In many cultures and countries, there is a day in the spring when the time changes. Yet when that day arrives, there are many people who arrive late for their Sunday activities (church or sport club). And they miss out on something because they did not pay attention to the Time Change.{√}{r}{m}

The Time Change announced in this text would involve a change for both Jews and Samaritans—indeed, all ethnic groups.[ii] For it would alter the orientation of worship for both ethnic groups {√}{r}{m}—away from a focus on their respective earthly religious centers and towards a focus on God as Father. Jesus did not come to correct human religious observances but to announce the advent of a new Time, one that ushered in a new kind of relationship with the Father—through Jesus and by the Spirit.{√}

In speaking to a woman about this Time Change Jesus also demonstrates that ‘the gift of God' and the ‘internal well of water’ are for women as well as men. Both images refer to the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, which proved to be for women as well as for men (Med.#49). Thus, knowing the Father is not about a reaffirmation of patriarchal religious relationships or male dominance. It is instead about both men and women becoming ‘co-heirs’ (1 Pet. 3:7) in the Spirit.{√}{r}{m}

Because this great Day of Pentecost was still in the future, Jesus spoke of this Time Change as still 'coming'. But he could also speak about it as already 'here' because he himself had just been baptized with the Spirit.{√}{r}{m} And by his baptism in the Spirit, he became a living demonstration of the new level of human relationship with the Father that would soon come to us too. Jesus did not just come to proclaim his special relationship to the Father; he came to bring many sons and daughters to glory (Med.#7; 2 Cor.6:18).{√}{r}{m}

The Time Change is also about knowing and worshipping the Father in Truth. The Greek word for ‘truth’ [Gr. a-leetheia]. means 'not-hidden' (Med.#2){r}. To worship the Father in this way, we need to receive the ‘Spirit of revelation’ Paul spoke of (Med.#1){r}—in order to see and put our faith in ‘the Mystery’ that God had previously kept hidden: that the nations [Gr. ethne] are heirs-together' (Med.#6).{√}{r}{m} And in the Spirit of being co-heirs, we must follow Jesus' example in how we share the Gospel with people of other nations and ethnic groups—in a way that doesn’t make my group seem superior to ‘theirs’.

The woman in this story came from a minority ethnic group that was used to having her Jewish neighbors tell Samaritans how wrong they were in their religious ideas and practices.{r}{√} So Jesus does not begin by talking about her sin, or about how her sin problem needed to be fixed. Rather he starts with a picture of the Holy Spirit—the ‘gift’ that God wants to give her through him. And when he does speak of her broken past, it is not to remind her that she is a sinner, but to let her know that God knows her.{√}{r} And he knows about the abuse[iii] in her past, as well as her own sin. Next, he talks about how, through the Time Change, both her ethnic group (‘YOU’, plural) and (‘we’) Jews will worship the Father together in a new way. Only over the next two days does he speak about being the ‘Savior of the world’.{√}{ƒ}

Have you come to know the Father in Spirit and Truth? Have you had a revelation of the Time Change that Jesus brought? Or are you still intimidated by traditional religious ideas, or by the religious practices of a neighboring group? And when you share the Gospel with people of other ethnic groups, what do they hear: something about a new relationship with the Father for all nations; or just more ‘religious correction' by someone from a ‘holier’ ethnic or religious group?