Читать книгу Shadows of the Cross - Craig Cashwell - Страница 23

Read John's account of the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:3–42). Read the story slowly and imagine that you are the Samaritan woman. Where scripture refers to the woman, substitute the word "I" to help you imagine what an encounter might be like with Jesus.

Now, respond to the following questions:

•What does Jesus offer to you?

•What does he ask of you?

Jesus broke several cultural taboos of his day in this passage. He not only spoke to a woman in public; he spoke to a Samaritan woman! As a Jewish man, he should never have asked her for a drink because any water vessel she carried would have been considered unclean and the passage specifically tells us that Jesus carried no vessel for water. Biblical scholars disagree about what it means that the woman had five husbands (4:16–18).

Nonetheless, it is clear that Jesus was reaching out to someone with whom, for many reasons, he should not even have been talking. Yet, it was to this very woman that Jesus first revealed he was the Messiah. Also, this passage is the longest account of a private conversation between Jesus and anyone in the New Testament. Whatever her past, she mattered to Jesus. So do you.