January 24

Read John 4:16-29

Pray: Almighty God, you seek out every success and mistake I have ever made and you hold it in love and forgiveness. Help me to do the same.

Hear:

The woman Jesus speaks with in this passage has been cut-off from her community. Through the text, we can suppose that this is because she was a sex worker. The shame from her community was absolute.

Furthermore, the woman belonged to an ethnic group that was ostracized by the greater community. Culture and custom demanded that Jesus not look at this woman, let alone have a deep and meaningful conversation with her.

And so we see once more a vignette of Jesus seeing the person beyond the pretense. This simple act of deep empathy radically shifted her trajectory and the trajectory of her community. 

Respond:

How will your interaction with deep empathy change your trajectory? How will the trajectory of community be shifted?

Meditation:

God is speaking with me.