Read: John 4:5-42
Every so often in the city and neighboring areas there’s boil-water advisory for safety. Yet, the CDC website says that the United States has one of the safest water supplies in the world. But they add this caveat “drinking water that is not properly treated or which travels through an improperly maintained distribution system may also create an environment for contamination.” Today we hear about a woman, one not only equal in value to men in the eyes of God, but a woman who would stand before the face of God in Christ.
The story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria begins with Jesus, the Savior of the world, tired from the journey yet ministering and faithfully shepherding while sitting to take a rest. He asks for water, a simple refreshing, yet knowing that he brought the refreshing, the living water and had no need for a bucket. Now, Jesus could have come to the well, not at noon, but at 5 pm which Genesis 24:11 tells us that Jewish women went out to draw water in the evening. He could have asked the disciples to get him water, or he could have walked to the city with them. Instead, the divine appointment of Jesus and the woman of Samaria was at noon on that day. The Lord knew that in order for the living water to travel to the city, the distribution method of his word and work could not be contaminated. See, the opposite of contamination is purification.
To some, the woman at the well is only identified as a lone woman, probably unclean, and ostracized for having had several husbands. To others, she may be a woman who had relationships that could never satisfy nor liberate like that of worshiping the Father. What if, to God, she was a woman known before she was formed in the womb; known by name, as the one who would share properly that the Savior of the world had come. Historians have identified the woman’s name, who has since been canonized a saint in other traditions, as Photina and scholars describe her name as meaning the “luminous or enlightened one.”
The chosen ministers of God’s word are so blessed to be conductors of the word through purified vessels made righteous by faith. I take the word conductor from the tradition of the Underground Railroad in which the conductor (see: Harriet Tubman) is the one who would guide others to freedom. We don’t know what the aching of the Samaritan woman was, or what she went through before the sacred opportunity she met in seeing the glory of God in Christ Jesus. But it was she who was ready and waiting to meet her savior when she said “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” (John 4:25-26) When she knew that her Redeemer was before her, she left her water jar and went back to the city and accepted her mission to be a witness. Now, the jar is in your hands. It is your turn to share the refreshing truth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that you meet us in the heat of our “noon,” in the middle of our joy and our weariness. Thank you for seeing us not for our past or our labels, but as vessels chosen for your purpose. Like the woman at the well, help us to recognize the Messiah standing right before us. Make us faithful conductors of your truth, guiding others toward the freedom and refreshing that only you provide. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, Amen.
Marci Matthews
Every so often in the city and neighboring areas there’s boil-water advisory for safety. Yet, the CDC website says that the United States has one of the safest water supplies in the world. But they add this caveat “drinking water that is not properly treated or which travels through an improperly maintained distribution system may also create an environment for contamination.” Today we hear about a woman, one not only equal in value to men in the eyes of God, but a woman who would stand before the face of God in Christ.
The story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria begins with Jesus, the Savior of the world, tired from the journey yet ministering and faithfully shepherding while sitting to take a rest. He asks for water, a simple refreshing, yet knowing that he brought the refreshing, the living water and had no need for a bucket. Now, Jesus could have come to the well, not at noon, but at 5 pm which Genesis 24:11 tells us that Jewish women went out to draw water in the evening. He could have asked the disciples to get him water, or he could have walked to the city with them. Instead, the divine appointment of Jesus and the woman of Samaria was at noon on that day. The Lord knew that in order for the living water to travel to the city, the distribution method of his word and work could not be contaminated. See, the opposite of contamination is purification.
To some, the woman at the well is only identified as a lone woman, probably unclean, and ostracized for having had several husbands. To others, she may be a woman who had relationships that could never satisfy nor liberate like that of worshiping the Father. What if, to God, she was a woman known before she was formed in the womb; known by name, as the one who would share properly that the Savior of the world had come. Historians have identified the woman’s name, who has since been canonized a saint in other traditions, as Photina and scholars describe her name as meaning the “luminous or enlightened one.”
The chosen ministers of God’s word are so blessed to be conductors of the word through purified vessels made righteous by faith. I take the word conductor from the tradition of the Underground Railroad in which the conductor (see: Harriet Tubman) is the one who would guide others to freedom. We don’t know what the aching of the Samaritan woman was, or what she went through before the sacred opportunity she met in seeing the glory of God in Christ Jesus. But it was she who was ready and waiting to meet her savior when she said “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” (John 4:25-26) When she knew that her Redeemer was before her, she left her water jar and went back to the city and accepted her mission to be a witness. Now, the jar is in your hands. It is your turn to share the refreshing truth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that you meet us in the heat of our “noon,” in the middle of our joy and our weariness. Thank you for seeing us not for our past or our labels, but as vessels chosen for your purpose. Like the woman at the well, help us to recognize the Messiah standing right before us. Make us faithful conductors of your truth, guiding others toward the freedom and refreshing that only you provide. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, Amen.
Marci Matthews
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