Hot! Oh, so very hot!
“Will you give me a drink?”
She closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the sun work its way into her bones. The heat eased some of the dull ache in her arthritic hands and she was thankful for this small gift.
“You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”
Countless days she had marched down this same street on such a day as this, only vaguely aware of the heat, to the city gates past the men who traded there, and down the dusty, dung-splattered road to the well for the day’s water.
“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.”
When she was a very young girl, she had accompanied her mother on this path, and her mother had explained many things — her people’s history, her place in life, the ways of a woman.
“Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”
In her youth, she was accompanied by handfuls of maidens and they would wile the time away, mindlessly chattering about this and that.
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
A few years later, men replaced her childhood companions and she made this trip alone, referred to as “Solon’s woman,” or “Haman’s woman,” by the men at the city gates.
“Sir give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
As the number of husbands increased, the comments from those at the gates became more insulting, harsh, brutal.
“Go call your husband and come back.”
Each day she passed the gauntlet, with each insult thrown her way, she became tougher, more calloused than the day before. Eventually, she heard nothing on her daily journey but the slap of her sandals on hard-packed sand; felt nothing but the weight of the water jar on her shoulder.
“I have no husband.”
Then she met him at the well.
“You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
He spoke to her plainly — about what was and what was yet to come.
“Sir, I can see you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
She in turn went and spoke to those who despised her at the city gate. “Come see a man who told me every thing I ever did. Could this be the Christ?
“Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
The men and the rest of her little town believed in him. They had found the Messiah.
“I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes he will explain everything to us.”
The men at the city gate still point at her from time to time. They say, “That is her, blessed among women. She led us to salvation.”
“I who speak to you am he.”
Text 1 John 3:1–10
Behold, how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is. Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him, neither knows him.
Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him; and he can’t sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother.
For Thought
- The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Agree or disagree? And if you do agree, why do you think some Christ followers continue to strive to be “known” by the world?
- John says that what we will be has not yet been made known. Do you think he’s talking about in this life or after death? Is it reassuring to consider that we will be like Jesus when he appears to us? Is this enough of a driving factor, enough of a hope, for you to want to purify yourself?
- No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. More absolutes from our dear friend, John. This is some of the toughest scripture in the New Testament to digest. Do you accept this challenge or do you try to rationalize it away?
- He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Ah, now that’s more like it! I can deal with that! Complete a righteous act and I’m righteous. But the next sentence, he who does what is sinful is of the devil, brings me back to earth. John’s absolutes in his letter can lead to a spiritual see-saw. How do we deal with that?
Water to Wine
- No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. This passage is very easy to forget, especially when you’ve just slammed your toe into the side of the blankety-blank chair, or had an impure thought about your attractive co-worker, or after trying as hard as you could, for one whole day just to be pure. But here’s your thought for the week: this absolute statement from John is a promise from God. We can do this! And living this type of life begins today, one day at a time, one moment at a time.
- Here’s your second challenge this week. As you go through the Bible (daily!), highlight some of the promises of God. Let’s try to focus on what God says He will do if we will be faithful children of God.
