Sunday, August 07, 2016

What A Man!



Image result for images of the woman at the well

He could have taken the route direct
But he had to be different I suspect
Very unlike those of his earthly kindred
He had a totally different life object.

He came to set captives free he said
He even freed some from the dead
Performing miracles of every type
I speak of Jesus our living head.

Departing Judea he left for Galilee
In Judea he was the target of each Pharisee
They despised his teachings and his deeds
And was as hateful to him as they could be.

Well turning his attention to a Gentile
He was now really resisting the Jewish style
They treated the Gentile like a dog
And would distance him by more than a mile.

But Jesus was different from any Jew
He had something far greater in view
Than mere animosity towards a tribe
His was a message that was perfectly true.

His mission was to seek and save the lost
He intended to achieve it at infinite cost
Even the price of his precious blood
As it poured from him on Calvary’s cross.

So directed by the blueprint on his mind
He decided to leave Judea behind
And take the long route through Samaria
Where there a Samaritan he would find.

Keep in your mind that he was different
Passing this way was no Jew’s intent
For they hated Samaritans like the plague
And anything to do with them they resent.

His destination would have been far
But finally he came to the well of Sychar
And there he sat on the side of the well
Knowing well his reputation would be marred.

Not long after a woman came his way
It was around the sixth hour of the day
Jesus asked her for a drink
And this is what she had to say.

Image result for images of the woman at the well 
“How come you a Jew ask of me a drink?
That is very strange don’t you think?
You Jews have no dealings with outcasts.”
Certainly this Jew stepped over the brink.

Jesus’ response was way over her head
Listen carefully to what he said
“If only you knew the gift of God
You would ask and receive living water instead.”

What living water was he talking about?
Why he had nothing to dip it out
“Are you greater than our father Jacob
That gave us this well and had much clout?”

“On drinking this water you will have need
To come back daily and from it feed
But whoever drinks of the water I shall give
Will never thirst again.”  Take heed!
  
Give me this water so I thirst not again
Give me this water became her refrain
Give me water so I won’t come here to draw
Give me this water became her aim.

Go and call your husband Jesus said
Suddenly a thought came into her head
I have no husband she did reply
For the one she had then she did not wed.

In this she had spoken the truth
Five ex-husbands were adequate proof
That none of them now she had
Though she was living under another’s roof.

By now she had another perception
That this man who did not fall for her deception
Must be a prophet she concluded
After much considered reflection.

Jesus moved her from her flawed philosophy
From her slack life and vain religiosity
To an understanding of true worship
Not rooted in the flesh but of spiritual fervency.

True worshippers worship in truth and spirit
They are not obsessed with ritual and habit
Of such the Father seeks to worship Him
And their entire lives to him commit.

Jesus opened her eyes so that she could see
The Messiah had come; Jesus is he
The one foretold that would come to the world
The one far different from any Pharisee.
  
Seeing Jesus with the woman the disciples wondered
But none would say what it was he pondered
To them she would have been a Samaritan
But to Jesus a child of Abraham and he had found her.

This Samaritan woman by all despised
Leaving her water pot behind set off to evangelise
Back to the city from whence she had come
No doubt all that heard her were much surprised.

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“Come see a man!” she called out to them
Who told me all I did and fixed my problem
Is not this the Christ?” she asked,
Stirred by her new found passion for evangelism.

Yes she had found the Christ
To her there was nothing quite as nice
Nothing before had satisfied her thirst
Than when for Jesus she had renounced every vice.

Come and see this man I reiterate
Give your life to him and let him dictate
All that concerns you he will direct
And through life’s waters he’ll help you navigate.


Stewart Russell © 2016

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