Jesus disregarded an important social taboo in speaking with a Samaritan woman. He even offered her something that he hadn’t explicitly offered his own disciples. His disciples were naturally shocked that Jesus spoke to this woman, though they dared not question him. But Jesus knew their thoughts, so he used this occasion to open them up to a different way of thinking. Jesus did not live his life subservient to cultural norms and social boundaries. He wasn’t afraid of what people thought. In fact, Jesus never really concerned himself with anything except one fundamental thing: the will of God. The will of his Father was not a constraining thing for Jesus but a liberating and empowering thing. The social norms of the time were terribly constraining and even exhausting to keep up with. But the will of God has the opposite effect. Jesus was energised by the will of God. He was propelled along by God’s will as a ship is propelled by the wind. The will of God was the thing that kept him going, his sustenance, his food. He savoured God’s will and he wants his disciples to live with this same delight. What a beautiful liberating simplicity of life, to care for nothing else but the will of God in any moment. It allows us to transcend every other inhibition. It is the soul-food that propels us along in life with restful energy.
Ask God to help you to live like this.
Read John 4:27-42
