcome in God’s presence. I will be welcome to praise God, even though I have done such wrong to my family and community. The truth of everything will be known and yet I will still be welcomed by God and other worshippers just as this man has welcomed me. Wait, this truth may mean more. If I am given this godly Spirit could it mean that I know God, that I know the wonderful and beautiful truth of who he is, how he is working and what he has meant for me and this world? This is a truth that would drive me to worship, even while dwelling in the truth of the reality of my past. I can begin to imagine what worship could be and how it could be untethered to any place but rather tethered to the Spirit and a people who live in a godly and wonderful truth.

This is just a future hope though, right? We all know that the messiah must come and that he will change everything. I guess it is more like a dream, something to hold onto. That could be enough to help me through. Yet, this is not a future hope. This is a reality. This is the truth of this moment. This man responds, “I am He”. “I am the hoped for Messiah”. “I am the one who will set all things right and make them new”. “I the one standing before you have come to save you, to set you free, to give you new life”.

Suddenly, everything from this conversation came flooding back and it began to make sense. The Messiah will transcend boundaries as he talked to me, a sinful Samaritan woman. This man offered me living waters that will take away my thirst, my desires and gush up leading to eternal life. This man knew everything about me and yet he talked to me like he could set it all right. He is a prophet. He called God his Father. He spoke of a new temple and mountain that would rather be a faithful community and faithful hearts as God’s Spirit came to dwell in them as a temple. He spoke of salvation. He spoke of restoring a different kind of worship in truth. He spoke of salvation a salvation that would lead me out of this broken reality. He said, “I am”, which speaks of the God with us. God is right beside me.

Though this Samaritan woman couldn’t put all this into words, it was an indescribable reality and feeling. Something truly began to well up in her and she couldn’t help herself. Such hope and life could not be contained. She ran to the city, the same city that she had been so separate from, and she shared with anyone who would listen. She shared a simple message, this man knew everything about me. Could he be the Messiah? Many of these people would have known the rumors about her and her shame, but suddenly there was a new tone in her voice that they couldn’t explain - she had a new hope - a new life. She spoke just as her life spoke and it communicated so much. If she in her situation could experience this new hope and life, what could it mean for all of us? How could this messiah change everything?

So, it might have started with just a spark of interest and wonder at something they couldn’t explain that was happening in her, but then they come to Jesus and they begin to hear and experience the same thing. A new hope, a new life, a new relationship with God and a new kind of worship of an indwelling Spirit and a known, lived in, forgiven, and insurmountable truth that is the truth of God with us. Now, even though this Messiah, the I am, God with us, is not right beside us as we worship, as we go to our homes or places of work, we know this reality, we have this indwelling Spirit that has entered into our lives through Jesus. Now we know that God is close, that his hope is a reality, and that he is changing everything. We know God and we are known by God - this makes all the difference. AMEN