Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Topic: The empty tomb 31
Reading: Matthew 27:57-66, 28:1-15
Scripture: He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. (Luke 24:6)
Note: At the material time that the woman of Samaria met Jesus at the well, her past lifestyle was weighing so heavily on her such that she had unknowingly allowed her shady marital past to turn her into a dodgy freak, fetching water at odd times when the sun was shining hot and when she knew less people would likely be at the well.
The price of her shady past was a daily traversing through the withering heat of the desert to meet her daily water needs. She was always pensive and already apprehensive by the time Jesus spoke these benign words to her, “Give me to drink.” Cocooned in her own self erected protective shield, unproud of her past and masking up a front, pretending to be strong and yet hurting inside, trying to make a life out of a difficult maze of the debris remains of suspicions, mistrust, hatred and unforgiveness in an unfair society in which she found herself, unfortunately trapped, lonely and seemingly helpless in her vain pursuit for freedom from within.
Silently, she had been hurting inside but no one seemed to sympathise or empathise with her person or her situation. The few whisperings that ever managed to filter into her hearing were unkind, unfavourable and better not heard in the first place. Society and the nosey press had already judged her. Like this unfortunate, lonely woman whose only source of comfort was her male companion already fornicating with her in bed, adding to her growing burden and compounding her badly jaded reputation, many people find themselves similarly trapped, caught between a rock and a hard place.
Her encounter with Jesus revealed that Jesus already knew the details of her well guarded past. But for the first time in her life, she had met someone who wasn’t ready to take advantage of her past as well as her weaknesses, and put her down as others had previously done. This encounter with Christ was to transform a woman who had been discarded and given up on by society into one of the most spontaneous and ferocious preachers ever to step into the land of Samaria, influencing a whole nation for Jesus, becoming the harbinger for the entry of the Gospel of Salvation, as well as the official entry of Jesus in person to Samaria.
Food for thought: Jesus holds no one prisoner for their past. Neither does he consider anyone useless and beyond redemption. The basic qualification for salvation is the sinner confessing Jesus as Lord.
Declaration: And said unto the woman, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” (John 4:42)
© Author: Rev Fred Aboe
