Day 3: September 3, 2025 – Genesis 4-7 and John 4-5

Do you find that every time that you read Scripture you see something new and potentially even something that helps you on your daily walk? Sometimes you see something new that isn’t life changing, just a fun fact. Other times you see something that actually provides you with a new way in which to live your life which is life giving. So, today’s readings contain a little of both. Methuselah is considered the oldest person in the Bible, he lived to be 969 years old. But did you notice that Noah didn’t start having kids until he was 500 years old? He and his kids got onto the ark when he was 600 and they were 100 years old. We can’t help but imagine what we would look like when we were that age. Interestingly enough it is in our readings today when God basically says, okay, enough of these super old people, let’s set the age to 120. These are fun facts, but not life changing, but fun.

When we get to Jesus and the woman at the well, there we see something that maybe wasn’t noticed before but has incredible significance. Look at vs.42 in chapter 4. Remember, Jesus passes through Samaria because he is making his way back from the Jordan where he and his disciples were baptizing (although the Scripture says his disciples were baptizing and he really wasn’t, another fun fact!) toward the Sea of Galilee, back to where he changed the water to wine. Samaria was a lot like passing through a different country. It would be like having to go from Texas to California and on the way you had to pass through Mexico. But it was even more than that because the people of Samaria not only were of a different nationality, and different ethnically, but also religiously they believed in a different God than the Jews did.

Jesus engages a Samaritan woman who has had a bad rap over history. I bet when you think of this Samaritan woman in the back of your mind you see someone who is a sinner because she has 5 different husbands and is living with someone who is not even her husband now. What if, and this is my approach to her, she has had husbands who have died and she is currently living with a brother of one of the husbands who had died just like the law commands her to do? Then we move from seeing her as a sinner, a harlot, someone who was loose and would be with anyone who was available, to being very sympathetic to her because of the tragedy that she has had to experience in life losing so many husbands. That’s my approach to her.

The life changing portion of this Scripture is what the Samaritans say about Jesus, a group of foreigners, that at times we have a hard time seeing and saying: “This man really is the Savior of the world.” This is why we do what we do because Jesus really is the Savior of the world. How would our life look differently if we could proclaim day after day this same truth that became a reality to those who were considered outside of the norms of life, those who were considered unclean to the church. We often think it is only the church and its leaders who are able to lead the way forward and who somehow carry the truth with them. Not so, it is the Samaritans of this world whose eyes have been opened by the presence and the power of Jesus. It is a good wake up call for people like us.