“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)
In addition to all the suffering we have seen from COVID these past 3 years, there has been a considerable increase in violence, theft, abuse, political infighting, and disrespect towards both the law of the land as well as the Law of God. If you are like me, you may feel like lashing out against those carrying out such wickedness, labeling them as degenerate sinners, totally lacking in moral values, totally corrupt and evil.
This is how the Jews of Jesus’ day viewed their neighbors, the Samaritans. As John indicates in Chapter 4 of his gospel, the Jews would never drink water from the same cup as a Samaritan. They labeled them as immoral, unclean idolaters. Yet Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar reveals this not to be the case. This woman was one who had lived a life of sexual immorality. Yet, as Jesus knew, she did so because she was thirsting for peace, satisfaction, love and acceptance in the only way she knew how. She knew it was wrong but she was trapped by her religion and by her lifestyle. Jesus gave her the living water of eternal life only after He had convicted her of her sin.
Everyone is a sinner. Most sin because they are confused and hurting, drinking water from a well that does not satisfy, seeking acceptance and meaning from a bottle or a needle or sex or a job or fame or political causes or in a host of other things which do not bring peace. They are wandering, empty, yearning for something more, but not knowing quite where to find it.
Jesus loves them all. He knows their sin, He knows why they do what they do, all that motivates them to do evil. He loved them and died for them so that now He can offer them faith and the water of eternal life, not so they could continue to live in sin but that they can be cleansed and freed from it. He is the only source of eternal life.