Saturday, March 7
Psalms 55
Deuteronomy 11:18-28
Hebrews 5:1-10
John 4:1-26
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17 "I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
Psalms 55
Deuteronomy 11:18-28
Hebrews 5:1-10
John 4:1-26
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17 "I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
What was it that made Jesus choose to travel the way that he did though Samaria to reach Galilee? It was a road that Jews rarely travelled on , because it was dangerous and as our scripture explains, Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
Jesus travelled with his disciples until they stopped in the heat of the day to draw water from the well of Jacob. It is there that this remarkable story takes place. Jesus stopped and asked a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. He didn't have a cup or bowl to drink from, meaning that he would have to ask to drink from what the Samaritan woman had to offer him..
The fact that he was speaking to a woman, and in addition to that, a Samaritan woman, - and a Samaritan woman who was an outcast from her own community because she had a tainted past was unthinkable for a Jewish man at the time of Jesus. Jews considered Samritans unclean. They characterized Samaritan women as "swine" - as unclean as pork was for them to eat. They would avoid contact with them at any cost!
Yet here it seems as though Jesus goes out of his way to create contact with this woman.
She was at the well in the heat of the day by herself because she clearly wasn't welcome in the company of the other women in her community. She was probably stamped as a "whore", a woman of ill repute, because of the many relationships she had been though with so many men. Who knows the depth of pain and shame that led her through all of those relationships with so many men until she was finally found living unlawfully with her latest partner.
How it must have pierced her heart to have that question directed at her with its revelation of her life. Her life was laid bare for this stranger in this brief encounter, where all the shadows of her life were revealed in his all knowing gaze.
Was he repulsed by her? Did he draw away in disgust? No! Instead he did the most unimaginable thing. He saw her in all of her vulnerability in stark naked truth, and he accepted her. He extended this graceful invitation to her. He offers her living water springing from the presence of the very Spirit of God in her life. He offered her salvation and eternal life. He offered it to a stranger, a foreigner, a woman, an outcast, a sinner.
He extends the same gracius invitation to all of us, regardless of race, gender, social standing and life history. What he desired from her was a response to the invitation that could transform her life. He desires the same for you. He desires the same for those who you know who you might have thought don't qualify. The Lord is seeking those who wil worship him in Spirit and in truth. We must turn to the source of truth and the Holy Spirit in order to find eternal life. Turn to Jesus in all of your naked vulnerability and naked truth. You will encounter the transforming power of grace and love. You will find life.
Pastor Linda
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