The Jews saw the Samaritans as a hybrid race of Jewish and pagan origins. Samaritans had set up their own sect and place of worship to rival the Jerusalem temple. Jews and Samaritans were mortal enemies. At one time, a band of Samaritans had scattered human bones in the Jerusalem temple to deliberately desecrate it. In the eyes of the Jews this damned the whole race. They were seen as unredeemable. Here, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman and his response to her is radically counter-cultural. He takes no notice of these issues of nationality or the acts of the past. In fact, he is aware that her personal life was a mess, and yet, neither does he take any notice of this. He sweeps all these issues aside and offers her the gift of living water, that is, the outpouring of the Spirit. It is a remarkable expression of how grace levels everything that might be held against us. Jesus closes the door on the Samaritan woman’s past and offers her new life. We often lower our hopes of receiving from God because of our failures. Have you ever felt like a very second-rate Christian? Jesus comes to those who feel second rate, just as he came to this Samaritan woman who had been made to feel the same. He loves to close the door on our failures and inadequacies. He wants to fill you with his Spirit so that you will live in freedom and joy. God says to you today: I choose you. I offer you my living water. Will you accept?
Ask God to fill you with his life and give you a new start today.
Read John 4:1-14
