What A Man!

 

 

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.

 

“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.

 

“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