Sunday, March 24, 2013

Samaritan Woman

John 4


 Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
Samaritans were of an alien race but had accepted the first five books of Moses. They were expecting the Messiah however to make Samaria, and not Jerusalem, the seat of government.  Jacob’s well, measuring 100 feet deep and nine feet in diameter is one of the few places where and exact spot connected with the story of Jesus can be identified. This visit of Jesus laid the groundwork for the hearty reception of the Gospel by the Samaritans a few years later.  
When God pardons, He does not say He understands your weakness or make allowances for your errors. Rather, He disposes of, finishes with, the whole of your dead life and raises you up with a new one. He does not so much deal with your failures as does He drop them down the black hole of Jesus' death. He forgets your sins in the darkness of the tomb. He remembers your iniquities no more in the forgetfulness of Jesus' death. He finds you in the desert of death, not in the garden of improvement. And in the power of Jesus' resurrection, He puts you on His shoulders, rejoicing, and brings you home! -Robert Farrar Capon, Parables of Grace, pg. 39

Almighty and everlasting God the Father, who sent Your Son to take our nature upon Him and to suffer death on the cross that all mankind should follow the example of His great humility, mercifully grant that we may both follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ in His patience and also have our portion in His resurrection; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Schnorr von Carolsfeld Woodcut used with permission © WELS
Halley’s Bible Handbook An Abbreviated Bible Commentary Twenty-Third Edition, © 1962 Zondervan Grand Rapids
Collect for Palm Sunday, Lutheran Worship © 1980 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis

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