Lent Devotional March 4, 2023

Lenten Devotional March 4, 2023

Scripture

John 4:1-26

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” 2 (although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized), 3 he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4 But he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Devotional

The Rev. Dr. April Roebuck ’14/’19

She doesn’t have a name in the text. She is marginalized. She is a woman. She is demonstrating some sense of shame because she goes to the well when no one is there. I wonder if her life decisions have caused her to live in the shadows. She cast her bucket one too many times for things and people who were not fulfilling. She has experienced one strained relationship after the next. Probably looking for love in all the wrong places. Jesus is not so much concerned with any of that. He sees her. Not only does he see her. He sees all of who she is. Then he asks for something from her.

This Lenten season it doesn’t matter about your background, your life decisions or where you are in life right now. Jesus wants something from you. That something is your “yes” to go deeper with him. Cast your bucket into the well that never runs dry. The well that restores and replenishes.

This season is about preparation and reflection. What would it look like to prepare the way for the King in your heart? What would it look like to let go of your inhibitions and go deeper with God? What would it look like to see yourself as Jesus sees you? Forgiven. Free. Whole. His.

Prayer

God, help us to see ourselves the way that you see us. Help us to exchange shame for salvation, guardedness for grace, and emptiness for your eternal fulfilling love. Everything we need is found in you. Lead us to the well that never runs dry, for a deeper dive with you. Amen.

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