Sunday is a Day to Remember
In the movie version of Pollyanna, some of Aunt Polly’s servants try to think of a reason to be glad on Sunday. They dread Sundays because they find each week’s sermon negative and discouraging. Finally, one of them thinks of something they can be glad about on Sunday: they can be glad that it will be six whole days before another Sunday.
I am grateful to have grown up in a family in which every Sunday was a treat. Almost every Sunday included a pleasant Sunday school experience, a positive church experience, and an afternoon of visiting both sets of grandparents. On the occasional Sundays that were different from that scenario, the activities in addition to church were almost always visiting other relatives, playing in a park, riding through the backroads of Tennessee or Kentucky, or visiting an historic site.
While I was always taught to follow God every day, I am grateful for the specialness of Sunday. Sunday is a day to remember that I am a sinner, that Jesus died for me, and that two things are true about me—I am unworthy but God counts me as so valuable He sent Jesus to save me.
On this Sunday morning, I am sharing David Roberts’ view of Jacob’s Well on April 17, 1839. The wonderful conversation that took place there two thousand years ago is a beautiful reminder of how valuable we sinners are to God.
One day, while passing through Samaria (where the detested Samaritans lived), our tired Lord sat down by Jacob’s Well. With a request for a drink of water, Jesus began a conversation with a Samaritan woman. Soon He was telling her about living water. And soon after that, they were talking openly about her sins. And soon after that, Jesus was telling this blatantly sinful woman that He was the Messiah.
And soon after that, the woman went to her village and brought other people to see Jesus. Jesus stayed there for two days. Many of the Samaritans came to believe in Jesus. They told the woman:
“It is no longer because of what you said that we believe,
for we have heard for ourselves and know
that this One truly is the Savior of the world.”
John 4:42b
Sunday is a good time to remember that the woman at Jacob’s Well wasn’t too sinful for Jesus to save. Neither are we.
And Jesus answered and said to them,
“It is not those who are healthy who need a physician,
but those who are sick.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners.”
Luke 5:31-32