One of the longest dialogues recorded in the bible between Jesus and another person, is the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. (John 4)
It is interesting to discover the how different cultures focus on this woman. Most Pentecostal sermons you will hear where she is featured focusses on her sin. What she did and what Jesus revealed to her about her past life. But most Orthodox denominations focusses on what she did after she found Jesus.
She is revered, not only as the first evangelist that brought her town to salvation, but also as a martyr (st Photini has a day dedicated to her in the orthodox communities – 26th Feb) by the hand of Nero. Tradition held that Nero first tried to bribe her and her family to stop evangelizing, then threatened, then he sent his own daughter to reason with her and her sisters, but the opposite happened. Nero’s daughter converted to Christianity. At which point her family and children was killed in front of her, and then she was flayed and thrown in a well to die.
The reason Nero went after her and her family was that they were actively evangelizing the whole region of Samaria and Carthage.
Reading the whole of chapter 4 of John, it is an eye opener that Jesus told His disciples, “…why would you say, ‘The harvest is another four months away’? Look at all the people coming – now is the harvest time!…”
God is not a respecter of persons. He uses where I have been, but He really doesn’t care what I have done. It is where I am going from here that is important.
