Morning Devotional

April 20, 2005
"The Woman at the Well" (Part 14) 
    by Don Emmitte

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The woman said, "I know the Messiah will come--the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Then Jesus told her, "I am the Messiah!" Just then his disciples arrived. They were astonished to find him talking to a woman, but none of them asked him why he was doing it or what they had been discussing. (John 4:25-27 NLT).

The disciples were surprised that Jesus was talking with a woman alone, but especially that the woman was a Samaritan. Samaritans and Jews didn’t mix well in those days. They usually hated each other. Jesus lived in a very class-oriented society that based their acceptance of people on their heritage, their individual righteousness, and their wealth. That class-oriented society seems to be thriving today as well.

On behalf of the church of Jesus Christ, I would like to apologize to you if you have ever been made to feel like you are less than a whole person if you don’t fit someone else’s criteria. I’m sorry if you’ve been made to feel inferior because of the color of your skin. I’m sorry if you’ve been demeaned because of the kind of car you drive, the house you live in, or the amount of education you have or size of your paycheck.

I want to also apologize for the times you’ve felt your sins were weightier than others sins. I have a pastor friend who has told people who come to him and say they are divorced that they would be better off having murdered someone, because the church can accept murderers back into the fellowship faster than the divorced. Of course, I’m not advocating divorce. I’m actually against it, but we should love the divorced person. In God’s eyes we are all sinners. Compared to Christ we all fall short. There may be so-called “greater” sins in that they impact more people, but in the eyes of God a white lie is just as deadly as adultery. God’s holiness can allow no sin into His presence.

The disciples were not mature enough yet to understand the depth of God’s love, but you and I have the whole counsel of God through the pages of His Word. We know that God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to Him in repentance. We may be just as prejudiced as the disciples may have been, but we are without excuse.

“To love at all is to be venerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin or your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers...of love is Hell.”¹ We have received a clear command to love others. Do you?

1.       C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1960, p.169.