From the moment we begin to utter a few sounds of communication as toddlers, we are taught to count. We count our fingers and toes. We count how many blocks we are stacking. We count how many sleeps before Christmas or vacations. We count how many more bites we must take from our plate left with yucky peas and swallow. (Yeah, I still don’t like peas!) We count as a way of life. How many reps of this exercise are left? How many steps will I complete today? How many…the list goes on and on.
Counting tells us how much we have and don’t have. Counting helps us plan for what we need in supplies. Counting points in a game become seriously important if you are close to winning—or losing. Counting can drive us to compete and compare which can lead our hearts to fill with envy, discontent, and jealousy. Counting to measure our highest level of performance for the purpose of being known as better than anyone else can lead to pride and arrogance.
The Pharisees counted. They kept score between the ministries of Jesus and John, the Baptist by counting the number of baptisms. Jesus’ response? He left. (Church, we’ll just leave that right here.) God then led Jesus down a dangerous road to Samaria to what really counts—saving a soul that opened the door to salvation for everyone! Wow.
John 4, The Message
The Woman at the Well
1-3 Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people. So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.
4-6 To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.
7-8 A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)
9 The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”
11-12 The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”
13-14 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”
15 The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”
16 He said, “Go call your husband and then come back.”
17-18 “I have no husband,” she said.
“That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough.”
19-20 “Oh, so you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?”
21-23 “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.
23-24 “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”
25 The woman said, “I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story.”
26 “I am he,” said Jesus. “You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.
28-30 The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And they went out to see for themselves.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
The Samarian women came to the well at noon to avoid the gossip and ridicule of the other people of the village who despised her and her lifestyle.
The Son of Man was tired and thirsty. We see the physical human side of Jesus who ask for drink from the bucket of the woman who has come from the village to simply get enough water for the day. This leads to a discussion that begins with sarcasm from the lips of a very weary woman who has simply come to draw water at the hottest time of day—noon.
“I have no husband.” Honestly said as she finishes getting water from the well. Jesus, Son of God, knew the real headcount of husbands but accepted her honesty as she reported her current condition.
Jesus’ “knowing” unnerves her. What could she be thinking? We get an answer in her response…” Oh, so you’re a prophet” …we can almost hear the sarcasm dripping from her voice as she thinks, great, someone else to add up my sins and hold the count over my head. She is used to the condemnation of others so she craftily deflects the conversation to a different discussion of theology.
Jesus hears and sees her. Her well-crafted comeback led to Truth that she could not ignore and walk away from as Jesus tells her (and us) what really counts:
“God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.” “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth.”
Imagine all the weight bearing down on this woman from years of living a life that you didn’t really ask for, didn’t enjoy, but felt trapped in as a woman searching for real love and compassion.
Imagine knowing enough about God to hear of the promise of a Messiah who would come to save you and then hearing from this man: “I am He.”
“You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”
Real love found at last! Truth gently removed her heavy backpack of burden and set her free. Freedom renewed her energy to run back to the village—without her water bucket—because of being filled with the Living Water from the Messiah.
Jesus not only set her free, God gave her message:
“’Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?’ And they went out to see for themselves.”
Salvation is for everyone. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17
“That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” –Jesus
Believe, repent and be saved for life! Leave behind the past count of sins and look forward to a new life with a clean slate with the One who is the Only Way to God, the Truth of God that leads to Life with God now and for eternity! That’s what counts!
Lord,
Thank you for saving my soul and making me whole. You know me, too. You see and hear me. You love me no matter what I’ve done. Thank you for taking the burdens of my past off my shoulders and setting me free to love like you love us. Thank you for teaching us what counts before God and enriches our lives. Lead and guide my thoughts and behaviors today. May others see you in me. May your glory be seen in me. Thank you for not counting my repented sins against me.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 