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Hear the devotional: https://anchor.fm/eradio-valverde/episodes/Fill-My-Cup--Lord-e1vtpa4
View the devotional: https://www.tiktok.com/@eradiovalverde/video/7207286026094824750?lang=en
5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. ) 10 Jesus answered 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.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” (John 4;5-42 NIV)
Happy Monday to you, dear Friend! Prayers for this old man as this coming Sunday I will be preaching on this text at First Presbyterian Church of Seguin at their 10:30 am. As you can see the recommended text for the Gospel this weekend is very long. Pray the Lord give me wisdom as to how best share the good news as I preach. But don't think this devotional will be the sermon in case you're planning to come and be with us!
I once read a story in an airlines magazine, back in the day when arilines published those, about a man whose dream and goal was to make three billions dollars. He wanted one of those billions for his own life, and one to give away (He never said to whom), and the third was to save for himself, just in case. I later read about another man who spends a million dollars a year to undergo a yearly blood transfusion and other medical procedures because he does not want to die. Jesus also spoke with a young man who wanted to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to go and sell all he had and to give that money to the poor. And in today's passage we meet yet another person who has tried to help herself and her needs in what she believed would be the best way. And, of course, this passage made me think of the beautiful song, "Fill My Cup."
"Like the woman at the well, I was seeking For things that could not satisfy. And then I heard my Savior speaking— “Draw from My well that never shall run dry.” Chorus: Fill my cup, Lord; I lift it up Lord; Come and quench this thirsting of my soul. Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more. Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole."
Jesus meets a woman whose life was empty. Given her nationality and her spiritual state, she does not necessarily want to interact with Jesus. Jesus approaches her as a thirsty man. He needs actual water to quench His thirst and she needs living water to quench her soul. The woman had sought to fill her soul by having married five men and lost all five. We don't know if she was a widow or a divorcee. We know because of Jesus, that she had a man now, but was not her husband. And she knows that there was no way Jesus would get any water if she doesn't draw it for Him. She proclaims Jesus to be a prophet, for His ability to know her past, and tries to begin a discussion of historic worship on the mountain near her, and her knowledge that the Jews believed true worship to be only in Jerusalem, and Jesus says that the time is coming when worship would not happen on the mountain or in Jerusalem; and even says that they, as Samaritans did not know who or what they were worshiping, but the Jews did for salvation comes from them. Jesus says the time was fulfilled in which "true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth." She says she knows the Messiah was coming, and when He would arrive, He would explain all things to all people. Jesus then declares that He is the Messiah.
By this time the disciples get back and they are surprised that Jesus was interacting with a Samaritan woman. Their concern was for Him to eat something and Jesus says that He has food that they know nothing about, referring of course to the need for them to do the will of God and finish His work. And by this time, the other Samaritans in the village came to Jesus to hear more from Him, and they asked Him to stay another two days with them, which He did, and many came to faith. The Samaritans tell the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that thsi man really is the Savior of the world."
Jesus came and met a great need first in the woman, then in her village. Salvation came through Him to bring the fullness of life to them, and they excitedly knew that Jesus was indeed the Savior of the world. Salvation is when we quit pointing out there somewhere when asked about Jesus and when we point to our heart knowing that within there, Jesus is Lord and Savior of our lives. Our Lenten Journey continues with our still doing the work of that day to reach as many as we can.
PRAYER: Loving God, lead us to faithfulness and fruitfulness; help us to reach as many as we can. Give us boldness and the words; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Help someone know that the void in their lives can be filled by Jesus.
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
