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| CONVERSATIONS WITH JESUS |
| How did Jesus talk to ordinary people? |
| The woman said, "I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." 4:25-26 |
| Water. Where it's plentiful, we tend to take it for granted, like air. We linger in the shower, hose down a dusty driveway, let a sprinkler spurt for hours to keep the lawn green. Not so in the desert, where even plants hoard water with bristly defenses. There, water takes on a mythical aura. Taunting visions of pools and streams dance in the heat waves. A craving for water crowds out all other thoughts, and one spoonful, on a parched tongue, is worth gold. To a woman in a dry land who spent part of each day hauling clay jugs to and from a well, water was the most powerful symbol imaginable. Little wonder that when Jesus offered "living water" that would never run dry (4:14), the Samaritan woman paid attention. Profoundly Simple Words A simple word or phrase with a profound meaning: that is the style of Jesus' teaching as presented in John. No biblical author used simpler, more commonplace words: water, world, light, life, birth, love, truth. Yet John used them with such depth that hundreds of authors since have tried to plumb their meaning. Reading John is like sitting in a canoe in the middle of a deep, pristine lake. The clarity of the water reveals everything under the surface - you think. Yet, as you gaze deeper, you can never see the bottom. Something always remains hidden. Those who look for a neat scheme of organization in John usually fail. John's Gospel omits many of the events |