Morning Devotional

April 16, 2005
"The Woman at the Well" (Part 10) 
    by Don Emmitte

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"Please, sir," the woman said, "give me some of that water! Then I'll never be thirsty again, and I won't have to come here to haul water." "Go and get your husband," Jesus told her. "I don't have a husband," the woman replied. Jesus said, "You're right! You don't have a husband-- for you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now." "Sir," the woman said, "you must be a prophet. ²⁰So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?" (John 4:15-20 NLT).

The Samaritan woman, after Jesus revealed the truth about her sins, thought Jesus must be a good prophet. She offers Jesus a religious response. Jesus seemed to know a lot about her, so she assumed Jesus was a very religious man. She tells Jesus what she knows about organized religion. If she had remained with her initial perception of Jesus the Samaritan woman would have remained lost, separated from God because of her sins!

There was another occasion when Jesus asked His disciples who people were saying He (cf. Matthew 16:13-16). They told Him that some were saying He was Elijah, some thought He was a great teacher, still others a prophet. Jesus then asked the most important question of the disciples’ lives: “Who do you say I am?”

That’s the most important question of anyone’s life! Life at its core is really what you and I believe about Jesus. If Jesus to us is just a good teacher, or a wonderful religious man did a few miracles, we will never experience the forgiveness of sin that Jesus came to provide. Until Jesus becomes our Savior, the One Way to God, He hasn’t fulfilled His purpose on Earth. Jesus came to save. Like the Samaritan woman’s initial response, so many people have a religious experience with Christ, without ever really entering a relationship with Christ. Jesus must become more than a Biblical hero or a good person, He must be our Life.

Who is Jesus to you? Who do you say Jesus is? That answer determines your eternal destiny. If there is any other answer that that which Peter gave (“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”), please reevaluate your heart and mind today!