John 4,16-26: "He told her, 'Go, call your husband and come back.' 'I have no husband,' she replied. Jesus said to her, 'You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.' 'Sir,' the woman said, 'I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.' 'Woman,' Jesus replied, 'believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.' The woman said, 'I know that Messiah' (called Christ) 'is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.' Then Jesus declared, 'I, the one speaking to you—I am he.'" (Today’s NIV)

To what kind of people do you reveal yourself?

Jesus entrusted the knowledge about his identity to a woman whom only few people would have trusted at that time. She belonged to a nation (the Samaritans), that was regarded as being unclean and their teachings as being unbiblical, she was a woman whose testimony wasn’t valid in court then, and she was an adulteress who had lived with 6 different men already. She even had to go to the well at noon when it was unbearably hot, just to avoid the revilement of the other inhabitants of the village. Plus she was a know-it-all.

On the other hand there were lots of religious people to whom Jesus hid his true identity. Jesus looked behind the visible things that make untrustworthy in the eyes of people. He evaluated them according to the neediness of their hearts, not according to their ability to do all the right things. Jesus wants that people worship him “in the Spirit and in truth”. In the Spirit means through the work of the Spirit in our lives, who shows us the truth about our neediness with respect to the salvation of God.

How quick we are in danger to judge the habits, the opinions and the way of living of others, especially in the church. Then we keep ourselves at a distance, withdraw our love from the other one, talk negatively about him/her and least of all we are ready to accept the other person and to defend him/herself before others. Jesus to the contrary opened his heart to the Samaritan woman without any previous claim. And that’s what HE does through us as well!