John 4:7-10 Legacy Standard Bible
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
7 A woman of Samaria *came to draw water. Jesus *said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His (A)disciples had gone away into (B)the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the (C)Samaritan woman *said to Him, “How do You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, being a Samaritan woman?” (For (D)Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you (E)living water.”
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Most of us like to have a place to call home, a place where we could go and feel truly safe. We prefer to be in familiar territory and with people who are like us.
The story at Sychar is all about our perceptions, prejudices about outsiders.
Samaritans were racially mixed former Israelites who had intermarried when Israel was conquered and exiled (2 Kings 17).
To the Jews, then, the Samaritans were no longer really God’s people.
They were more like the embarrassing family secret that people didn’t like to invite to community events, talk to or about at get-togethers. Yet they lived next door to the Jews in Jesus’ day, so the occasional run-ins were inevitable.
In those days, Jews traveled around Samaria to avoid going through it.
But Jesus led his disciples right through the land of compromise as he traveled from Judea to Galilee.
No hiding for them!
No hiding from them!
Jesus was not indifferent like everyone else and avoiding Samaritans altogether.
Jesus was just different.
Not concerned that the area he calmly walked into was historically untouchable.
Jesus walked where ever he wanted – whether being welcomed or unwelcomed.
That’s why in John 4 we see him chatting with a foreign woman at an unfamiliar well at the least comfortable time of the day.
Jesus seems to have loved skipping across social and territorial boundaries other people marked with “No Trespassing” “You have been Warned” signs.
Have you ever felt like an outsider— unwelcome even with people in familiar surroundings, or maybe even among your own friends and family, and peers?
If so, how did that affect you?
Whom do you know who might be feeling like an outsider among God’s people today? What might God be acting, saying doing, to you about caring for them?
Who are the “Samaritans” in our worldviews?
Perhaps they are people who live across some border near you?
They staunchly align with another political party or different ideologies, Or other theologies? They have a radically lifestyle which contrasts with ours?
How do you react to your “Samaritans”?
Often we bristle against them.
We stiffen inwardly if we see them going against our convictions, our values.
Or, at times, we may feel intimidated, prejudice, and try to get them to like us.
Sometimes they can also begin to change us, leading us to become more and more like them, for better or for worse.
Assimilation! Radicalized assimilation! A wolf in sheep’s camouflage! In Jesus’ day that kind of compromise was the religious leaders’ worst fear for Israel.
In our reading today, we sense the Samaritan woman wasn’t exactly thrilled to meet a Jew at the local well and then to have him ask her for a drink of water.
Was Jesus trespassing on her territory? Looking for a fight, itching for a riot? Was Jesus lost in the wilderness? Looking to size them up before bullying them?
Jesus replied with gentle non threatening words about God and said that he could give her reassurance of “living water,” “never getting thirsty again,”
I’m glad Jesus didn’t just stay in familiar territory. He knew he was on earth for a reason—and every single conversation he had was shaped by that awareness.
How do you tend to respond to the “Samaritans” in your life?
What relationships in your life could God use in order to reach someone?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Praying ….
Consider the Way of the Blameless
Of David. A Psalm.
101 I will (A)sing of lovingkindness and [a]justice,
To You, O Yahweh, I will sing praises.
2 I will [b](B)consider the way of the blameless.
When will You come to me?
I will walk within my house in the [c](C)integrity of my heart.
3 I will set no (D)vile thing before my eyes;
I hate the [d]work of those who (E)fall away;
It shall not cling to me.
4 A (F)crooked heart shall depart from me;
I will know no evil.
5 Whoever secretly (G)slanders his neighbor, him I will [e]destroy;
Whoever has a (H)haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure.
6 My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may abide with me;
He who walks in the (I)way of the blameless is the one who will minister to me.
7 He who (J)practices deceit shall not dwell within my house;
He who speaks lies (K)shall not be established before my eyes.
8 (L)Every morning I will [f](M)destroy all the wicked of the land,
To (N)cut off from the (O)city of Yahweh all the workers of iniquity.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
