Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 1The 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 now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 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 is seeking such people 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 (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” John 4:16-26

“The Hour is Coming”
The woman from Samaria had, it seems, lived a disorderly life. For whatever reasons, she had lived a less than perfect life. Is this reality any different for any of us? In the midst of living this life, she has an unlikely encounter with Jesus – and recognizes him as something special – even possibly the Messiah – and it changes her life. She becomes a witness to others in her city and she brings many to faith in Jesus because of her testimony.

I think this is the most helpful testimony to the argument that the witness of lay people can be just as powerful and often even more powerful than the witness of someone recognized as a religious leader. You don’t have to be a pastor to be an effective witness for Christ – you just have to have the faith that your encounters with Jesus will not only change your life, but they will give others the courage to learn more about Jesus Christ, and possibly change their lives as well.

We are called to be witnesses, to share our experiences with others, hoping they will share their encounters with Christ with others as well.

Let us Pray,
Lord Jesus, we all live less than perfect lives. Help me to see in my imperfections the perfect love you have for all people — and then to share that love prodigally. Amen.

Pastor Dave

“A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings 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 nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” John 4:7-15

“All Testing is Common to Everyone”
In the second chapter of John, we encountered the wedding at Cana – where Jesus turned the water into wine. In this story, Jesus reveals his glory and reveals the ushering in of a new age. Now, Jesus is offering living water to the woman at the well. Though Jesus has no bucket to offer that she might get some of that water, he is actually referring to the water that will bring her eternal refreshment—because a relationship with Jesus Christ can give the individual relief for their thirst for life eternal. What we need to remind ourselves is that Jesus’ bucket has no limit.

The love, mercy and grace found in Jesus Christ is limitless and available to all because he drank from the cup of suffering for us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote these words, “Jesus prays To his Father that the cup may pass from him, and his Father hears his prayer; for the cup of suffering will indeed pass from him – but only by his drinking it. That is the assurance he receives as he kneels for the second time in the garden of Gethsemane that suffering will indeed pass as he accepts it. That is the only path to victory. The cross is his triumph over suffering.”

Does this remove all suffering for us in this life? Of course not. But, it brings us some consolation that when we suffer, it is not in vain. Our suffering, especially if it is for Jesus, or when we trust in Jesus through that suffering, then we find comfort knowing that Jesus suffers with us.

Let us Pray,
Lord Christ, “Testing is common to everyone. God is faithful and will not let us be tested beyond our strength. But with the testing we will be provided a way out for us so we can endure it.” Paul used these words to help us endure with faith to the end. Amen. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Pastor Dave