Jesus came to heal broken hearts and not only as a side benefit; it’s one of his life purposes!  That’s good news because all of us who are in this world have experienced the pain of having our hearts broken in one way or another.  If we look at the life of Jesus in the Gospels, we find that he moves throughout his days interacting with humanity and healing broken hearts. That healing takes many expressions. Today I want to look at how Jesus healed the heart of a woman as recorded in John 4 and what that healing means for us now.

Let’s take a look at the story.

Jesus was exhausted from his long trip. He had gone to the city well to get a drink of water. However, what followed was not a chance happening at all because we are told that Jesus “needed” to go through the region of Samaria; he was compelled to do so.

 Jews did not have anything to do with Samaritans in those days. Samaritans were considered half-breeds and unclean by Jewish tradition. Yet Jesus, a Jew, chose to go through the middle of Samaria instead of making the usual trip around the area as most Jews did in order to avoid the Samaritans.

Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman at the well. He broke cultural and religious rules by speaking to her. Men didn’t speak to women in public in those days and a Jewish man certainly would not speak to a Samaritan woman. What transpired changed her life.

Jesus navigated through the woman’s resistance and avoidance and brought up a major issue of her life, not to condemn her, but in order to heal her. Jesus spelled out that she had had five husbands and was now living with a sixth man. The Samaritan woman yet again tried to avoid her heart issues, but Jesus persisted. He revealed Himself to her as the “Christ”.

He first encountered her in his humanity, a man who was thirsty and tired. He bridged cultural and religious differences in order to “do the will of Him who sent me” (vs. 34). He confronted her avoidance and resistance, bringing her life story into the light and then offering her “living water”.  In essence, Jesus communicated to her that there was nothing about her that would prevent her from having a relationship with God; not her religious background, her cultural background, nor her personal history.

Although the story doesn’t specifically tell us, I believe the woman took Jesus’ offer. Amazingly, we see her leading many to believe in Jesus because of her “testimony” – There is a man who knows all about me and didn’t reject me; he gave me life-giving water.

He healed her heart. Jesus dealt with her shame. He dealt with her guilt. He cut through the religious, cultural traps and did the will of God, offering healing to the broken hearted.

He is still the same today. He is offering life and healing to all the thirsty, empty, broken-hearted.

Do you need his healing? Allow your resistance and avoidance to fall away. Lay down any religious, cultural, or matters of personal history which you believe disqualify you from knowing God and/or receiving His healing for your heart. Allow Jesus to move you past your shame and guilt and into the living waters.

He desires to purposefully encounter your heart right now. Your heart is important to him. Your heart and my heart were the hearts he was talking about when he said he had come to heal the broken-hearted.

Are you spiritually thirsty? Jesus freely offers living water. Drink deeply of the rivers of this living water for its flow will heal the broken places in your heart.

And may the Church represent Jesus well and offer the same to all today: healing, regardless of  personal history, cultural background, or religious beliefs. When we do, we will find that his living water refreshes and restores and testimonies of his grace will lead others to him as well.

And my heart is drawn to this idea… “When he saw that he was healed…”

Sometimes our healing comes just this obviously. We look and we see.  We are healed. At other times, our healing is a process; it comes piece by piece, particularly when Jesus is healing our hearts.

Today I am asking myself, and I hope you will ask yourself, how do I respond to God’s healing in my life? Can I see what He is doing in me?

All ten lepers could physically see that they were healed. Yet this one, he saw more. He saw the person of Christ. He saw His redeemer.  The others were doing just what Jesus told them. They were going to the priests in order to be declared ceremonially cleansed which would allow them to reconnect with their world and their God. Yet this one…

Imagine yourself as one of the lepers in the story… You have been banished from society. You have a communicable disease which has separated you from your family, your community, your job. No one can physically touch you. Even before you contracted this disease, you already were living with the knowledge that you were considered unworthy by the religious community because you were not of a pure bloodline – you were a half-breed.  You know what rejection is all about.  And suddenly, you are given a pass back to life. You are physically healed. You can barely wait to go hug your spouse, your child, your parent, your friends. You have been given a ticket back to your “church”.

Nine of the ten immediately took the offer Jesus gave them. They were excited about their physical healing; they had to be! But this one…

He saw his healing…

And yet… he saw more.

He had eyes to see that he had been given more the opportunity for more than physical healing, and he entered into it. He couldn’t take another step without connecting with his God. He glorified God by falling at Jesus’ feet and thanking him loudly. He fell at the feet of the High Priest, Jesus, who declared him clean in much more than his physical body.

Jesus declared this man glorified God and his faith had made him well. Oh, but it was so much more than his amazingly wonderful physical healing. His eyes had seen his Redeemer!

Today I wonder if we could take a few moments to contemplate God’s healings in our lives. Perhaps you will be led to see more today than you’ve seen before, to see beyond the obvious to the deep inner work that God is doing in you. Would you take the next few moments to think on the following thoughts?How has God been healing your heart?

What deep work is He doing in your heart?

What incorrect religious mindset is He tearing down inside your thinking?

How is He restoring your relationships?

How is God revealing Himself to you as your Redeemer?

Could you pause to fall at His feet, thanking Him for the restorative work He is doing inside you? And if you are not sure just what that work is, maybe you are in such a dark place that you can’t see what he is doing, would you ask Him to show you?

Our heartfelt thanksgiving glorifies God.

My next entry this week will focus more on how God heals our hearts. Hope you’ll keep walking on the journey with me.

• How was this desire awakened?
• Why was this desire awakened?
• What does this desire say about my heart and its needs?
• What could the purposes of God be for me as I face awakened desire?
• What could the purposes of the enemy be as I face awakened desire?

I pray you will be able to see clearly what God desires to do through your awakened desires and the end result will be that you know more of your own heart and more of His.