‘Are you greater than our father, Jacob?’ asks the Samaritan woman of Jesus at the well. The answer is a million time ‘Yes.’ The woman was good at avoiding answering the really important questions and asking distracting ones. The arguments she used are still used in the modern day by non-believers. She brings us the male versus female issue – a Samaritan woman and a Jewish man. We often bring up differences between men and women, forgetting that God wants us to complement each other not aim for superiority. It is so sad to hear unkind remarks about our opposite sex; we should be partnerships, each helping each other. This woman also exploits the differences in forms of worship. Today, some people like noisy worship, others worship in quietness. Some have ornate churches and cathedrals, while others have no ornaments save a single cross. How easily we forget that we worship the same God, whatever our style of praise and worship.
With the woman at the well, Jesus pulls her back to basics. He tells her ‘The time is coming and has now come, when the true worshipper will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipper the Father seeks,’ John 4:23. May we be that kind of worshipper.