So, I bought a cow. Kept her in a cool place so my milk would be chilled. The first morning after I bought old Bessie I ran out to the barn to pick up my milk. And there she was, chewing and drooling and looking at me with that stupid cow expression.And even though I had the forethought to put a gallon jug out with her, and since I knew she could not read, I put next to it the pink cap so she knew I would want skim, still nothing.
So off to the store again. How frustrating!
John Chapter 4 gives us the great passage of Christ meeting up with the woman at the well. The woman at the well had no idea who this man was or all the speculation surrounding him. She was not aware that over in Jerusalem the signs were pointing to the fact that this man was the Christ. People were conjecturing, gossiping, and talking about Jesus being the Messiah.
John the Baptist had testified to it, proclaiming him the lamb of God, the one whose sandals he was not worthy to untie, the one who would baptize in the Holy Spirit, but Jesus neither confirmed or denied it.
Mary knew her son was the Messiah. She tried to get him to "show it off" by asking him to take care of the lack of wine at the wedding they were attending. Christ would perform the miracle, but no one would know but Mary and his disciples, as Jesus would tell his mother beforehand "My time has not yet come."
The disciples followed Jesus on the strength of his personality, the force of his miracles and the hope that this could be the Messiah after a slew of self-proclaimed messiahs had come across the their path.
Despite all of this, Christ never made a verbal proclamation of his being the Messiah until he makes it to the woman at the well.
The woman at the well?! The women who had had five husbands and now was living with a man who wasn't her husband? A woman who was a Samaritan: a cultural McCoy to Christ's Jewish Hatfield?
Would it not have been best to shout it out at his baptism or at the wedding or to his disciples? Obviously not. How come?
I think the clue is found in verse 23 "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."
I will make this supposition: The woman at the well, despite her reputation and background, must have been an honest and open seeker of the truth. And Christ spends time with honest, seekers of Truth.
He does not waste his breath or time on those people who are just in it for the show. He does not open up to those who come seeking self-gratification or that attainment of spiritual stature. He seeks out those who seek the truth. And since Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he seeks out those who are seeking him.
Think of Nicodemus. As a whole the Pharisees were a dastardly lot but Nicodemus came seeking the Truth and Christ opened up to him the plan that God the Father had put in place: "For God so loved the world...".
Zaccheus was given an audience with Christ for one simple reason. He so wanted to just see Jesus that he climbed into a tree. Christ sought out the seeker.
When Christ says that he comes to seek and save the lost, we understand that he comes to seek and save all the lost. But those who get found by him are those who realize they are lost. He seeks out the seeker.
Too often we treat Christ like the cow in the barn. We expect the milk to be waiting for us when we get there. We expect the milk to pop up on our door step, ring the bell, come into the kitchen, pour itself in a glass and say "Drink me." Yet there is a condition to finding Christ, and growing in Christ...we must seek him.
We must seek him for the Truth. We must seek him to worship the Truth.
We must not just sit and wait. We must seek. Christ says to seek the kingdom of God. Scripture says when we run to him he runs towards us and when we call to him he answers us. James says "We have not because we ask not."
So let us be seekers of Christ. Scripture shows us that as we seek we shall also be found by whom we are seeking.
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