“Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed, the Christ, the Savior of the World.”  John 4:42

How did you hear about Jesus Christ?  They don’t call this the information age for nothing.  There are television networks devoted to the Christian message and teaching of Jesus.  There are radio stations like K-Love, who’s mission it is to play songs praising Jesus and calling the lost.  The bible is the best selling book in all of history and the online store Amazon has 231, 421 books concerning Jesus.  Now for the piece de resistance, the internet;  in .18 of a second, Google had 196,000,000 hits for Jesus Christ.  We have yet to mention the long standing traditional venues; hearing about Jesus Christ from relatives or friends, hearing Him preached by a pastor at church.  Seemingly with all this information, there should be no excuse for there being ignorance about Jesus Christ.   Then having knowledge, there again should be no reason why He is not the all excepted, every tongue proclaimed, King of kings and Lord of lords.  Hmmm, sadly that is far from universally the truth.

A woman stumbled upon Jesus at a well.  The initial conversation did not go all that well (sorry no pun intended).  Jesus asks her to draw him a drink.  She scoffs at His request because she is a Samaritan and knows that the Jews, of which Jesus was one, clearly thought the Samaritans were second class people.  But as the woman interacts with Jesus, has an experience with Him, she comes to the realization that He is a prophet and once Jesus tells her plainly that He is Christ, she goes to tell others.

The bible tells us that she returned to her nearby city and started telling people about Jesus and telling them that He might be the Christ.  So because of her testimony, more people are intrigued enough and think there is a possibility that the Christ is in their midst that they come out to see Him.  However, they don’t immediately come haling Him as Christ the King.  It is once they have their experience with Christ that they now boldly proclaim:  He is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the World.

So it would appear that information, even miraculous information is not enough.  Testimony is important and sharing our testimony with others can be among the most powerful and loving things that we can do.  Yet it is not our words or our testimony that will save them.  In the same way, it is not our hearing about, watching images of or digitally searching for Jesus Christ that will bring about our salvation.  No it seems clear that the only way we will come to the certain knowledge, as the Samaritans did.  The only way for us to sincerely proclaim our conviction to Jesus Christ, is to come into His presence; to have an actual experience with Him.

But Jesus Christ is the King of kings, the Salvation for all human kind, the price we must pay for an audience with Him must be too terribly high.  To a certain extent, the price was too terribly high for us.  To deserve to come into His presence cost more than we could ever be willing to pay.  By all rights, Jesus Christ should have turned from us and walked away.  Instead, He paid the price, we could never pay.  He took the punishment that we could never endure.  To become King, He humbled himself to become a servant.  And now as a King, He opens his arms wide to us, beckoning us to come into His presence; to experience His Perfect Love, Mercy and Forgiveness that only He can provide.  May we strive to live in that experience.

Our Most Gracious and Heavenly Father, we have heard that experience is the greatest teacher.  So it is that we pray most fervently that You would grant us the experience of gaining a relationship with You through Your Son Jesus Christ.  Pour out Your Spirit on us Most Merciful Father, that we would experience Your Loving Kindness and Your Peaceful Joy.  Give us the strength and courage to proclaim Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior to a world in so much need of the message, yet who closes itself off from receiving it.  That in our lives and our proclamations, Your Most Holy Name will be forever praised.  In the Name of Jesus Christ we pray.  Amen