Worthy?

Most of us ask this of God often:  “Am I worthy?” We know who we are, what we’ve done, who we’ve hurt.  Most of all, we’ve hurt God.  So, how can we be worthy?

John 4:27-43 brought this to mind this morning.  The passage is the end of the story of Jesus with the woman at the well and addresses the results of their talk.

In the chapter, we find this woman had been married five times and the one she was living with at the moment was not her husband.  Just as a side note, those five husbands were probably not dead.  Imagine if you were number four considering marrying a woman whose previous three husbands had bit the dust.  Wouldn’t you consider hiring a food tester, a body guard, or maybe paying for some anger management for the woman?  So, these men probably left her.  She may not have been easy to live with. There may be a good reason number six hasn’t married her.

The fact she showed up at the well to draw water at the noon hour (the sixth hour by Jewish measure) when the women of the town normally came in the cool morning hours, points to a woman of poor reputation, a woman in sin and the talk of the town.  She wanted to draw water alone. The next thing that happens is the disciples return to Jesus at the well:

John 4:27 (ESV)  Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”

Any decent rabbi wouldn’t be caught talking with a woman alone, especially a Samaritan woman, and a woman of poor reputation, but Jesus did; and the disciples didn’t question either of them.  They knew enough to accept what Jesus was doing even though it seemed odd.

Next, after Jesus had His discussion with the woman, we see this result:

John 4:28-29 (ESV)  So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

So, the woman left her water jar – an indication she planned to return to the well – and ran to tell the townsfolk.  Think about this, now.  A woman of bad reputation, who no doubt had made a lot of bad decisions in her life, the subject of town gossip, came to the townspeople all excited and was able to bring people to Jesus.  In fact, the people of the town asked Jesus to stay and tell them more.

Why is this important?

Sometimes we feel unworthy to do anything God asks or commands.  We think the sin in our lives holds us back, maybe we feel ill equipped to share the gospel, or maybe we feel no one will listen.  When that happens, we should think of the woman at the well.  This was a woman of ill repute who was deep in sin.  If anyone would consider themselves unworthy, she would.  Yet, she was approached by the very God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and told all about her sin.  Though she was aware of all that, she ran to tell others of this glorious Savior she had met at the well.

It’s interesting in the Gospels no one except Jesus is called “worthy” of God.  John the Baptist says he’s not worthy to untie Jesus’ sandals.  In Matt. 8:8, the centurion says he is unworthy to even have Jesus under his roof.  Jesus said in Matt. 10:37 if we hold our parents in higher regard than we hold Him, we are not worthy of Him.

But in the book of Acts things change.  Jesus has made the sacrifice.  We now stand before God cleansed and worthy to suffer for Jesus (Acts 5:41).

If God can use a poor sinful woman like the one Jesus spoke with at the well, He can use us.  She had no training in evangelism or public speaking, yet the two days Jesus spent in her town of Sychar in Samaria are known by some commentators as the “Sychar Revival.”

Eph 4:1 (ESV)  I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

Only through Christ are we considered worthy, you and I.  We are worthy to be used by Him here in this world and later to stand before Him faultless at the time of judgment.  Halleluiah!