Contemplative Bible Reading

John 4:25-26  (The Living Bible)

25 The woman said, “Well, at least I know that the Messiah will come—the one they call Christ—and when he does, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!”

These verses are part of the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well or the Sycharian woman. The woman knows something about the promised Messiah or the Christ.

Jesus tells her plainly, “I am the Messiah.”

Reaction: Yeah, right. Sure you are. The glorious Messiah is sitting here at a well in the middle of the day at Jerkwater, Palestine. Sure.

That is a reasonable reaction. It makes sense. In contrast, the “I am the Messiah” statement makes no sense. I guess that is a good description of Christianity: it really makes no sense. But, it is real and has dominated human thought, belief, and action for centuries.

God does things in ways that make no sense to us. I guess that passage about His thoughts being above and beyond our thoughts makes sense.