May 30, 2023

Hello Advent Family,

Today’s passage is a little bit longer but I encourage you to go to John 4 and read the whole thing.  Jesus interacts with a Samaritan women and shares the gospel with her and many from her village believe in Jesus as a result.  It is very interesting that Jesus’ first big group of converts in the book of John are Samaritans (whom the Jewish people hate).  Let’s look at the passage together today.  

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 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? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks 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.” 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 ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, 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 the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the 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.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Jesus, many times in His time on earth, breaks the rules for the sake of the gospel.  Jews didn’t associate with Samaritans.  Rabbis would never speak to a woman especially one with a reputation such as this one.  Jesus repeatedly shows His love and care for those in the margins of society.  It is often those whom He chooses to show the greatest love to.  He isn’t easy on this woman.  He confronts her sin in a way that I’m sure is unsettling for her.  Yet he lovingly shares the gospel with her and leads her into a relationship with God.  Jesus is the example for us of not just proclaiming the gospel but living it as well.  I pray that we would follow His great example and love others the way He models for us. 

In His Grip,

Pastor Dave


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