Samaritan Woman at the Well

Continuing our summer series, Ordinary People, Extraordinary God, we reach John 4 — Jesus at Jacob's well at noon, alone with a Samaritan woman everyone else avoided. He "had to" pass through Samaria, and that word means divine necessity, not the shortest road. In three moves he reveals who God is, and the woman shows us how to respond: go, tell, bring. Three characteristics of God, three calls on us: God the Initiator — go: going through Samaria was necessary, not the shortest road. God always makes the first move, and sends us where he is already working. God the Promise Keeper — tell: at that well Jesus was fulfilling a 600-year-old promise (Ezekiel 37) to reunite his divided people. A God who keeps promises that old is worth telling about. God the King — bring: to a five-times-married outcast, Jesus is the first to say "I am he." He doesn't ask her to clean up first; bring all of yourself to the King. She left her water jar and ran to town: "Come, see a man who told me all I ever did." Who will you tell?