A Word from John 4

Are there folks who you‘d really prefer not to be around? People whose lifestyles or politics you disagree with? Folks of different races and nationalities? And have you ever stopped to consider what you could be missing out on every time you avoid them?

Well, in today’s word from John 4, we find the familiar story of the woman at the well. Jesus and his disciples were passing through a Samaritan village; and he sat down by a well, while his disciples went into town to buy food. Soon, a Samaritan woman came along, and Jesus asked her for a drink.

Of course, the last person on earth this Samaritan woman would’ve wanted to help was a Jewish man. He was “the other” in almost every way—the embodiment of long-standing judgment, and hatred, and distrust. And she told him so!

But Jesus said to her, “If you knew the gift of God—and who it is that asks you for a drink—you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (4:10). You see, by rejecting “the other,” this woman could’ve missed out on a life-changing encounter.

Years ago, I used to love the music of a singer named Michael Card. And in one of his songs, he says this:

He is in the pain. He is in the need.
He is in the poor we are told to feed.
Though He was rich, for us He became poor.
How could He give so much, what was it for?

In His distressing disguise,
He hopes that we'll realize
That when we take care of the poorest of them
We've really done it to Him.

I’ve got a feeling that Jesus still wears some “distressing disguises.” He still shows up in people and situations where we’d least expect him. And I pray that we’ll be the kind of people who are ready to receive him, however he comes. Amen.