Fruitful Nuptials
Sunday, March 17, 2019
John 4:5-16, 28-29
The rate of marriage has decreased from 9.8 per 1,000 of the population in 1990 to 6.9 per 1,000 of the population in 2017. Imagine a world with fewer and fewer marriages and fewer and fewer children. Imagine that God and Christian influence are removed, increasing the sense of brokenness, cultural isolation and pessimism. The Bible begins and ends with nuptials, God’s plan for our well-being.
His Intention Was To Speak To Her Brokenness. The Samaritan woman Jesus met at the well had been married and divorced five times. He directly addressed her broken relationships and the resulting shame.
Nuptials Require Transparency. The Samaritan woman had adopted evasion to cope with her broken relationships in marriage and the local society. She came to the well at noon rather than at the customary time before sunrise to avoid seeing other women. Christ engaged her with transparency, exhorting her to stop avoidance and adopt the transparency required for relationship with Him and in marriage.
Jesus Does Not Want Us Running From People But Running To People. The Samaritan woman’s five broken marriages were symbolic of the five pagan gods introduced into the Samaritan culture by the Assyrian subjugation. These idols were individually known by the Hebrew word Baal, meaning “lord” or “husband.” After Jesus confronted her with her brokenness and avoidance, she brought the village to him.