The Prophet Within

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
[Mistakenly posted in "Off the Wall", and relocated here]
"I see that you are a prophet." John 4:16

"I give up! I've not yet met one person who could look within and see his own faults and accuse himself!" Confucius, Analects 5.27 子曰：“已矣乎，吾未见能见其过而内自讼者也。

The Samaritan woman at the well asked Jesus for his "living water" and Jesus replied, "Go get your husband and return." When she said she had no husband, Jesus shocked her by saying, "That is true. In fact, you've had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. So what you've said is true." John 4:16

Deflecting the Spear. When the Samaritan woman asked for Jesus' living water," he tried to open the well within her by prodding her to look within.
But like many of us, she skillfully redirected the focus of the conversation. She replied, "I see you are a prophet....should we worship on this mountain, as Samaritans do, or in Jerusalem, like the Jews."

Like the woman at the well, we too often focus on other issues--perhaps "greater" issues--when we should be looking within. No wonder Confucius said in the Analects, "I give up! I have not yet met one person who could see his faults and accuse himself!"

We don't need prophets to help us see afar, because the root of our problems lies close at hand. We only need open eyes, hearts and minds to see within.

In responding to the Samaritan woman's question about whether to worship on the mountain or in Jerusalem, Jesus said, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem....Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:21-24

The Prophet Within Today, we do have a prophet at hand. The prophet is our conscience, and if we look within and listen, we will see the future, because we are writing our future today.

Today, I will not look afar for answers, but look within, and if I don't like what I see today, I'm quite sure I'll care even less for tomorrow--and I'll ask my Father to help me write a different future by what I do this day.
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