Daily Devotional

Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman in John 4 is fascinating. I am often struck by how Jesus refuses to write off the Samaritan woman as unworthy of his time and attention. Not only is she a Samaritan, whom the Jews avoided like the plague (4:9), but she is a social pariah, drawing water at noon to avoid the other women of the town. These two facts would have been enough to cause any self-respecting Jew to ignore this woman—but not Jesus. Jesus knows the woman’s story that has brought her to this point. Yes, she is living in sin, but she is also living with the heartache of five broken marital relationships (4:17–18). She has deep questions about God and spirituality (4:19). And most importantly, she is waiting for the Messiah (4:25). Rather than dismissing or condemning this woman, Jesus takes time to show her that He knows her story, then reveal that He is the Messiah she seeks (4:26).

What Jesus does in this passage is embody a principle that was often repeated in my parents’ home: “people are lines, not dots.” By this, my parents meant that we often treat people as “dots,” gauging our behavior toward them based on first impressions or assumptions. But every person is a “line,” with their own individual cares, worries, and stories. In John 4, Jesus saw beyond the “dot” of the woman’s social ostracism to the “line” of her heartache and longings. For someone who still is prone to make snap judgments, “people are lines, not dots” is a constant reminder not to assume someone’s story based on limited data.

For example, it would be easy for me to see a man falling asleep in church and conclude that he stayed up late watching TV and that therefore he is unspiritual and irresponsible. I might be treated rudely by a restaurant worker and conclude that she is just naturally a mean-spirited person. Or I might see a child throwing a tantrum in a grocery store and conclude that his mother needs to be a firmer disciplinarian. All of these would be seeing people as “dots,” drawing sweeping conclusions based on one instance of observing behavior.

But for each of these examples, if I saw these people as “lines”—if  I knew that person’s story—it might totally change my conclusions. That man falling asleep in the church might have been up all night caring for a sick infant. That rude waitress might be a single mother desperately trying to feed three kids while working three part-time jobs. And that child throwing a tantrum might have just watched his father walk out on his family the day before.

This is not to say that we should always excuse people’s behavior as the product of hardship. But it is a reminder—for me, at least—that “man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). I should take some time and listen to a person’s story before drawing conclusions about his character or motives. If I want to follow the example Jesus set in John 4, I must think of people as lines, not as dots.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.