2023-03-12 Let Jesus Serve You

John 4 vv 5-30 - The woman at the well. Third sunday of Lent

• Context: Jesus is travelling to Galilee, through Samaria. Jews would usually cross the Jordan river to avoid Samaria for this journey.
• vv 5-6 - A historically significant place. Jesus is hot, dusty, and tired.
• v7 - Longest recorded conversation Jesus has with anohter person in all the gospels.
• There are many comparisons and contrasts between this story and last week's sermon 2023-03-05 Born Again.
  • Man vs woman - named vs not named - Sought Jesus / Jesus sought them - well known vs anonymous
• Let's note, Jesus purposely put himself in place to engage with the woman.
  • Invest in relationships with people and seek opportunities for reconciliation.
• v10 - Jesus is turning the conversation from his physical thirst, to her spiritual thirst. Jesus is abpout to shift gears to bring up a topic to hep her understand this.
• vv 18-19 - OK, she gets that he's operating on another level.
  • Nothing in this text indicates a value judgement against the woman. We commonly hear that she is at the well at noon to avoid gossip of others. But Jesus doesn't treat her that way, and the townspeople don't treat her that way when she tells them about Jesus at the end of the story. DON'T judge her or assume the worst without proof.
• v 26 - "I am" - The first of Jesus' "I am" statements in John. Jesus is making his first explicity claim to be messiah. Note he chose to tell the woman, not Nicodemus. She is the first person to preach the truth about Jesus.
• The way into the Kngdom is to let Jesus serve you. Matthew 20 v28