Knowing is the Difference

“You don’t know me like that!” I first heard that expression in Detroit, MI. The girl sounded irate and was basically telling the guy that he couldn’t treat her with such familiarity unless he planned to give her more exclusive attention. Her blatant challenge was also her heart’s desire. Who doesn’t want to be known, understood, heard, respected... loved?

It seems as though the Samaritan woman was just as forward with her challenge. And despite her brash demeanor, we discover that her heart’s desire was also to be known and loved. (John 4:1-43)

“Give me a drink”... I would like something from you.

“You don’t know me like that! Can’t you tell I’m a Samaritan woman?!”

The Samaritans had been Jews at one time. But invading forces had captured Samaria and intermarried with their people, “polluting” their bloodlines, and introducing pagan religions. These unfortunate people were now ignored and despised by the Jews. History records a resulting hate on both sides.

“You don’t know me!” was her response. And his comeback was intriguing: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

Jesus countered her, “You don’t know me! If you knew me, you would know that I have something to give you - a gift from God. You would be asking me for something.”

“Just who do you think you are?!” she retorts. She’s never met a Jew like this before! Of all the arrogant Jews she’s seen, this one takes the cake! He talks as if he is better than all Jews put together. He claims to bring a gift from God! Living water? Ha! He doesn’t even have a container to draw water out of the well for himself!

Jesus goes on to explain what he meant by living water. This “water” is a satisfying, a quenching, of the thirst of our hearts to be known, loved, and rescued from our situation. This satisfying water (relationship) would become a bubbling spring unto eternal life.

“If you’ve got such a thing, give it to me! I’d love to not have to come here to get water every day. I’d love to never get thirsty anymore.” She admitted that the offer sounded pretty good. But her words smell of doubt and sarcasm. She didn’t believe that this man could actually take care of her thirst. And she didn’t take up his challenge to get to know him.

But Jesus persisted with His offer... “Go call your husband, and come here.” The woman said, “I have no husband.” And Jesus said “You are right in saying you have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

This “arrogant” Jew, who she had never met in her life, told her the sad history of her life, a history that revealed her desire to be known and loved. He does know her after all! How does He know?! Who is this man? NOW she wants to know Him!

She regards him as a prophet (messenger for God) and asks Him a testing question of the day. The Jews say you have to participate in the worship at the temple in Jerusalem. The Samaritans set up their own counterpart and proclaimed that it is just as good to worship in the Samaritan temple...

Jesus, knowing that in a few short years these temples would be destroyed and useless said, “Believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews [The Messiah was prophesied to come from the family line of the Jews]. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

It wasn’t about where a person worshipped, but if they knew who they were worshipping! God is not a place, not a mountain or a building. He is a spirit: a person, a being, a relational Being at that. He is seeking people to worship Him “in spirit and truth” - from their heart, in truth, in honesty, in open relationship, open communication, knowing Him. Jesus pointed out that not location but knowing is the difference!

The woman responded with the only thing she could say she really knew: “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When He comes, he will tell us all things.” She was counting on this Messiah to come someday and make everything right, tell all things, answer her questions... and this man was answering so wisely...

Jesus must have been so happy to let her know, “Yes! You are talking to Him! It’s me!”

The disciples came back from town with food and interrupted this conversation. The woman, still shocked and excited, left her water pitcher behind and ran to town to tell the people. And what was the evidence she proclaimed to them? Why did she think this man could be the Messiah? “Come see a man who told me all that I ever did...” He knows me! He knows me! He knows me, and yet He talked to me... The fact that He knew her made all the difference in the world to this woman. It caused her to want to know Him and to invite other people to know Him.

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How can we know that God knows us, unless we spend some time getting to know Him?