Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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Samaritan Woman: Witness of the Messiah

Bible portion: St. John 4:25-34

 

Key Verse:  “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (John 4 :29)


Devotion

John 4 presents Jesus’s meeting with the Samaritan Woman near Jacob’s well.  It narrates how Samaritan woman ‘found the Messiah’ that she was seeking for all her life. Jesus on seeing a Samaritan woman reached out to the woman and asked her for a drink of water from Jacob’s well. Her first reaction was ‘how can you Jew ask me for drink’ and Jesus replied ‘I am the stream of living water’ that is given to many who ask for it. She imagined ‘water of life’ as that will sustain her and give her joy for the rest of her life. Therefore, she asked Jesus for the water of life, eventually that turned out to be life changing event for her. Hearing Jesu’s prediction about her own life, she assumed Jesus was prophet.  The conversation further clarified the debate on place of worship, with the clarification that ‘God is Spirit and all worshippers must worship God in spirit and truth.’  The narrative further explains Jesus is the Messiah. By choosing to reveal His messianic identity to her, Jesus challenges societal norms that restricted women’s roles, positioning her as a key witness to His ministry. This act reveals the inclusive nature of the Gospel, which values women as capable of receiving and spreading divine truth.

In John 4: 28-30 we read the Samaritan Woman running and bringing back with her almost the entire Samaritan village to witness and see for themselves the Messiah that they only have heard in the Scriptures, and they declared their belief in Jesus as the Messiah. This illustrates how women, even those considered outsiders, play a pivotal role in spreading the message of Christ. Their witness can lead others to encounter Jesus themselves. This is the transforming power of Jesus in the life of any person who encounters the living Christ. Like the Samaritan Woman, our dubious past or where we are in life does not really matter but when we take the steps to change and by our lives and testimony are able to draw people to Christ and drink from the living water that will never make us thirst again but have relationship with Christ to live eternity with God.

 

PRAYER
 

Father God as we dwell on the life of the Samaritan Women allow us to walk up to the well and encounter Jesus in the most unfamiliar places and drink from the living waters of life and be worshippers who will worship God in Spirit and Truth.
 

Thought for the Day 
 

“As Woman of Faith, it’s not all that you do that counts, but how much love you put into that draws people to Christ” – Mother Teresa

 

Abraham Kurien
Immanuel Mar Thoma Church, Houston, Texas.

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