Devotion • August 12
Today's Scripture
John 4:1–26
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” — although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized — he left Judea and started back to Galilee.
But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” (NRSV)
Reflection
This reading tells the story of Jesus’ interaction with a Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar. It shows us that Jesus cared for everyone, even the outcasts of society at that time. The woman felt inferior due to her ethnicity and because she was a woman. Jesus saw her as someone he cared for. He tells the woman that the water he is referring to is everlasting life and that she is welcome to drink this water. Jesus encourages the woman with God’s love, even though she tries to avoid his teachings and answers sarcastically.
This is another example of how Jesus didn’t limit his love and teaching to only those who were “like him.” He shared his love and teachings with everyone, and there was no prejudice or malice toward those who were different.
There are a few messages for us in this reading.
Be open to listening to others, no matter how different from us they are.
Don’t jump to criticize a message for a view that is different from mine.
Be kind.
Prayer
God, teach me to be kind. Teach me to listen to others, to really listen and absorb their message before jumping to a conclusion or answer. Teach me to love others the way you did. In Christ’s name, I pray.
Written by Chris Horsman, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
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