Thursday Scripture: John 4
Over, Under, and Through
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When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”
(For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
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In Christ's day, there were all kinds of social barriers.
But when people are tired and thirsty, those barriers get fuzzy.
Thirsty people come to the well--even drink from the Samaritan dipper--no matter what the sign on the water fountain says.
A thirsty body cannot afford segregation.
Jesus knew there was a deeper thirst that overcomes all barriers.
When we need water, we all come to the well.
When we need Living Water, we all come to Christ.
Jews and Samaritans, Southerners and Yankees, bigots and activists, MAGA's and marchers...
We are divided by our own barriers but united by our deepest need.
Jesus could overlook social barriers because he focused on the deeper needs of others.
Those deepest needs draw ALL people to Him.
Folks have a lot of good reasons to stay behind those barriers.
The woman at the well could have had generations of anger about the way she and her people were treated.
She could have been afraid.
Or it might have simply been lifelong habit.
It took Jesus to say,
"Aren't you getting THIRSTY on your side of the wall?"
"If you understood your own need, you would go over, under, and through the walls that hold you back."
He's saying the same thing to all the people at all the wells in America today.
If we only understood what Christ had to offer, we wouldn't let our divisions hold us apart.
Of course, God knows you have your reasons for keeping up your walls.
They might be really good reasons, too.
But it gets kinda dry over there by yourself, innit?