Part 4: Character Matters
Sadly, Floyd is one of many people who feel unworthy to step into God’s presence. I’m talking about people who are fully aware of their shortcomings. What these folks fail to realize is that they are not alone. In fact, the Apostle Paul declared, “There is none righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10, NIV). Paul recognized that sin is a universal disease. Sin is an illness that seeks to destroy everyone and everything in its path.
In Jewish society, rules of law were external. People kept the law, not because they believed in it but because they were expected to. For example, in Clarence Jordan’s Cotton Patch Version of the New Testament, righteousness was described as something like perfume. It wasn’t a part of you but if you had it on, it made you smell real sweet. In other words, the motive for doing the right thing was the reward for recognition. The payoff was the praise of other people. To be thought of well was more desired than to be rich. A Jewish man would rather sacrifice his integrity, even his son, than to lose his good reputation.
Yet in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1, NRSV). Jesus claimed that when we desire to be in a right relationship with God, we are then most blessed. God is most pleased when our greatest yearning is to be smack dab in the center of God’s will. God’s blessing is exclusively reserved for those who hunger and thirst for God’s approval precisely like a personal starving for food or dying of thirst. King David said it best in Psalm 42:1: “As the deer pants for streams of living water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” This is the kind of desire that God desires from us.
Yet let me be very clear on this point. God’s blessing is given to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, not those who claim to be completely righteous. God’s favor rests upon those who greatest longing is to please God, not for those who think they are perfect. The truth is that there is both goodness and badness in us. Human nature is fraught with strengths and weaknesses. We are judged by God both rightly and wrongly.
In his book, The Heavenly Octave, F. W. Boreham describes the City of Blessedness. The city is surrounded by a wall, with a gate located at each of the four corners and in the middle of each of four walls. Each gate is of the same size, with the exception of the Western Gate. The Western Gate was much taller and wider than the other seven gates. And, there were a greater number of people traveling through the Western Gate. Above one of the smaller gates were written the words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Over another was written, “Blessed are those that mourn.” In fact, each of the gates had inscribed above it one of the beatitudes. Yet at each of the seven smaller gates, a steady stream of people was turning sadly away. Many who came to the first gate feared that they were not poor enough in spirit. So, they walked away. Others attempted to walk through the gate of mourning but didn’t believe themselves to be sad enough to enter. Still others found themselves at the blessed gate of meekness yet discovered they weren’t strong enough to go in. Every one of them were eager to enter into the City of Blessedness but none of them deemed themselves worthy to do so.
However, there was an expansive group of people lining up to enter through the Western Gate. Above the gate was the inscription, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.” When asked why this was so, the gatekeeper replied, “It is one of the fundamental principles of the City of Blessedness that just as there is sin in the appetite for sin, so there is grace in the desire for grace.” There is forgiveness in the desire for forgiveness. There is righteousness in the desire for righteousness. And, so the Western gateway is the largest gateway of all. It has been placed in the center of the Western Wall for all who are pitifully conscious of their own imperfections yet still covet passionately the virtues they know they lack.
In the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John, the story is told about one of these woeful “Western Wallers.” The Bible doesn’t name her, which isn’t all that surprising given from whence she came. Samaria was the Appalachia of the Middle East. To a Jew, Samaritans were what we might call today “White Trash.” I know a little about the name. Both sides of my family are from the poor side of the tracks.
That’s the kind of reputation this Samaritan woman had. She was from the wrong town, not to mention the wrong neighborhood. What’s more is that she had an even worse reputation. Five husbands the Bible says she had, which is just a proper way of saying this was a lady of the night.
So, it’s no wonder that she went to fetch water from the community well during the noonday heat. That way no one else would be around. Most women went to the well in the early morning or evening hours. No one drew water at noon when the temperature rose. No one could glare at her with disdain. No one could utter contempt beneath their breath. Yet she arrived at the well surprised to see that she wasn’t alone. Jesus was sitting beside the well. In fact, Jesus astonishingly struck up a rather pleasant conversation with her; and this, coming from a Jew, one who was from the right side of the tracks. And, though it was Jesus who asked this “virtueless” soul for a drink, it was the woman who was thirsty. Emotionally thirsty. Relationally thirsty. Spiritually thirsty. Like those standing at the Western Wall, she was woefully aware of her imperfections, as well as her sordid past. So, she came to the well thirsting for the very righteousness she lacked. And, it was to one such as this that Jesus said that “…those who drink from the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). I guarantee you that this lady entered into the City of Blessedness that day, not because she was righteous but because she was dying to gain entry.