January 27 I Wednesday

Exodus 16-18

Matthew 18:1-20

“[Jesus] told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’ 
‘I have no husband,’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband.’”  —John 4:16-17

Are we living in sin that we think no one knows? Jesus put His finger on a rather sore point when he told the Samaritan woman to call her husband and come back. She probably blushed and felt a little embarrassed as she responded, “I have no husband.” Jesus then told her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.” At that moment, the Samaritan woman realized she did not know how much Jesus knew about her. 

The truth is, Jesus knows everything, our history and our failures. Hebrews 4:13 tells us, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” There comes a moment in our lives when we have to be confronted with the truth about ourselves. Our problems are not ethical or psychological, they are symptoms of a bigger problem: sin. There is a distinction between “sin” and “sins.” “Sins” are what we do and “sin” is our fallen nature that is the cause of those sins. In other words, sins are symptoms of our sin. 

The ministry of Jesus is to address our sin problem. Before Jesus was born, an angel revealed to Joseph that, “[Mary] will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). This was Jesus’s mission: to save people from their sins. Also, when John the Baptist introduced Jesus to others, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). John recognized Jesus’s mission on earth. 

Jesus talked about the purpose of His death and resurrection in Luke 24:46-47: “This is what is written: the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” This is the message of the gospel and, therefore, is our message: that sin separates us from God and Jesus came to reconcile us to God.

For the Samaritan woman, her sins may have been her five marriages and living with a man to whom she was not married. The Samaritan woman admitted, “I have no husband,” and Jesus responded, “What you have just said is quite true” (John 4:18). The only way we will admit that we need saving is if we are honest about the sins in our lives. Will we turn and repent of them?