Wednesday, November 6, 2013

John 4:43

Jesus stays in Sychar for two days total and then leaves for Galilee. John 4:43 EFP

Two days.  That is what it took to change an entire city.  Two days.  What once was a city defined by its past now stands at the gateway to a whole new beginning.  The Messianic age has already begun in this small Samaritan hamlet.  Jerusalem is still in the dark, but Sychar is soaking in the glory of the Light of the World.

The entire conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is summed up in 19 verses.  The woman is changed forever by this encounter and as a result her entire town in transformed.  Jacob’s Well is now the second-most famous source for water in town.  The Messiah has brought living water.  Hope is rekindled.  Genuineness is restored.  True worship is reestablished.  All this takes place in two days.  What an amazing two days in Samaria.  I would have immensely enjoyed being part of those unforgettable two days.

But now what?  The two days are up, and Jesus is leaving town.  What happens now?  The town eventually fades away as so many other towns in Palestine.  All that remains today is an earth-laden pile of rubble.  The well remains as a relic inside a Greek church.  Eternity will alone tell the results of those two days in Sychar.  All we know for certain is that the party town (Sychar sounds a lot like the Hebrew word for drunkard) becomes a proper town after their lone known encounter with the Christ.  Their story is still repeated long after the life-cycle of the town ends.  I want to meet the woman with a checkered past turned evangelist when I get to heaven.  I have some questions for her.

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