The View from the West Mesa

J esus answered her, "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." John 4:10 ESV Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and his disciples have gone off to get food. You’ve heard this story before and its several applications dealing with gender, with outcasts, with evangelism. This statement is early in this conversation. But look at these words, “If you knew...who it is that is saying to you….” Who is this that is jousting with her? It is not just Messiah, not just a rabbi, not just a Jewish male who wanted to slake his thirst. No this is not just a human, regardless of how we label him. This is God, her God who wants nothing but for her to ask for relief. This is Israel’s God but not only Israel’s God but the Creator God, the only God. He is her God. Her God who wants to give her “living water.” For her, healing, acceptance, reconciliation, and refreshment. This...

Today marks the day of assurance that Jesus was who he said he was – and who we believe him to be. Paul looks to the resurrection and says that it is our hope. If Jesus wasn’t raised, Paul is prepared to say that we look pretty foolish. Paul doesn’t say that about the widow’s son – either of them, or Lazarus. People have been raised but Paul doesn’t point to them as our hope, or that in believing those resurrections we are shown to be foolish. But if Jesus didn’t rise to life, Paul says we have little hope. Granted, Paul writes these things for his rhetorical purpose; Paul himself has no doubt. Paul uses the resurrection of Jesus to propel him to faithfulness, through hardship, and even “dying every day.” Paul continues despite his beatings, shipwrecks, fighting beasts, imprisonments, and even what seems to have been a severe crisis of faith or approached despair. He argues that if all there is, is this life, why does he – and why does he encourage his readers to – persist in th...