He Would Meet You in Your Mess

Introduction/ Review

Stewart go-kart accident

TENSION

The way that we respond to someone is shaped by what we know about them. When we think someone is going to overreact, it can be hard to be upfront about what we’ve done or what we’re going through.

It can be even more anxiety-ridden when we don’t know how someone will react. For instance, how does God react when He sees our sin? If you’ve grown up in church your entire life that might be easy to answer, but I want you to use your imagination for a second. Imagine you’ve never grown up in church and all the information you have about God has come from movies, the news, and social media. Would you know how God would react to sin?

You see news stories about angry “Christians” holding signs that condemn the world and people referring to hurricanes as “acts of God.” Based on that you would think God would react in anger. TikTok and Instagram are filled with people that make content about how ridiculous Christians are and how crazy it is that they live their lives around a dusty old book. If this is all you saw, you would think God would be silent about your sin. If you watch movies about God, you would see Him as a vengeful being and see Him as cruel.

These narratives aren’t even new because they existed at the time when Jesus walked this Earth. Two of Jesus’s disciples, John and James, were nicknamed the “Sons of Thunder” because when a village of Samaritans rejected Jesus, they offered to call down fire from heaven to strike them down. John and James thought this was how God would respond in this situation. Jesus politely refused. It’s important to note that after hanging out with Jesus, John earned a new nickname “The Apostle of Love.”

The area of Samaria is a great case study of people who have no idea how God would react to their sin. Samaria was once part of the nation of Israel, but during King Rehoboam’s reign a civil war broke out and Samaria split from Israel.

Jerusalem, the capital city, responded to the split by not allowing Samaritans to enter the temple. So, the people of Samaria made their own gods and were seen as religious outcasts.

Then, the people of Jerusalem were invaded and taken into captivity. When those enemies invaded Samaria, they were welcomed and some families even married these invaders. Jerusalem saw Samaria as a traitor because of this and called them “half-breeds.” Samaritans were viewed as the worst humans to exist and the most sinful people to be alive at that time. They were culturally and spiritually rejected. The worst part was that the people in and around Jerusalem thought that God approved of their treatment of the Samaritans. For 900 years this tension grew, and then a man named Jesus entered the picture.

Jesus’s ministry on Earth had one goal in mind: to announce that the Kingdom of God had arrived. Jesus healed people, set people free, and died and rose again. But all these miracles were part of the arrival of the Kingdom. When Jesus announced the arrival of the Kingdom, He set the record straight about what people thought about God.

So how did Jesus react to sin? How did He react to a life that was so messy that no one wanted to touch that person? He wouldn’t run away from the problem or be cruel about our failings, would He? So, what would Jesus do?

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Jesus would meet us in our mess.

TRUTH

In John chapter 4, we get to see how Jesus met someone in their mess. This isn’t just any mess. This is a mess that gets messier and messier as the story progresses.

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When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) John 4:7-9 NIV

In this passage, we see Jesus was alone by a well and a Samaritan woman approached to get some water. When Jesus spoke to her, she was shocked because people from Jerusalem wanted nothing to do with Samaritans. But she was even more shocked because Jesus was a man, and she was a woman. Women in this time were treated like property, so it was unusual that Jesus talked to her with respect. It’s no surprise that this woman was skeptical about Jesus’ motives.

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Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10 NIV

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“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” John 4:11-12 NIV

She doubted what Jesus had to say. At this point, the woman dragged the conflict between Samaria and Jerusalem into the conversation. Samaria was the land where the father, Jacob, of the 12 tribes of Israel was from. She’s told Jesus, “Do you think Jerusalem is better than Samaria? Do you think you’re smarter than us?” But this is where the story gets messier.

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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.”

John 4:16-18 NIV

The story of this woman’s life became clear. She had been married five times which meant she had either been widowed or divorced on five separate occasions. This woman had been left with nothing five times in her life. But the mess gets messier. The man she was then living with was not her husband. This tells us two things: she didn’t have a family to support her and so she was living in adultery to stay alive. She was out of options and hope.

This woman had experienced hardship over and over. She was rejected by the people of Jerusalem, and she was probably rejected by other Samaritans. We know this because she was getting water at noon which was when the sun was hottest. If you are getting water during the most undesirable time of day, it’s because you are avoiding being seen.

I would like to say she gave her life to Jesus right then and there, but when your life is this messy it’s hard to see Jesus’ message. She asked Him a question that was loaded with all of her skepticism.

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“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” John 4:19-20 NIV

It may appear like the woman was rejecting Jesus and starting an argument. But I believe she was being genuine. When she was a little girl, she never dreamed her life would end up this way. Can you feel the tension in her situation? She was finished with false hope. She wanted the real God and not another silent idol.

Every place this woman went she was rejected. So, it would not have surprised her if God Himself rejected her too. Her life was too imperfect and broken. There was no way she could ever belong or be loved by someone as perfect as God. Her life was too messy. But then, Jesus set the record straight and met her in her mess.

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“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 worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:21-24 NIV

God isn’t looking for the perfect location or person. There isn’t a life that is too messy for Him. He isn’t waiting on you to clean up your life before He shows up; He wants to meet you in the mess. This is what true worship looks like; broken people making themselves available to perfect God. It’s choosing to run to the presence of God even when your life looks ugly.

This woman was instantly accepted and loved. She went from being broken to belonging. But what Jesus does next is completely scandalous.

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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.”

John 4:25-26 NIV

At this point in Jesus’ life, He had not revealed to anyone that He was the Messiah. He didn’t even tell His closest friends until near the end of His life. This Samaritan woman was the first person Jesus revealed His identity to. He gave her one of the greatest honors you could receive from Jesus and she probably didn’t even grasp how big of a deal it was.

APPLICATION

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Jesus wants to meet you in your mess – Your life is not too messy for Jesus. God wants to be in your life tonight, not after you clean it up. Let Jesus meet you where you are right now.

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Your mess is part of the message – God wants to use your mess to bring life to other people living in sin. The story of the woman didn’t stop there. She immediately went back to town and told everyone about her encounter with Jesus. The people of Samaria begged Jesus, a man from Jerusalem, to stay for two days and many of them became believers. God wants to use your story to reach the world around you.

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” John 4:39 NIV

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Jesus wants to lead you to better - When Jesus meets us in our worst moments, He doesn’t just leave us there. He wants to transform your circumstances and lead you to living water. God doesn’t want to leave you in your mess. Turn to God today. Repent of what you’ve done wrong, and let Jesus lead you to God’s best life for you.

LANDING

If you feel tired and broken, Jesus wants to lead you to living water right now. If you feel like your life is a mess, Jesus wants to meet you in that mess. If you feel like God might be angry with you, He’s not. God wants to meet you where you are right now.

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Prayer