"For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." John 6:33


I was reading a familiar story in my devotions today, and the precious truth of it hit me afresh.  It spoke of God's tender love and mercy toward us.  It reminded me that Jesus came to give us life.  It emphasized the reality that He always has a better way for us than we have for ourselves...

At dawn Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery.  They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.  Now what do you say?"

Stop for a moment and imagine this woman's fear, humiliation, and pain.  She has been taken from who-knows-where and thrust before a crowd where her secret sin is exposed for all to hear.  Alone.  In front of Jesus, whom she may or may not have heard about; but still, He's a rabbi.  A man of God.  Wow.  Talk about being up a creek without a paddle.  Or rather, in an ocean with no boat.  Her life is in jeopardy here--literally.

She probably didn't know this, but she is being used as a pawn, as the next sentence in the narrative tells us: They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him (Jesus). Jesus doesn't give in to their tactics, however.  He has a point to make.  A very important point.  And He makes it...

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.  When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them.  "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."  Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.


At this, those who heard began to to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.  Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?"


"No one, sir," she said.


"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared.  "Go now and leave your life of sin."

I find it interesting that the ones who initially accused this woman of wrongdoing ended up feeling convicted of their own sins and left in defeat, while the woman who had been accused was able to leave in forgiveness and restoration.  Isn't that just the way of Jesus?  When we think we're so right, He tells us differently.  And when we know we're wrong and think we're doomed, He tells us otherwise.  Either way, He is always right.  But the question is, what do we do with that?

I'm a little miffed that John doesn't tell us what this woman did following her encounter with Jesus.  Perhaps he didn't know.  Perhaps he never saw this woman again.  Or maybe she became one of Jesus' disciples too, and he fails to mention that.  But since we don't know, here are the two possibilities:  She continued on with her life as it already was, or she did as Jesus told her, to go and leave her life of sin, and her life completely changed.  Notice that Jesus didn't question whether or not she had done something wrong.  He knew what kind of life she was living, but condemning her for it wasn't on His agenda.  He simply wanted her to be free.

I'd like to think that she did go and leave her life of sin.  That she chose a better path for herself.  That she began to live a life of purity, dignity, and hope.  That she was restored, made whole, and found the life God had for her.  That she took back what the "thief" had stolen from her and found the abundant life Jesus said He came to give.

"Go now and leave your life of sin."  What do those words mean to you?  What things do you need to leave behind?  What has you caught in an endless cycle of shame, regret, anger, disappointment, fear, discontentment, pain...etc.  Where can you go from here?  Jesus isn't seeking to condemn you.  He just wants you to choose a different path for yourself.  He called himself the Bread of God who gives life to the world.  He came to give this woman that life.  He came to give you that life.  I pray that you will live forgiven, loved, and free.

"I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." --Jesus (John 10:10)

Are you sitting down?

"Have the people sit down." John 6:10

Have you ever been lost?  If you have, you know how it feels.  You know where you want to be, but you don't know how to get there.  Which direction to go.  Which signs to follow.  You feel confused and disoriented.  Your mind tries to put the puzzle-pieces together to bridge the gap between where you are and where you need to be.  But it's not easy.  It's slow-going.  It's a trial and error process.  Take this street--no that's not right.  Oh, great.  Where am I?  This doesn't look like a good neighborhood.  Yes, it might even be scary, leaving you feeling panicked and making quick decisions that make it worse, not better.  Being lost is a place none of us want to be.

Besides finding ourselves lost in a physical locality sense, we also may feel this way about life.  We may wonder what we are supposed to be doing.  How to make money and how to spend it.  What to make a priority and what to let go.  Who to spend time with.  Who to follow.  How to find happiness, peace, fulfillment, and purpose.  And, just like when we're lost in an unfamiliar area, we have similar feelings of confusion, frustration, and maybe even panic.  The puzzle-pieces aren't fitting together right.  We're not where we want to be, and no matter which way we turn, we can't seem to get there.  Even seemingly good solutions, tested and tried by others, don't work for us.  We may go about life, acting as if we know exactly where we are and where we're going, maybe even believing it ourselves, and yet in reality, we're lost.  Like sheep without a shepherd, Jesus would say.  Or in more modern-day terms, like athletes without a coach; workers without a boss; students without a teacher.

Jesus said this about the people living in Israel during the time of His public ministry, and their aimless wandering had been going on for quite some time.  That's one of the reasons why He came.  He came to lead the people, His people, on the right path.  The path of truth, love, and peace.  And He did this in various ways.  He taught them by using the ancient Scriptures;  He taught them by proclaiming the "good news"; He taught them by telling stories (parables); And He taught them by example.  He spoke about the love of God, and He showed them that same compassion.  He spoke about God's ways, and He lived by them.  He pointed out the wrongful thinking of the religious elite, and He did it differently.  He claimed to be the Son of God, and He proved it by the things He said, the miracles He performed, and His victory over sin and death.

I was reading about one of these miracles this week, and I "heard" something that I hadn't taken much notice of before.  In John 6, Jesus and His disciples cross the Sea of Galilee to a remote place and hike up a mountainside.  A large crowd follows them, and Jesus asks one of His disciples, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"  Philip doesn't think such a thing is even possible, claiming it would cost way too much money to feed them, even something cheap like bread.  Andrew has a little more optimism, seeing a boy with some bread and fish in his picnic basket, but hardly enough to go around.

Jesus, of course, has a plan.  He knows what He is capable of and that He is not limited by natural means.  If you know this story, you know what He does.  He takes the small amount of food and miraculously multiples it to feed everyone and have plenty of leftovers.  Through this story we draw out truths about Jesus and His miraculous power, and we also see that He simply cares about these people.  He doesn't want them to go hungry.  He knows their need, and He is willing to meet it.

But beyond their physical need for food, He also gives them something else.  A need for rest.  They have traveled a long way.  Some may have come to be healed of their diseases, as they saw or heard He had done for others.  Some may have followed Him out of curiosity to see what else He could do.  And some may have made the journey just to hear what He had to say.  To hear more about this Good News He was proclaiming.  Perhaps they were feeling lost and wanted to hear what He might have to say about their lives.  What they were doing right, what they were doing wrong, how they could find favor with God, how to receive this thing He was talking about called "eternal life".

"Have the people sit down," he says.  Seems like a logical thing to say since He knew they were going to be eating in a few minutes.  But I think Jesus' words here are very profound for a couple of reasons. One is because it was customary for people to stand in the presence of a rabbi, a teacher in Jewish culture.  So the fact that Jesus is inviting them to sit at all says something about His character.  He wanted the people to be relaxed in His presence.  They didn't need to stand at attention and show proper respect like many of the teachers of the day expected.  He didn't want to be honored, He wanted to be listened to.  And He didn't want to just teach the people about God's provision and His role and their loving Father, He wanted to show them the reality of it.  "Come to me, and I will give you rest," He said on another occasion, and He meant it.

Another thing I discovered is that the word for "sit" here is not the ordinary word for sit as we commonly think of it.  He didn't just invite them to sit, but to "recline".  To lay back.  To take a load off.  To relax.  To rest and be nourished, like sheep with a shepherd.  A good shepherd.  A loving caregiver who knew what they needed.  They had no other choice in this remote place.  And they took the opportunity to sit down and have their fill and experience God's abundance.

As Christians we are often challenged and expected to do more.  To be busy doing God's work.  To not waste precious time and make the most of our days.  And while we are called to meet the needs of others, teach, serve, and use our gifts, we are also called to rest.  Why?  Because we need it.  We're human.  We are like sheep, and we need a shepherd.  We get lost easily.  We get busy and think we're on the Holiness Express, only to look around one day and discover we're completely lost.  Confused, disoriented, and scared.  We're trying to make it on our own.  We're trying to save everyone else, and Jesus gently reminds us, 'Hey, you still need Me.  You need to trust Me.  You need to rest.  You need to follow Me, not chart your own course.  Come and rest.  Sit down.  Relax.  Take a load off.  Find rest for your soul.  (And your body too.)  "For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."

Do you need to accept Jesus' invitation to sit down and rest?  Do you need to experience some peace? Do you need to be fed?  Are you short on some spiritual nourishment?  Are you confused?  Are you living in a state of fear, worry, guilt, defeat, or burden?  This is not what Jesus desires for you.  He desires for you to be at rest in His presence.  He desires for your heart to be filled with love, joy, and peace.

Is it?

'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.'  Psalm 23

The Empty Places

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water (from the well where Jesus was sitting), Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews did not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her. “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask Me, and I would give you living water...Whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst. It will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

“Please sir,” the woman said, “give me some of that water so I will never thirst again and I won’t have to come here to draw water.”

“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.

“I have no husband,” she said.

“You’re right. You don’t have a husband--for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t married to the man you are living with now.” (John 4:7-10, 13-18)

Excuse me, um...cough, cough...That’s being direct, Jesus.

At this point in the story, I can imagine this woman reacting in several ways to His words. She may have simply turned away, taking the water she had drawn and given Him a look that said, ‘You can get your own water, mister.’

Or, she may have turned defensive, trying to make excuses for her lifestyle. At this point her question about why a Jewish man was talking to a Samaritan woman would have come in handy, but she had already asked that, although Jesus hadn’t given her a straight answer, so she could have repeated herself. ‘Um, exactly who are you, and what right do you have to speak to me that way?’

Or, she may have asked what her marital status had to do with receiving this living water He was offering her; but she seemed to have caught on that Jesus was not an ordinary man, and she was intrigued enough to respond accordingly.

“Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus declared. “Believe me, woman, and time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem...true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”

It’s an interesting conversation, to say the least. And while the woman may have been speaking “off the cuff”, expressing whatever came into her head, I doubt that Jesus was. For Him this wasn’t a random encounter. He didn’t treat it casually. He didn’t just exchange pleasantries and then go on His way. He had some things to say that He knew she needed to hear. His words may seem random, and even offensive, but they’re not. He had a point, and this woman heard Him loud and clear.

Once their conversation ends, she rushes off to tell the whole town about it, and ‘many of the Samaritan’s from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony’; Jesus also stayed with them for two days, and those who may not have listened to the woman initially heard and saw enough for themselves to know He was the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Someone who knew all about them and had something to offer that they were desperate for.

But what was it that Jesus said that was so convincing? Why did this woman believe? How did she figure out how to get this living water that He talked about? I’m not sure I know the answer to that because I wasn’t there, and it wasn’t me. Have you ever had an encounter with Jesus where you knew He was saying something specific to you, and you “got it”, like a light bulb going on? Maybe even in such a way that changed your entire perspective on something, and yet when you tried to explain it to someone else, putting it into words that make sense to them was difficult?

Jesus likes to get personal with us, doesn’t He? He’s a personal God, and we see this very clearly in this story with the woman at the well. First of all, Jesus was associating with someone that a lot of His own people wouldn’t have, but even more than that, He knew her very personally, and He treated her that way. He wants to do the same with me and you.

Getting back to the words that Jesus speaks to her about going to get her husband, however, I wonder why Jesus would have asked her to do something that He knew very well she couldn’t do. “Go and get your husband,” he says, and she is forced to respond, “I have no husband.”

Why did He do that? To humiliate or condemn her? No. He was making a point about her need for this living water. Something that would satisfy her empty, thirsty soul. His love and acceptance. The value and worth she had in His eyes. He was giving her an opportunity for true worship: to believe in His sufficiency.

If Jesus were to do the same thing with you, if He wanted to bring to the surface an empty place in your heart that He could fill, what would it be? What would He tell you to go get, where your only response would be, ‘I have no_________.

Think about that seriously. You may have more than one thing to fill in the blank. Some of them may be the result of how others have failed you, some may be shortcomings you see in yourself, and others may be related to your current circumstances. (I have no husband, no special talents, no job, no security, no peace, etc.) The list of our missing-pieces can go on and on. Say them all, or better yet, write them down; and then let Jesus say to you, ‘Let Me fill that empty place, and that one, and that one.’

Find your satisfaction and completeness in Him. He is enough.