Based on John 4:1-26, 39-42 (New King James Version)
“Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink.’ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?’ Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When He comes, He will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’”
“And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.’”
Dean Ornish said, “The need for love and intimacy is a fundamental human need, as primal as the need for food, water, and air.” In order to form real, long-lasting relationships of any kind, intimacy is necessary. It has to go beyond the trivial communication that we all tend to have. It consists of more than just talking about the weather, about work, the news, etc. It goes even deeper; revealing those things that are not so trivial. In order for a husband and wife to have a genuine and real (doesn’t mean easy) relationship, they should share their inner most intimacy with each other; way deeper than just the physical contact. In order for parents to have meaningful relationships with their children, they need to build an environment or a confidence where there can be honest openness. In order for friends to have something deeper than just hanging out or having a good time (that’s what most friendships wind up being), there has to be some intimacy. Even in a school setting, teachers can reach folks at a completely different level if they are able to achieve some sort of intimacy with students. And employers can be that much more effective if they treat people like people, and not like someone that is only there to help them make money. Intimacy is necessary.
God seeks intimacy with us. In our passage today, we see that something very trivial as the need for water turns into quite an intimate conversation among two strangers (Jesus and the Samaritan woman). Humanly speaking, we see that both of them come from backgrounds where there is enmity, or at minimum, no communication. Yet, because God cared about her, He reached out to her and things got very intimate very quickly. It got so intimate that the woman’s whole sex life came up, the different men she lived with. Some people might say, “Why is it so necessary for such personal things to come out in the open?” And there is a good answer.
It is widely known that even though intimacy is so necessary, many people shy away from it for a variety of different reasons. And oddly enough, their greatest struggle is being intimate with God. What do I mean? People have an intimacy problem with God because they treat God like they treat other people. They will keep God at a distance. Many folks that even profess to being believers and followers of Christ never truly surrender their intimacy to God because they never want to feel like they give up control or they want to hide from God (He knows everything though). But nonetheless, many people just don’t want to get involved with God intimately. But the problem with that is that they will never experience any kind of transformation in their life if they don’t let God come in; even into those deep, dark places they want to leave hidden away from Him. God needs to get into your inner most being in order to do which He does best: He transforms! Do you know what happens when you don’t surrender to God? Nothing. You keep on being the same person, day-after-day. Some people are fine with that and that’s why they run away. But if you truly want to experience a true change, you need to allow God into your intimacy; into the very things you try to hide from everyone else. And in order to let Him in, you need to surrender to Him; give up to His Lordship. In all reality, how can you ever belong to Christ if you never give yourself over to Him? Many people want salvation, but not many want Him to be Lord of their lives.
Is it hard to let go? Yes, but that’s the only way you will experience the power of God in your life. And you will be able to see Him work and do things that you never thought possible. He wants to get intimate with you because He wants to make you as great as you can be through His Son, Jesus Christ. So, if you are ready to truly change and experience God as the reality He alone is, surrender to Him. Get intimate with Him. Let Him into your world so He can change it, transform it, and leave you in awe of who He is. Are you ready for an intimately transforming relationship? Lord bless! John