Common Ground
There comes a time when things are made clear, or are they?
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband' for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these 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 proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you." - John 4:16-26
The woman at the well is a Samaritan, but she is no dope.
The Jews and the Samaritans did not see eye to eye. They worshiped the same God, but they did so in different ways.
Their history goes way back to the Assyrians who conquered the Jews and took many of them into captivity, leaving some in the North behind.
Those left behind intermarried and became "unclean" in the eyes of the Jews returning to their homeland.
When it came time to build a temple to God, the Samaritans wanted to help, but their help was rejected, and the split between the two groups grew wider.
So, now, many years later, a Jew and a Samaritan meet at a well and despite their differences, they come to an understanding, which changes the whole picture.
Both peoples were waiting for the coming of the Messiah, and now He is here.
But what will happen next?
While many will come to believe, many more will not, and the one thing that could have brought these two peoples together will add a new division, Christianity.
It seems that every attempt God makes to bring us together leads to more division and separation.
No wonder we have the same problem as humans. We just can't seem to find common ground on anything these days.
Maybe it is in our nature. But that nature is from God, so perhaps we need to ask Him what we can do about it.
Hopefully, we will find an answer that will not divide us further.
More to come...