Reflection:

In his conversation with the woman at the well, Jesus encountered a woman who had been on the outside of access to the community of faith in many ways. He drew her into the story’s centre, making her the first to whom he revealed himself as Messiah and the first evangelist to go and tell others of that fact. When we are finally able to encounter Jesus for ourselves, everything changes.

We see the same thing when people finally have access to the Bible in their language. I think of a woman, Rachel, who is part of a language group in East Africa who have only recently received a translation of Scripture. Suddenly, the people didn’t have to depend on second-hand explanations of the Bible. Suddenly, they had the agency to engage with the Scriptures for themselves. They had been invited in. And so Rachel started a women’s Bible study to share that agency and the life-giving ‘water’ found within the good news with all who wanted it. That is what Bible translation enables – direct access to the good news about Jesus’s offer of eternal life.

Prayer:

Jesus, thank you for freely offering us the living water that truly satisfies us. Thank you for inviting every one of us, no matter what we might think keeps us out, into the centre of the story of faith. And God, we want that for every person around the world. I pray that no matter what Bible access is like in each person’s language, they will see that your offer of living water is for them, too.  Amen.