Third Sunday in Lent - The Messiah

Goes along with Kids Devotion of the same title.

Jesus chose us to be his disciples, even though we are sinners.

Read John 4:5-26.

Bible Focus: “The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he.’” -John 4:25-26

Shortly after his encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus had a private meeting with another unlikely disciple: the Samaritan woman at the well. And just like Nicodemus, this woman got to learn something incredibly important. Jesus told her that he was the Messiah, the Christ.

Now, this is not news to us. However, at this point in Jesus’s ministry, he had not shared that fact with anyone. (Some of his disciples had guessed it, but he himself had not said it.) The woman at the well - cast out, ashamed, and alone - was the first to hear it. 

We, too, sometimes feel like the woman at the well. We feel like outcasts, pariahs, chiefs of sinners. We worry that what we have done is too big for God to forgive. We are ashamed. We think we are alone in our trespasses, and we see no way out.

Earlier, I called the woman at the well an “unlikely disciple.” However, Jesus doesn’t think of us that way. If he did, he never would have chosen any of his disciples. None of them were of high rank. They weren’t especially knowledgeable or skilled. They were all sinners. Yet, Jesus chose them anyway.

We are not unlikely disciples because of our sins. Jesus knew our sins, and he chose us anyway. He wanted us to know the same fact that he told the woman at the well: he is the Messiah, the Christ, the chosen one, prophesied in the Garden of Eden. He has come to save us from our sins.

When the woman at the well heard this amazing news, she did something amazing, too. She immediately ran to tell the very people who ostracized her that she had met the Messiah. She became an evangelist, sharing the Gospel with everyone she knew and bringing them to Jesus. She was no longer concerned about her sin - only her Savior.

You, disciples of Jesus, have the same opportunity. Jesus has chosen you and forgiven your sins; no matter how big they were, they are gone. Go and tell everyone!

Your challenge this week:

Talk with someone about your faith.

Please pray:

Dear Jesus, I praise you, for you are the Messiah, the Christ. I confess that sometimes I worry my sins are too big for you to forgive. Thank you for assuring me that you knew about my sins, but you chose me anyway. Please help me to tell others about you. In Your name I pray, Amen.