Daily Devotional • January 19
A Reading from John 4:27-42
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
Meditation
What happens when we meet Messiah?
“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done. He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” Can he? Jesus has stopped outside a Samaritan village, sent his disciples into town to buy food, and now rests beside the city’s well. A chance meeting with a woman who came to draw water leads to a conversation that blends theology, liturgy, and morality, with an undercurrent reflecting the ethnic tension between Jews and Samaritans. Jesus’ surprise awareness of the woman’s moral status (“You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband”) sends her breathless back into town. Her life is changed forever. Has she met the Messiah himself?
We may not have a story quite as dramatic as the Samaritan woman’s. But a transformed life — whether the transformation is subtle or spectacular — draws others to Jesus. Yes, we may present the Christian faith through evangelistic preaching, intellectual argument, and engagement with the ills of the world around us. All of that becomes real, however, when people see the impact that Jesus has made in our lives. The Samaritan woman challenges us to look inward and ask a hard question: How has Jesus changed your life and mine? Are people making a decision about Jesus on the basis of what they see in us?
“Many Samaritans believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.” They know the woman’s story: a trail of broken relationships. But now something has changed. They see it with their own eyes and are drawn to this itinerant preacher. And so they invite Jesus to stay in their town. “Many more believed because of [Jesus’] word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.’” They have answered the woman’s question. “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” He is indeed!
The Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little II was bishop of Northern Indiana for 16 years after serving parishes in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Joaquin. He is the author of three books; most recently: The Heart of a Leader: St. Paul as Mentor, Model, and Encourager (2020).
♱
Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
Church of St. Uriel the Archangel, Sea Girt, N.J.
The Church in the Province of the West Indies
