Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] What is up, you guys? Look, you are not too much for God. You're not going to scandalize him, you're not going to freak him out, no matter what you do, no matter how messy you feel.
[00:00:08] But first, check this out, guys. I'm walking through a forest of redwoods in Northern California. Whoa.
[00:00:14] I feel like a Ewok in the forest of Endor. By the way, it was filmed not too far from here.
[00:00:19] One of the cool things about redwoods, they draw water from their roots and from their fur at the top of the tree. So. So they're drawing water from all angles, which sustains so much life. It's incredible. And their bark, you could feel it, it's kind of thick and moist. It's one of the reasons they don't burn down in forest fires. And they can live to be hundreds of years old. Dude, these things are mind blowing. Which brings us to the reality of water and our need for it. And the woman at the well.
[00:00:48] Guys, Jesus encounter with the woman at the well, which we read about in Catholic churches all around the world this Sunday, is one of the most powerful, mind blowing, amazing encounters of God with humanity in all of history.
[00:01:00] Even though it's so simple, even though it's so subtle, in this encounter, Jesus asks this woman for a drink of water.
[00:01:07] And then he turns the tables and he says, if you knew who was talking to you, you would ask me for a drink.
[00:01:13] And one of the most powerful lines in the entire catechism of the Catholic Church, it's written that this shows that prayer is an encounter of God's thirst with ours. Check this out.
[00:01:28] It's the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.
[00:01:33] What?
[00:01:34] Think about that for a minute.
[00:01:36] Every time that you felt spiritually thirsty, that you went from the bodily need of water or whatever that is for you, whether you satisfy yourself with alcohol or scrolling on your phone too much or money or whatever it is, and you raised up your mind to spiritual thirst, spiritual hunger.
[00:01:55] That didn't happen because you thought, hey, I should pray or I should go to church. No, no.
[00:01:59] Every time you thought of God, every time you thought of prayer, every time you thought of church, it's because God thought of you first and invited you, literally called you into that moment.
[00:02:10] So when you feel that little nudge deep in your heart to pray, dude, don't ignore it. Don't start scrolling on your phone some more. Actually give in to that, because that's almighty God calling you. I gotta tell you something. Else, when you feel that little nudge to prayer, don't ever feel like, man, I don't have it all together. I'd feel stupid going into church right now. No, if you felt that urge to go to church, it's because Almighty God called you. If you thought of going to church, it's because he thought of you first.
[00:02:34] Which means that when you go in, even if you don't know how to do it right, your heavenly Father is happy to see you there.
[00:02:42] But I'll tell you, there's something even more mind blowing about this encounter with the woman at the well.
[00:02:47] It's this, guys, Scripture's really, really clear about this, that she was there at the well midday. Now, why does this matter? I've been to the Middle east many times. Midday in the Middle east was hot.
[00:03:02] It's really hot. It's really uncomfortable. This is the time you want to go take a siesta. This is not the time 2000 years ago when you needed to gather your water in jugs and carry your water in heavy jugs for your entire family for the.
[00:03:13] This is not the time that you want to journey to the well and gather the water.
[00:03:17] So why the heck was she there at midday? The reason? Simple. It's because she wanted to avoid people.
[00:03:23] She was ashamed. She had something to hide.
[00:03:25] She had something that made her socially uncomfortable, maybe a little bit outcast. Okay, you think soccer moms gossip today, man, look at this thing, dude.
[00:03:36] You think soccer moms gossip today?
[00:03:38] Rewind to a Middle Eastern village 2000 years ago where they didn't have the distraction of their phone or the news, and you commit a scandal.
[00:03:48] Dude, you are the talk of the town, and not in the best way.
[00:03:52] So she was there because she. She was ashamed of something.
[00:03:56] And as her conversation with Jesus progresses, Jesus tells her the thing that she's ashamed of.
[00:04:03] He Sundays, you've had five husbands, and the man you're with right now is not your husband.
[00:04:09] In other words, you've had that spiritual thirst for many things, and you've taken it in all the wrong directions and satisfied it in all the wrong ways.
[00:04:19] Now, here's the amazing part of this conversation, guys.
[00:04:22] Up till this point, this woman who avoided crowds and was trying very clearly at the beginning of the reading to avoid Jesus, she said, why are you, a man and a Jew, talking to me, a woman and a Samaritan?
[00:04:33] In other words, please stop talking like I'm here midday. I don't. I don't want to talk to you.
[00:04:39] You ever have that thing where you kind of want to say that to someone and it takes a lot of courage to actually say that.
[00:04:45] She was a tough lady. Why are you talking to me?
[00:04:50] When he calls out the very thing that she's hiding from that she's ashamed of, that drew her to go to the well midday in the blazing heat, you'd think that would end the conversation, wouldn't you?
[00:05:02] Like, okay, you saw it, I'm out of here.
[00:05:05] But that's where the conversation actually gets deeper and she starts to recognize that he's a prophet and the Messiah.
[00:05:14] Man, I get chills thinking about this right now, guys. The big question is why?
[00:05:20] Why didn't the conversation end?
[00:05:23] How could it possibly have gotten deeper? Let me tell you the answer to that question, guys.
[00:05:27] It's because Jesus clearly had seen all the mess that she was.
[00:05:34] And he wasn't freaked out.
[00:05:36] He didn't flinch.
[00:05:38] He didn't run away.
[00:05:40] Instead, he just looked at her with love and he was sitting there with her.
[00:05:47] And maybe for the first time in a long time, a man just looked at her with love and no judgment whatsoever.
[00:05:55] Guys, you are not too much for Jesus.
[00:06:01] Your interior mess, your sin, it's not too much for him to handle.
[00:06:08] You might freak yourself out.
[00:06:10] Whatever is in your heart that you want to dump on him, you are not freaking him out.
[00:06:15] And if you want to see Jesus seeing your sin head on and not flinching and not running, go to confession, tell him your sin, and watch him not run.
[00:06:28] And guys, it gets even more beautiful from here. This woman then goes back to her village after this encounter with the Lord and says, I just met a man who told me everything I ever did.
[00:06:39] Could this be the Messiah? By the way, technically, that makes her the first evangelist to the Gentiles, to the non Jewish people.
[00:06:48] But when she said, in this little village, here's the man who told me everything I ever did, everyone who heard her would have known exactly what she was talking about. The thing that you didn't bring up around this woman, the thing that she avoided the crowds to go to the village at noon so she wouldn't have to come come into an encounter with anybody who had judgments about that shameful part of her that she kept hidden all the time, she starts proclaiming it.
[00:07:12] When you feel loved in the middle of your mess and give your life to the Lord, you know what happens to the thing you're most ashamed of? That very thing becomes your testimony.
[00:07:20] Go to him with your sin. Give it to him. Watch him not run. And not just a confession and not just with your sin. That part of you that feels like it's too much, that part of you that overwhelms even you to think about it you want to pretend isn't even there.
[00:07:35] I love the psalm. Out of the depths I cry to you. Hear me, O Lord.
[00:07:41] Invite him into that part of you.
[00:07:44] Sit there with him in prayer. Let him love you. And then from that place go and tell the world.
[00:07:51] God bless you guys. I love you. By the way, there's so much more to this reading that I couldn't possibly fit into a short video. If you want to dive in deeper, click below this video and sign up for our Daily Anchor. Every day this week, we're going to be diving into the story, the Woman at the well and the Daily Anchor. God bless you.
