John 4:1-26

The Woman With Five Husbands

We call her “The Woman at the Well.” It sounds so...so clean. The title lends itself to cheesy artist renditions of a classy lady draped in Middle Eastern garments leaning against a brown stone well talking to a white robed Jesus with a flawless complexion. In truth she was a bit cheeky, quick to the defensive, keen to argue religion, and had been married five times before she met Mr Potential Number Six.

Where does Jesus find these people? Oh, that’s right. He simply walked around with us.

Yesterday I pointed out that even though Jesus was shaking up the conventional wisdom regarding ceremonial washing John was able to get past that and see Jesus for who He was. As soon as this woman realized that she was talking to a prophet she immediately defaulted to “religion” talk. “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus cuts through all the religion stuff. “Yes, it was important once, and the Jews got it right because God salvation comes through them. But, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. In fact, the time is here now when what matters is not where you worship, or even how you worship. What matters is Spirit and truth.”

She got it. Her reply simply meant, “It’s all about Messiah.” Jesus agreed and revealed Himself to her. Apart from His disciples she is the only one to whom He plainly said, “I am Messiah.” The woman with five husbands.

Far too many believe it has some way, some how, reverted back to being about the “where” and “how” again. It hasn’t. It’s still all about Him.