Expect The Unexpected Series

The unexpected is the source of so much of the joy of life. Our

three year old granddaughter, Jennifer, was praying at the table a

couple of weeks ago. I noticed she was going faster than usual, and

she came to the end saying, "In Jesus name, amen." Then she

shouted, "I win." It was so unexpected that we were all shocked

into laughter, and we realized at that point, she and Jason had a

thing going as to who could finish first. It was a whole new concept

to me, the concept of competitive prayer.

We expected the commonplace, and we were surprised by the

unexpected. God does this a lot, as you study His handiwork. God

has so designed natural life that it can only exist by means of the

exceptional and the unexpected. It is a law of nature that as a

liquid cools its density increases, and it gets heavier. But is water

followed this law, the ice that formed on the top of lakes would sink

to the bottom, and eventually the whole lake would be solid ice. But

fortunately, water is an exception to this law. It is expands when it

freezes, and ice becomes lighter than water, and it floats. If God

had not made water an exception, life would be greatly limited on

this planet, and may have been impossible.

It is surprising how many exceptions are necessary for life on

earth. If the law of gravity had no exceptions, the heavy gas would

be at the bottom, and the lighter gas at the top. This would mean

the whole earth would be under a layer of carbon dioxide, and this

would make life as we know it impossible. But the law of gravity is

defied by the law of diffusion of gases, and so oxygen can be available

for all of life on the surface of the earth.

God is not a legalist, even in His laws for governing the universe.

He has variety and flexibility, and unique unexpected exceptions.

Beware of locking God in and saying, He always does this, or never

does that. God is the God of surprises, and the God of the

unexpected. Those who study any aspect of His creation soon learn

this, and it is true in the study of His Word as well. No where is this

more evident than in John chapter 4, where we see the encounter of

Jesus with the woman at the well. It is literally loaded with

exceptions and surprises. Let's look at some of them to get the

flavor of the whole passage.

1. Ordinarily you run to success, but this text tells us Jesus had to

flee from it. His disciples were baptizing more people than John the

Baptist. His movement was growing like wildfire, and so he packed

up and left. A very unexpected reaction to success, but he had to

escape the conflict this was going to produce with the Pharisees.

His time was not yet, and so he fled success.

2. Also unusual is the verse which tells us Jesus did not baptize

people. John did, but Jesus let His disciples do the baptizing. As

far as we know, Jesus never baptized anyone, and that is surprising.

3. Jesus took the route to Galilee that was the unusual route. Most

Jews went around Samaria because of the hostility of these two

peoples. Jesus is the exception, and He takes the unexpected way,

right through this alien territory.

4. His disciples go into town to buy food, which is a surprise,

because, as the woman at the well says in verse 9, the Jews do not

associate with the Samaritans. Here is another exception.

5. The woman of Samaria is one surprise after another. She is the

only woman in the Bible, that we know of, who had five husbands,

and the only one we know of who was living with a man out of

wedlock. This may not be uncommon in our day, but it was the

unusual and unexpected than. Jesus only took one trip through

Samaria, and He runs into the only woman with her particular

record.

6. It was a surprise that anybody would be at the well at high noon.

This is the hottest part of the day. Most would come in the cool of

the morning or evening, but she was there at the unexpected time.

7. It was unexpected that a rabbi would talk to any woman in

public. But here we are surprised, for Jesus not only talks with her,

He shares with her the deepest insights into the nature of God. He

gives her the clearest revelation of who He is, as the Messiah.

You would expect a teacher of the caliber of Jesus to reveal His