#11 - The Gospel of John

John 4:27-42 (NIV)

On today’s episode of Daily Read, we pick up on the third and final section of the story of the woman at the well.

When John first introduces us to the woman at the well through this tense cross-cultural moment with Jesus, what with her being socially ostracized with a complicated marital status, you don’t get the impression that this would be the first evangelist to the Samaritan people. But you’d be wrong.

For most of us, the agrarian life of the 1st century is extremely difficult to imagine. But there is a reason that most agrarian cultures in the world hold celebrations at harvest time. Imagine the waiting, imagine that your very sense of time is based on where you are in relationship to harvest. In this passage, John’s gospel is telling us that harvest time has come! Not just for the Samaritans, but for the whole world.

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1. You can almost image the disciples scratching their heads when Jesus tells them to look at the fields. In what ways do you struggle to see the harvest fields today?

2. This Samaritan woman doesn’t really have the credentials one might expect in a representative of Jesus, but her testimony transforms her town. How does this story challenge how you see who’s fit to represent Jesus?

3. Up until now in Chapter 4, Jesus is talking about water that doesn’t come from wells and food that we don’t know about…. What would it look like to bring your thirsts to Jesus and ask him for a drink? What would it take to become satisfied by the food that he eats?

----------CONNECT----------

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