Jesus and the FIRST sexual revolution. John, no.12
PODCAST: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/31506779/jesus-and-the-first-sexual-revolution-john-no10
The year was 1974. We drove from the San Francisco area to Anchorage, Alaska in a Chevrolet station wagon--just under 3100 miles. On our way, we went to Expo 74 in Spokane, Washington. Do you know what I remember of that international extravaganza? The women at the entrance, hoisting huge signs yelling, 'Women, burn your bras!'
Why such a spectacle? That was one of the loud cries of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s.
But these women were way late to the cause--Jesus Christ began the sexual revolution for women 2000 years ago! He was the first man to reach across the aisle to a woman, defying all the social mores of his day.
John recounts Jesus' visit with a woman at the well in John chapter four. Jesus has left the Judean countryside to return to Galilee, and goes out of his way, traveling through Samaria. It would seem Jesus was led by God, specifically to redeem this woman (and her people). When he speaks to her, Jesus breaks every social and religious code, as a Jewish rabbi traveling into Samaritan territory, and then, horror of horrors, as a Jew speaking to a Samaritan, and God forbid, a woman!
Note: Jesus still goes out of the way to meet us .
John writes, "When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) vs. 7 and 9
So here we have Rabbi Jesus actually addressing a Samaritan woman [radical!]… and as he had done with Nicodemus, goes right to the woman’s greatest need-- ‘living water’ to quench her deep spiritual thirst.
First … Jesus must get her to see her sin and clear it up.
“Go call your husband,” He tells her, “and come back here .”
Uh-oh. He knows. Yes, he does. Jesus helps her deal with her sin so she can hope again. Jesus knows what she did not know about herself--that she has never known spiritual truth . . . and surely never been satisfied in her soul . . . and so he explains that his living water will give her hope and will produce in her eternal life! He’s got her. You can almost hear her urgent demand, ‘tell me how to get it!’
Jesus knows all about her and loves her anyway.
You really ought read the whole passage—to get the picture of the Woman who went to the Well. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John 4.1-43&version=ESV,NLT But even then, you do not fully appreciate the story John recounts unless you understand the cultural and historical biases of the day and just why John said Jesus ‘had to travel through Samaria’ as though it were the only route when it was not. This story shows the rich impact Jesus made on people.
By way of explanation, the Jews and Samaritans had hated each other since 700 B.C. when the Samaritans’ ancestors, the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel and carried its residents into captivity. When a few Israelites escaped and returned home, the Assyrian king sent some of his men to guard the former Israelite territory from future revolts. Over the years that followed, there was intermarriage between Israelites and Assyrians - then called 'Samaritans'. Even the religion was ‘half-breed’, so to speak, a mixture of Assyrian superstition and gods, with Jewish truths and traditions. The Jews hated the Samaritans, and resentfully, the Samaritans hated the Jews. 1
As for speaking to a woman . . . as we see, Jesus was unaffected by social mores—actually, he violated them in every single encounter he had with women recorded in the gospels.2 Why, Jesus was a revolutionary with regard to his treatment of women! In the first century, at every synagogue service, Jewish men prayed, “Blessed art thou, O Lord, who has not made me a woman.” Women sat in a separate section, were not counted in quorums, and were rarely taught the Torah. In social life, few women would talk to men outside of their families, and a woman was to have no close contact with any man but her spouse.3 ‘And for rabbis? They were forbidden to speak to women in public. And then came Jesus. hmmm...
Oh and this exchange is incredible.
At one point 'the woman remarked to Jesus, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus told her, "I am the Messiah!”4
***So the first time Jesus openly reveals himself as the Messiah is to this unnamed Samaritan woman. Only Jesus. Only Jesus would cross social, cultural and religious boundaries to reveal himself to a woman. Revolutionary indeed.
She went to the well thirsty, and left satisfied...
she went to the well empty inside and left filled...
she went to the well friendless and lonely, and left knowing true love...
she went to the well, believing in some small way, the Messiah would come one day, she left, having met him;
she went to the well, a woman scorned and rejected . . .
she skipped away, renewed, filled with hope ~ a woman loved by Jesus.
‘Seems once folks met Jesus they were never the same.
Jesus is coming to you today with the same offer:
freedom from yourself/your sin
hope for today
the promise of forever with him.
don't walk away.
Because once folks meet Jesus they are never the same.
Listen: Call on Jesus, Nicole Mullen:
Only Jesus.
Christine
John, no.12
1 Anne Graham Lotz, Just Give Me Jesus
2 Walter Wink
3 Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
4 John 4.25-26
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