With the woman at the well, water is not water. With the disciples, food is not food. With both, Jesus is referring to something bigger, something beyond mere physical needs.

Jesus wasn’t invited to give his sermon in the council chambers of the rulers. He didn’t have the ear of the military leaders. The people who gathered to hear Jesus speak were the ones like us—most of us, anyway, who didn’t have the capacity to influence big changes.

So, if Jesus said it, it was true. There was no need to question, and, no need to interpret. It was there, plain as day. Turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. Give to anyone who asks. Be perfect. Those are the rules. For someone who was trusting, and a people pleaser, and more-than-a-little naïve, you might have some sense of…

Today’s movie/scripture is the sequel to the story of Christmas. But it’s not really a sequel. In movie language it’s kind of like a prequel and a sequel and an origin story all rolled into one, and in just a few short verses.

So, when John showed up, looking like Elijah, sounding like Elijah, and telling people he was there to prepare the way for someone coming after him, the people listened. This was it, finally! What they’d been waiting for!

…but I think we can be pretty confident that the nations of the world are still making weapons of war and still learning the ways of warfare. And at this point, we’ve (collectively) been waiting for a long time. At times it seems as though we are going in the wrong direction.

We’re not used to that, are we? Turning to scripture for answers and then finding out that the answers aren’t as clear as we’d like. Well, actually, maybe that is exactly what we’re used to. But it does seem strange when Jesus is the source.

But “foreigners” have been a target (and a scapegoat) since at least the time of Jesus for everything that is wrong with the world. How terrible is that? I hope we can take a moment to recognize how awful the plight of “foreigners”, however they are defined at the time, has been for thousands of years. Then, once we’ve realized how hard…

…people aren’t sent into eternal conscious torment because they ran out of all the good things they had been enjoying on earth. Jesus is not teaching about the afterlife. But he is teaching about responding to those in need.

…being healthy or having a full belly are not the goals that Jesus is trying to achieve, any more than having the largest group of people following him is something he is after. Jesus wants something bigger. Something more impactful.