The Truth Becomes Personal
THE TRUTH BECOMES PERSONAL
JOHN 4:16-26
It is only when we have given in to Jesus Christ that we begin to know he can satisfy our deepest longings.
Before the woman can receive the living water, Jesus tells her to call her husband. The gift of God is personal but not private—it has to be shared. She had probably not come to draw water just for herself—the water of life was to be for others too. The partner in marriage is the first with whom it needs to be shared.
The mention of her husband brings a denial that she has one, and Jesus shows (presumably by supernatural insight) that he knows all about her marital and extra-marital relationships. Her sin had to be acknowledged before she could experience the new life of God. There is no faith without repentance.
The woman’s reaction is natural. Someone with such insight is a prophet. He can therefore solve the great denominational dispute. Is Mount Gerizim or Mount Zion the right place to worship? So often will people try to deflect the personal moral challenge of the gospel to a question of general interest.
Jesus shows that Gerizim and Zion are temporary local symbols. When God’s hour comes worship will be universal and its location irrelevant. That, however, is not to say that all religions are the same. Samaritan worship in many points was in ignorance, Jewish was with knowledge. God’s saving actions had been among Jews, and the Jewish people, as a cradle for the Messiah, were the means of salvation for the world. Yet even Judaism pales before the worship opened up now.
God’s nature is spiritual not local. He is the living God and seeks living worship. Men’s worship must therefore be not in Jewish letter but in spirit (that aspect of man which answers to God and is made alive by the Holy Spirit), and not in Samaritan falsehood but in truth (in sincerity which depends on the reality of God’s revelation in Christ). As she does not understand, the woman pushes off the challenge until later, when the Messiah comes. Back comes the startling reply: “I am He.” The enjoyment of his presence is still the key to worship.
Note 4:18: “five husbands” may refer to the five peoples with their heathen “baals” (“baal” meant “husband”) who were the ancestors of the Samaritans (2 Kings 17:24-33). If this were so, it would explain why the woman raised the question of the right place to worship.