A Good Example

John 4:16-20 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
 
RECALL Jesus taught Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”  He is about to demonstrate God’s life-giving born again power through a Samaritan woman at a well.
    What do you think? Was Jesus loving or accusing the woman at the well in Sychar, Samaria? Surely he could condemn her sin to make an example of her before the entire village. After all, the Bible records God’s deadly judgment on many who sin.
   Yes, Jesus does want to make an example of her! But his example will be a testimony to her, Sychar and his disciples of God’s born again purpose. His rich forgiveness, love and mercy pour over tender, broken souls. Living water will cleanse the soul when the Spirit causes one to confront and confess her sin.
   But let’s ask, “Why are the woman’s multiple marriages an issue for her?” After all, she has a mix of foreign and Jewish blood in her ancestry. Why would God’s law against divorce and re-marriage matter to the woman, or to the village in Samaria? Or the question today is, “Why does God’s law matter to anyone who isn’t a Christian?”
   The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities –  his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
   To the point, each of us knows when we sin. Even if one hasn’t heard God’s word directly, there is a level of knowledge called natural law in the human heart that understands right and wrong.
   There was a basic knowledge of God in this Samaritan village. The woman was at the well because her marital infidelities did not permit her to mix with married women. She had been taught some level of God’s law and history. If she knew of Jacob’s well, she knew of his deceit. She also learned of God transforming Jacob to become “Israel”, the One who Overcomes. Jesus went to Sychar for the same reason he went to Jacob to wrestle with him to transform his life (Genesis 32). Whether he is in Jerusalem, Galilee or Sychar, the Lord will demonstrate what it is to be born of water and the Spirit. In love, the Lord called out the woman’s sin, so he can prepare the woman’s heart to be born again.